Stuffed Cabbage

I have to give credit to Sherry Gray for helping me make these the first time. I know I have probably changed some things that she has done, but that's what will make it a "Tuttle" recipe to pass on.

Ingredients

2 heads cabbage (three make it easier to find nice leaves, but you have leftovers)

FILLING

2 cups uncooked long grain rice, scalded

3 lbs lean ground beef

1 lb lean pork sausage (I prefer "Old Folks Sausage-Medium")

1 pound ground Veal

1 C onions, minced

1 C bell pepper minced

1 C celery minced

4 eggs, beaten -

1 cup water

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper

2 teaspoons paprika

1 garlic clove, minced (1 Tb minced)

STEWING SAUCE

2 (28 ounce) cans canned diced tomatoes

2 (28 ounce) cans canned crushed tomatoes

4 cups tomato juice or V8

1 C minced onions

1 C minced bell pepper

1 C minced celery

1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

1 teaspoon paprika

1 lb bacon, cooked (I bake this in the oven on a cookie sheet till crispy, drain on a paper towel then crumble up)

2 lbs sausage, smoked

Directions

Core cabbage, heat in salt water in a large soup pot till leaves separate.

Remove each leaf and drain in colander or on a towel.

FILLING--(2nd ingredient group):

To scald rice: Heat a generous amount of water in a heavy pan that will hold the heat. Make sure that the water will be more than enough to cover the rice. Make sure the water is at a rolling boil, if rice is not scalded enough it will be crunchy! Add the 2 C of rice to boiling water, pull off the heat. Let stand for at least 5 minutes. Rinse with cold water, draining with sieve. Add rice to the rest of the filling ingredients in a very large bowl and mix well.

Now fill the cabbage leaves with filling mixture; folding leaves like a burrito. I'm a sissy and used an ice cream scoop, but the piggys were a bit too fat.

While husband is rolling pigs (ha), start cooking the stewing sauce in another pot.

STEWING SAUCE--(3rd ingredient group):

Mix group together, bring to a boil, then simmer 5 to 10 minutes.

TO ASSEMBLE:.

Line the roaster with: layer of pigs, sauce, sprinkle with left over cabbage cut up into chunks, sauce, layer of pigs, layer of sauce, cabbage, smoked sausage chunks and the rest of the sauce.

Set oven at 350°F.

Cover roaster, and once all comes to a kind of a boil-probably about an hour, reduce temperature to about 300°F so it doesn't boil over.

Cook about 2 more hours. It's actually taste better on the second day, so I make it ahead of time. The recipe is so large, I usually end up with zip lock bags full of piggys for a lazy day to put in the freezer.