Plate them 2-3 to a plate, spooning the sauce over the rolls when served.
Sour cream on the side is a good addition.
Eat one cabbage roll from each dish. See which one you like better. I prefer the vinegar laced sauce. It’s how my grandmother made them.
My wife hates the vinegar sauce.
The two older boys love it.
Whichever you choose, you’re sure to love them. Everyone seems to. My father always said cabbage was a poor man’s meal. He never said that when we ate these.
Be rich and enjoy.
Enjoy.
NOT YOUR MOTHER’S MEATLOAF
DIFFICULTY: Hahahaha. It’s a fucking meatloaf.
TIME: An hour and 20 minutes
What you’ll need from the cupboard: An 8x4 meatloaf pan, a mixing bowl, kitchen scissors, and a skillet.
What you’ll need from the pantry: 2 pounds of ground round (don’t go with any of that 80/20 shit here). Bacon (4-5 slices). 3/4 a cup of ketchup. A jar of Heinz Chili Sauce (no substitutes). Accent (no substitutes). Worcestershire. 2 eggs. A cup and a half of breadcrumbs. 1 packet of Lipton’s Onion Soup Mix. Prepared horseradish.
This meatloaf—when compared to any other meatloaf—has an extra step. Only because you have to pre-cook a little bacon. It’s worth it in the end. When your family tries this, they’ll throw rocks at you each time you try to serve any other meatloaf (no matter how good you think your meatloaf is).
You can thank me later.
Cut each slice of the bacon with the kitchen scissors into three even pieces. This should give you 15 pieces of bacon if you did it right.
Cook the bacon in the skillet until it’s about three-fourths done (when the edges start to curl up and it’s no longer translucent). Remove from skillet and pat dry with a paper towel. Please, do NOT cook until crispy.
Preheat oven to 350.
Mix the 2 pounds of ground round, 3/4 a cup of ketchup, 1-1/2 cups breadcrumbs, 2 eggs, a teaspoon of prepared horseradish, 2 teaspoons of Worcestershire, and a teaspoon of Accent. Next, knead in the Lipton’s soup mix.
Don’t argue with me on the Accent or the horseradish. Believe me, it makes all the difference in the world. As does the Chili Sauce.
When it’s mixed thoroughly, stuff it into the meatloaf pan. Using the edge of your hand (or fingertips) press the perimeter of the loaf lower than the center, making the end result look like a loaf of cooked bread.
Drape the bacon slices left to right (remember how we situate pans?) across the entire loaf. The 15 slices should cover the entire loaf (they’re roughly ½” wide).
Slather Chili Sauce over the top of the loaf.
Cook for one hour, uncovered.
Let it sit for 10-15 minutes before slicing.
A thick slice will include 2 slices of bacon, whereas a thin one will have 1 slice.
This was my grandmother’s (father’s mother) meatloaf recipe. When I was a kid, I saw it as something other than meatloaf, because when my mother cooked meatloaf, and I HATED it (she put big chunks of bell pepper and all kinds of other shit in it).
My grandmother’s meatloaf, on the other hand, was heavenly.
She often served it with homemade bread, mashed potatoes, gravy, and green beans that were picked from her garden. We hated snapping the green beans as kids. I now wish we had things like that to bring (and keep) families together.
I’m sure this will become a part of your regular rotation, if not your go-to meatloaf.
Enjoy.
PERFECT PORK SHOULDER
DIFFICULTY: Grab meat. Slide it in a warm place. Slide it out. Sounds familiar?
TIME: 5-6 hours. This is a weekend project
What you’ll need from the cupboard: A roasting pan with rack, a saucepan, and a mixing bowl.
What you’ll need from the pantry: For the pork, you’ll need salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, cumin, paprika, cayenne pepper powder, brown sugar and a whole pork shoulder (Boston Butt). For the sauce, you’ll need cayenne powder, mustard, vinegar, ketchup, Worcestershire, and brown sugar. For the pulled pork sandwich, you’ll need BIG hamburger buns.
Contrary to the belief of many, Boston Butt isn’t from the pig’s ass. It’s shoulder meat. For this recipe, I suggest you get an entire pork shoulder (bone-in). It’ll be between 8-10 pounds and it’ll have a bone in the center.
If you have a 4-pound boneless Boston Butt, that’s fine, too. You’ll need less time to cook it, that’s all.
There are many recipes for cooking pork. Believe me when I say I’ve tried them. This recipe yields the best pulled pork, period.
It’ll have crispy edges, a moist center, pork cracklins to die for, and a flavor unlike anything you’re going to get anywhere short of a five-star barbeque joint.
Get the pork out of the fridge and let it sit for an hour at room temperature.
Preheat the oven to 425. Gather all eight ingredients from above (listed in the pork part) and measure a tablespoon of each. Dump them in the mixing bowl. Add a 1/2 of a cup of brown sugar.
Mix well.
Place the rack in the roasting pan. Unwrap the Pork Shoulder. Place the pork on the rack in the roasting pan. Cover the entire piece of pork with the mixture from the bowl. Press it into the meat with your palms. Rub, rub, rub. Massage it in deep. If any falls off (it will) pick it up and rub it in.
When you’ve got the roast covered COMPLETELY, situate the pork on the rack, fat side up.
Poke a thermometer (I use a grilling thermometer that syncs to my phone) into the thickest part of the meat, making sure to miss the bone.
Make note of the time. Write it down in you have to. Put roasting pan in the oven (no water in the bottom) at 425.
Wait twenty minutes.
Turn the temperature down to 320.
Let it cook at 320 for ROUGHLY an hour a pound (from the time you wrote down). Some recipes will say 30 minutes a pound, some will say 45, but, believe me, it’ll be an hour.
Ultimately, the meat thermometer will let you know when it’s done. Start checking it at 80% of the cooking time, but it’ll be about an hour a pound from when you started (if it’s a big roast).
A small (4 pound) roast will take about the same time per pound.
When the roast it 190 degrees, yank that fucker out. Let it sit 20 minutes before touching it. It’ll be a perfect temperature at this time. No, you don’t need to measure it, 145-degree pork is fine to eat. This cut of meat, however, is thick with collagen. To break down the connective tissue, the temperature needs to be 190-200.
While you’re waiting the 20 minutes for the pork to settle, get the saucepan.
Add a cup of yellow mustard, a half cup of apple cider vinegar, a half cup of brown sugar, 2 teaspoons of Worcestershire and a teaspoon of cayenne powder to the saucepan. Then, add 2 tablespoons ketchup. Heat on medium, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
This will make a sweet but tangy sauce with a little heat. You can cut the brown sugar in about half if you find this too sweet. It’s perfect in my opinion but modifying the brown sugar changes it considerably.
I would not suggest changing anything else.
Remove the upper layer of fat from the pork and set aside. Yes, this is good to eat. It’s always got a thin layer of meat attached to it, and it’s insanely tasty (men seem to like it and women don’t).