Category Archives: Meat and Poultry

“Old country” dishes revolving around meat and poultry.

Meat and Poultry

Segadin–Hungarian pork and sauerkraut stew

Székelygulyás: a rich pork and sauerkraut stew (goulash), perfect when accompanied by dumplings, noodles, potatoes or rice.

This simple and straightforward recipe was translation by Dad from Az Ìnyesmester Szakácskônyve (The Expert’s Cookbook).

Ingredients for Segadin (a Hungarian pork and sauerkraut stew)

  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 1 T lard (or oil)
  • 2 lbs. pork
  • 2 lbs. sauerkraut
  • Flour
  • Sour cream

Brown the finely chopped onion in 1 T lard, with paprika. Add 2 lbs. diced pork. Cook until tender. In separate pan, warm 2 lbs. sauerkraut. Thicken with flour. Mix together with pork and sour cream to taste.

Wesselburenkraut 19.06.2012 18-35-26
By Dirk Ingo Franke (Own work) [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Meat and Poultry

Mom’s Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

This recipe for cabbage rolls is the basic Eastern European version that we knew as kids: a savory melding of rice and ground meat rolled in cabbage leaves and smothered in thick tomato sauce. It was always served with sour cream.

Mom would make a whole turkey pan full of cabbage rolls, enough to feed the six of us and more for at least  two or three sittings. As the leftovers sat and aged in their sauce over the next few days, the taste intensified and filled out… I always preferred leftover cabbage rolls over freshly made ones.

There are endless variations of cabbage rolls. One Ukrainian version is pickled cabbage leaves (sauerkraut style) stuffed  with fried onions, ground meat, and buckwheat and baked in a meaty broth instead of tomato sauce. Similar cousins  are rice and lamb stuffed grape leaves in Middle Eastern cuisine.

Ingredients for Mom’s Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

  • 1 head of cabbage
  • 1 lb. mixed ground beef and ground pork (either half and half or slightly more beef than pork)
  • 1 finely minced onion
  • 1 cup cooked rice
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1-1/2 t salt
  • 1/4 t pepper
  • 1 large can tomato soup + 3 T ketchup*
  • 1 cup water
  • Sour cream for serving

Core cabbage. Place in large pot of boiling water with a splash of vinegar. Cook 5 minutes. Remove from heat, drain and let stand 10 to 15 minutes to cool. Sauté onion in a little butter. Mix together the ground beef, onion, rice, salt and pepper. Separate cabbage leaves. Shave off the ribs. Put a large spoonful of meat mix at the base of each leaf and roll up tightly. May fasten with toothpicks. Place in an oiled oven pan, nestling the rolls together so they won’t unroll. Mix together the tomato juice, catchup, and water. Pour over cabbage rolls. Bake, covered, at about 325 F for 1-1/2 hours.

These are best removed from the oven and let sit to settle and thicken the sauce a bit before serving. Place bowls of thick sour cream on the table, and mound a large tablespoonful of the cream on each cabbage roll before eating.

* Mom always swore by Aylmer’s tomato soup instead of tomato puree for making real Cabbage rolls., but it wasn’t always easy to find.

cabbage for cabbage rolls

Meat and Poultry

Gypsy Goulash

  • 3 lbs. pork chops, cubed
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 3 large onion, chopped
  • 5T shortening
  • Salt and pepper
  • 2 t paprika
  • 1 t caraway seed
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 3 green peppers, chopped
  • 1 cup bouillon or more
  • 1 large can sauerkraut
  • 1/2 cup sour cream

Dredge meat cubes with flour. Season. Melt shortening in large pan. Brown meat and onions, then stir in paprika, caraway, bay and green peppers. Cook 10 minutes. Drain the sauerkraut and rinse well. Add to meat with bouillon. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 1-1/2 to 2 hours or until meat is tender, adding extra bouillon if necessary. When done, stir in sour cream and reheat without boiling. Serve with homemade noodles.

Meat and Poultry

Sweet and Sour Beef (Svickova)

SVÍCKOVÁ (pronounced SVEECH-koh-vah)

  • 3 lbs rolled beef rump or rib roast
  • 3 slices bacon
  • 1 t salt
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1/2 cup celery, diced
  • 1/2 cup carrot, diced
  • 2 T chopped parsley
  • 1/2 cup diced onion
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1/8 tsp thyme
  • 1/4 tsp pepper
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1/4 cup vinegar
  • 1 T sugar
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 2 cups sour cream

Loosen cord from around roast and place bacon slices evenly around it. Re-tie, rub with salt and set aside. Melt fat in heavy saucepan; add celery, carrot, parsley and onion; cook for 10 minutes. Stir in bay, thyme, and pepper. Place meat on top of vegetables; cover and simmer for 1 hour. Add water, vinegar and sugar. Cover and bake in 350ºF oven until very tender. Add water as needed. Slice thin and serve with a sauce consisting of: 1/4 cup flour blended and simmered with meat juices from the pan the meat was cooked in, into which is stirred 1 pint sour cream.The vegetables will have cooked apart and will help thicken and season the juices.

Drawing by Alois

Meat and Poultry

Chicken in Green Sauce

Pollo en salsa verde

  • 1 large onion
  • 1 handful of fresh coriander
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 6 tomatillos (Mexican green tomatoes)
  • 1 serrano chile
  • 1/4 cup water or chicken broth
  • 1/2 tsp salt, or 1 bouillon cube
  • 1 chicken, cut up
  • oil

In blender, combine onion, coriander, garlic, tomatillos, chile, water, and salt. Brown chicken in oil in a large pot. Add blended sauce and simmer until chicken is tender and sauce has thickened. Add more water or broth as needed. Serve with rice and tortillas.

Meat and Poultry

Serbian Meaty Rice

SzerbRizses Hús: A Serbian Rice

This is a recipe extracted and translated by Dad from the old Hungarian volume of Az Ìnyesmester Szakácskônyve (The Expert’s Cookbook). It smacks of the kind of home cooking favored in our family, even though it isn’t a family recipe, per se.

Ingredients for Serbian Meaty Rice

  • 4 oz. cubed bacon
  • 1/4 small onion, chopped
  • 2 lbs. veal or lamb
  • 1 T sweet paprika
  • consommé or marrow broth
  • 1-1/2 cups rice
  • grated cheese

Brown cubed bacon with chopped onion. veal or lamb, paprika, and a little consommé. Mix in rice and add consommé or marrow soup in correct proportion to rice. Cover and steam or bake until both rice and meat are tender. Remove from heat and add grated cheese (about 1 T). Serve with additional cheese on the side.

rice shoots

Meat and Poultry

Breaded Pork Cutlets

  • 1 lb. pork cutlets, pounded thin
  • 2 beaten eggs
  • 1 T water
  • 1/2 t salt
  • 1/4 t pepper
  • 1 cup fine bread crumbs
  • Flour
  • Oil for frying

Mix eggs and water together in a shallow bowl. Combine crumbs, salt and pepper in another shallow bowl.

Dredge cutlets in flour, dip in egg mixture and then in crumb mixture to cover. Heat oil in frying pan and fry cutlets until golden.

Meat and Poultry

Hungarian Stuffed Cabbage (Cabbage Rolls)

Hungarian stuffed cabbage with minced pork, pork ribs, bacon, and pork sausages.

My paternal grandfather was from Hungary, and Dad spent the first few years of his life in that country before the family emigrated to Canada. Grandpa J brought with him the art of making sauerkraut, and he was always proud to show us the heavy crock of bubbly sauerkraut that often sat in the corner of the basement, sending a somewhat malodorous scent out into the cool space below the house.


Töltött káposzta (Hungarian Stuffed Cabbage, or Cabbage Rolls)

  • 300 g minced pork
  • 50 g diced smoked bacon
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 1 egg
  • 80 g boiled rice
  • 1 clove garlic, crushed
  • Salt, pepper and paprika to taste
  • 300 g pork spareribs
  • 1 bay leaf
  • water
  • 1 kg full leaf pickled cabbage (sauerkraut), drained and rinsed
  • boiled smoked sausage
  • 2 T fat
  • 40 g flour
  • paprika
  • Sour cream

Mix minced pork with diced smoked bacon, onion, egg, boiled rice, crushed garlic, salt, pepper and paprika. Roll filling in 4 pickled cabbage leaves, tucking in the ends.

Cook 300 g sparerib of pork in a little water until tender, add the bay leaf and sauerkraut. Make hollows in the sauerkraut for the four cabbage rolls, nestle them inside, cover, and cook until tender.

Carefully remove the cabbage rolls from the bed of sauerkraut and set aside, keeping them warm.

Prepare a roux from the 2 tablespoon of fat, 40g flour and paprika. Add some of the sauerkraut liquid to it to make a smooth paste, then return to the sauerkraut pot and cook until thickened.

Cut any meat chunks into small pieces and serve with the cabbage rolls, boiled smoked sausage, and sour cream.

Serves: 4