Kåldolmar

The story

Kåldolmar, cabbage leaves wrapped around ground meat and rice, are one of the few Swedish everyday dishes with a well-known foreign ancestor. They are a Swedish take on the Turkish dolma, and tradition dates them to the return of King Charles XII to Sweden after his long stay in the Ottoman Empire. An early version was printed in 1765, in the fourth edition of Hjelpreda i Hushållningen för Unga Fruentimber, the household guide by Cajsa Warg. Warg, born in Örebro in 1703, ran kitchens for wealthy Stockholm families; her book first appeared in 1755, went through fourteen Swedish editions up to 1822, and served several generations of cooks. In Sweden the filling is wrapped in white cabbage. A recipe from the Swedish food site Tasteline is typical: the leaves are softened in boiling water, filled with ground meat bound with milk, egg and rice, and baked under butter and syrup, with basting, until browned. The rolls are served with potatoes, a sauce made from the pan juices, and lingonberries. Blanch the leaves and mix the filling a day ahead, and the rolls go into the oven in under half an hour.