Translated by Fanni Kaszás
As the base of the dish is cabbage, Hungary’s oldest crop dating back almost 8,000 years, we might think stuffed cabbage may have really been born locally, or at least it is a product of Slavic culture. However, in reality it actually has a much more southeastern history – at least in part.
Although Hungarians have prepared a similar dish long before the first written mention of it, it was first called “cabbage meat” in the country. The dish was not much different from today’s stuffed cabbage, only in that it was not “stuffed.”
The first written mention of cabbage meat can be found in the 17th century manuscript cookbook of the Zrínyi court in Csáktornya, written before 1662. At that time, this dish was so popular that many people referred to it as the “Coat of Arms of Hungary.” In the 18th century, stuffed cabbage, more similar to today’s dish, was spread around the Balkans as well as in Hungary. However, paprika had not yet been