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Vaud-style stuffed cabbage: a traditional recipe with a braai twist
TRADITIONAL RECIPE · VAUD · BRAAI-STYLE COOKING
Vaud-style stuffed cabbage: a traditional recipe with a braai twist
Stuffed cabbage is the heart and soul of Vaud’s rustic cuisine: a dish that simmers for hours, fragrant with smoked bacon and Chasselas wine, and that brings the family together around a steaming casserole. For a long time, it was reserved for the cast-iron pot in the vegetable garden. Here, we’re giving it a new lease on life: cooking in a Dutch oven set over hot coals, in the purest braai tradition. The stuffing stays true to the farms of Gros-de-Vaud—pork, veal, garden herbs, breadcrumbs soaked in milk—but the wood fire gives it that smoky aroma that no oven will ever replicate.
Allow for a good two hours of slow cooking, a nice, tightly packed head of kale, and a cast-iron pot deep enough to hold it all. The rest is just patience and a well-controlled heat source.
Watch the video recipe
Ingredients for 6 people
Cabbage and Cooking
- 1 nice head of green savoy cabbage (Wirsing), approx. 1.2 kg, tightly formed
- 150 g of locally produced smoked bacon, thinly sliced for wrapping
- 2 dl of Chasselas from Vaud (Féchy or Saint-Saphorin)
- 3 dl homemade chicken broth
- 2 carrots, 1 onion, 1 stalk of celery
- 1 bay leaf, 2 sprigs of thyme
- Bex salt, freshly ground pepper
The Stuffing
- 500 g ground sausage meat (preferably fatty pork)
- 250 g ground veal
- 100 g of stale bread crumbs
- 1 dl whole milk
- 1 whole free-range egg
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
- 3 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley
- 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
- 1 pinch of grated nutmeg
- Salt, coarsely ground black pepper
Step-by-step instructions
1. Prepare the cabbage (20 min)
Remove the outer, damaged leaves. Using a paring knife, cut out the core from the bottom, about 4–5 cm deep—this is where the heat will penetrate the heart. Submerge the whole cabbage in a large pot of boiling salted water for 8 to 10 minutes: the leaves should soften and begin to loosen slightly. Drain it upside down in a colander, then let it cool.2. The Stuffing (15 min)
Soak the bread crumbs in warm milk. Meanwhile, sweat the chopped onion in a little butter, without browning it, until it becomes translucent. Let it cool. In a large mixing bowl, combine the sausage meat, ground veal, cooled onion, garlic, parsley, marjoram, egg, and squeezed bread crumbs. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Mix by hand until the mixture is uniform but not compact. Taste by cooking a small meatball in a skillet—this is the only way to adjust the seasoning.3. Stuff the cabbage (15 min)
Place the cabbage on a large damp dish towel spread out in a mixing bowl. Gently pull apart the outer leaves one by one, without tearing them, as if opening a flower. At the core, remove the small central core and set it aside for soup. Slide a spoonful of stuffing between each ring of leaves, alternating until the cabbage is reshaped into a ball. Finish with a generous handful of stuffing in the center. Fold the outer leaves over, then bring the four corners of the dish towel up and tie them securely with kitchen twine—you’ll end up with a tightly wrapped bundle.4. Cooking in a Dutch oven over hot coals (2 hours)
Prepare a bed of hot, glowing embers (charcoal or beech/oak logs reduced to embers) under your braai. You want a steady heat of around 160–170°C in the Dutch oven. In the 28-cm Dutch oven, arrange the bacon slices on the bottom, then add the aromatic garnish (carrot rounds, minced onion, celery, bay leaf, thyme). Place the tied cabbage on top, carefully unwrapping the cloth. Pour in the Chasselas and the broth—the liquid should come halfway up the cabbage. Cover, place the Dutch oven on the coals, and place a few coals on the lid for even heat distribution. Let it simmer gently for 1 hour 45 minutes to 2 hours. Every 30 minutes, baste the cabbage with its cooking juices and check the coals: maintain a gentle simmer, never a boil. The tip of a knife should pierce the cabbage without resistance.5. The service
Remove the pot from the heat, let it rest covered for 10 minutes—this is when the stuffing finishes tenderizing. Place the whole cabbage on a serving platter, drizzle it with the cooking juices strained through a sieve, and slice it in front of the guests like a cake, into generous portions. Serve with fork-mashed potatoes or steamed potatoes, and a spoonful of Bénichon mustard for those who like it.
THE BRAAIMASTER'S TIP
Controlling the heat of the embers
The secret to successful cooking over coals is consistency. Set up two fire pits: a main pit under the Dutch oven, and a secondary pit nearby to replenish the coals with fresh ones every 40 minutes. Avoid softwoods (fir, spruce), which impart an unpleasant flavor to the meat—opt for beech, oak, or grapevine cuttings for a nod to the Lavaux region. If you want to enhance the smoky flavor, add two handfuls of apple wood chips 30 minutes before the end.
Wine Pairing
Stick to wines from the Vaud region: a Gamay from Bonvillars or a Pinot Noir from Vully, served slightly chilled (14–15°C). For white wine lovers, the Chasselas used in the cooking is an obvious choice, provided you select a hillside vintage (Dézaley, Calamin) with enough body to stand up to the stuffing.
Have you tried this braai recipe? Share your version in the comments or tag us on Instagram with #BraaimasterSwiss —we’ll repost the best ones.