This is a perfect dish for a crowd, or a busy week.  You can make it on the weekend and just reheat it all…week…long!  It gets better each time you reheat it.  I swear it does.  This is peasant food at its very best…layers of cabbage, sauerkraut, onions, rice, and pork, slow cooked for hours…oh, yum!  This is one of those good-food-and-family memories.  I have Czech roots on both sides of my family.  And my mother made Czech food from time to time.  But, she never made this, until we went to a church supper in a Czech community.  When I was a child, rural communities had church suppers, to raise money for the church.  Maybe they still have them.  We went to a number of these suppers every year.  It’s a family tradition to drive for good food!  These church suppers were usually held in the fall.  The women of a particular parish would prepare the meal, which was usually served family-style.  This is good, home-cooked, comfort-type food.  In my experience, the farm women of my youth tended to be terrific comfort food cooks.

Some of the parishes were in German, Norwegian, Hungarian or as in this case, Bohemian or Czech communities.  After the first bite, my mother put her fork down, marched herself over to one of the women and asked about this dish.  She pretty much begged for the recipe, which we’ve been known to do.  The woman laughed and told her there really wasn’t a recipe.  But, she told her how to make it…and make it my she did.  The very next day!  Every year, she made this several times, over the winter months.  I have memories of coming in from the freezing cold, this is before global warming, and having this for dinner…it warmed me to my toes, which were probably somewhat blue from the cold.  And this really isn’t a recipe per se; it’s a layered affair and you can use whatever amounts work for you.

This is how it goes together—Layer are as follows, starting at the bottom of a heavy Dutch oven and ending at the top (duh!):

• Cabbage leaves, whole (I use Savoy cabbage)
• Coarsely chopped cabbage
• Sliced onions
• Sauerkraut (I use the juice as part of the liquid)
• Converted rice (raw)
• Pork shoulder chops (you want some fat on them)
• Salt and pepper
• Converted rice (raw)
• Sauerkraut
• Sliced onions
• Coarsely chopped cabbage
• Cabbage leaves, whole (to cover the top)
• Water

About the water, you should add just a enough liquid (I use the sauerkraut liquid, too) so you can barely see it along the edge.  Then, pop the cover on, then into a slow oven for about 8 hours.  I did this overnight.  Also, this will work well in a slow-cooker, but I would add less water.  I wouldn’t want no more than and inch or two of liquid and you would wouldn’t be able to see it.

I think there are any number of things that could be added (either alone or in a combination), dried porcini mushroom slices, or some diced, fire-roasted tomatoes, or cooked bacon, or an apple, peeled and sliced, or a beer, instead of water, or some caraway seeds tossed over the sauerkraut…you get the picture.  Now, here are the amounts I used, but feel free to adapt to your taste buds.

A couple of things to note—

• Use pork with some fat on it; pork shoulder (Boston butt) works well.
• Boneless pork is easier to serve, but not quite as flavorful.
• When you serve it, pull the covering leaves back (I don’t use these; I pitch them) and make certain to go straight down to the bottom and scoop, so you get some of all of the layers.
• The bonus…it’s better each time you reheat it!

Confession time…as a kid, I put ketchup on this when I ate it.  I still love that flavor combination.  It made me wonder how a can of diced tomatoes, on top of the meat, would work…just a thought.