Wiener Wednesday: Frank-Stuffed Cabbage Rolls (1958)

Greetings and salutations, it’s another Wiener Wednesday!

This week’s recipe is from Good Housekeeping’s Hamburger & Hot Dog Book (1958). I was ecstatic when I found a copy. It has HOT DOG in the title!

If the tagline “Novel Uses for America’s Favorite Meats” isn’t enough to get you excited, the acknowledgements at the start of the book might!

• Ac’Cent (yay, MSG!)
• American Meat Institute (the thinking person’s meat group)
• California Foods Research Institute (Finding 1000 ways to serve avocados and almonds)
• Evaporated Milk Association CEO:

• Kraft Food company (Cheese, glorious cheese!)
• National Live Stock and Meat Board CEO:
• National Pickle Packers Association (if they’re not all named Peter, I’m gonna be pissed)
• Swift and Company (I don’t know her)
• Wheat Flour Institute (currently mourning the Pre-Gluten-Free years)

The Good Housekeeping people did not disappoint.  This booklet is chock-full of frankfurter recipes with phenomenal names like Top-Hatter Franks, Pioneer Franks, and Glamour Dogs.

But for this Wiener Wednesday I chose the frank-stuffed cabbage rolls.

In the book’s full-color frankfurter centerfold, the cabbage rolls share the spotlight with Barbecued Franks and Frank ‘n’ Vegetable Soup.

SEXY

I appreciate that it wasn’t necessary to purchase any special ingredients for this dish (I even had a little cabbage).

Here is the questionable filling:

Minced hot dogs. With potato chips. I am honest to God surprised that there’s no relish thrown in there.

Do you think that corn flakes would make a difference? Probably not.

I used canned, organic cherry tomatoes. It was all I had in the pantry.

Note to self: these are high-quality. Buy them again.

Hence, I’m sorry that I used up the can for this recipe.

But on the other hand: is anything ever really wasted on a Wiener Wednesday?

I think not.

MY REVIEW:

These cabbage rolls tasted infinitely better than I anticipated, but it’s still minced hot dog and soggy potato chip bits shoved into cabbage leaves.

The ingredients and methods of this Good Housekeeping recipe make all the sense in the world (on paper).

But the ingredients did not make sense in my mouth (on my tongue).

Most of this dish went into the garbage disposal.

This Wiener Wednesday was not a winner.

Maybe next week!