Cabbage leaves need to be steamed or boiled a bit first, so they become soft and pliable without breaking. Here are step-by-step instructions from an article in the Los Angeles Times:
Start making cabbage rolls by bringing a big pot of water to the boil.
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By now the water should be boiling. Set the meat aside and turn to the cabbage. Use a small knife to dig out as much of the core as you can. It doesn't need to be either perfect or neat — you'll have another chance to clean it up later.
First make sure you've got something with which to rescue the cabbage — one of those Chinese "spider" skimmers is perfect — then dump the whole head of cabbage into the boiling water. It'll naturally turn core-side down. That's fine since that's the densest part and will take longest to cook. But what you want to pay attention to are the leaves on top. After about 5 to 10 seconds, they will soften and turn silky, slightly loosening from the head.
When this happens, remove the whole head from the water and rinse it briefly under cold water. Carefully peel back the cooked outer leaves, separate them from the head at the base and set them aside on a towel to drain. When you hit leaves that still have some crispness left, return the head to the water for more cooking. Keep repeating this process until you get down to the inner clenched fist of cabbage leaves, which will be so small, so thick and convoluted that no amount of cooking will make them right for stuffing. These you'll shred and add to the sauce.
To make the rolls, sort through the leaves, setting aside both the very biggest and the very smallest. You never can tell exactly how many leaves it will take to use up all of the stuffing mix, so have some in reserve. You want to start with the middling leaves so the rolls will be consistent in size.
When all the rolls are ready, place them in the skillet of tomato sauce. You want to handle them gently, so they don't spring a leak, but don't worry about squeezing them together in the pan — you'll need to in order to fit them all in. You can even stack one or two on top, if you like. Cabbage rolls are forgiving.
Lay some of the unused leaves on top to create a moist cover, slap on a lid and then stick the pan in the oven to bake. The rolls will take a while, so maybe you can catch some of that football game or, even better, a good book and a nap. Don't worry too much about the dish; honestly, have you ever heard of overcooked cabbage rolls?
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(If anyone's interested, the whole article is here), recipe ideas included.
Doreen