Cabbage stuffed with meat is a classic combination, with variations all around the world. There’s Polish Gołąbki, cabbage rolls filled with meat and topped in tomato sauce. A Chinese version is stuffed with pork and mushrooms.
Early American versions involve stuffing the meat inside the cabbage, as The Townsends and Chef Walter Staib have both demonstrated on their shows.
I’ve made at least one other version of stuffed cabbage myself, and it is delicious— if unnecessarily finicky.
The recipe may have been a little old-fashioned by 1953, but Mrs. Edwin Obrecht contributed hers to “Random Ruxton Recipes,” compiled by the Church of the Good Shepherd. The church boasted a well-to-do congregation, and almost all of the recipe contributors I’ve researched were prominent in Baltimore newspapers. The original is fairly rare. I accessed it at the Enoch Pratt Free Library. Another version of the cookbook was printed in 1977.
Mrs. Obrecht was born Doris Laura Merle in 1919. Her grandparents were German. Her father, Andrew Merle, was the president of a distillery firm. According to Merle’s 1965 obituary, he “spent the Prohibition years as a broker of medicinal spirits” and then launched his firm, Standard Distillers Products, Inc., when Prohibition was repealed.
Doris grew up at 401 Overhill Road in the Keswick neighborhood, attended Roland Park Country School, and graduated from Bradford Junior College in Massachusetts in 1939. Doris was heavily involved in sports and acting throughout her schooling.
In 1943, she married Edwin White Obrecht. Edwin was in the tobacco business, taking over the company his father Jacob F. Obrecht founded in 1886. He ran the company until his retirement in 1968, when, as far as I can tell, it disbanded. Nostalgic articles occasionally mentioned the company’s Caton cigars, originally named the Pride of Catonsville.
Throughout their lives, Doris and Edwin appeared a lot in the society pages, which ran announcements for the births and marriages of their three children, and covered the debut party for their daughter, Merle Ann Obrecht. They were also involved with local museums, making donations to help them acquire art. Edwin’s 1994 obituary mentioned him working with the Baltimore Museum of Art, The Maryland Historical Society, the Hammond-Harwood House, and Ladew Topiary Gardens. Doris died in 1973.
Standard Distillers, which continued operation under one of Doris’ brothers, appeared in the news from time to time, mostly concerning the death throes of Pikesville Rye, their most famous product. For many years it was the last remaining Maryland Rye. Pikesville ceased production in 2011 and has been resurrected as a smaller-batch product produced in Kentucky.
The Obrecht union of tobacco and whiskey fortunes, with debutante parties held at the L’Hirondelle Club of Ruxton, and Edwin’s presidency of the “Friends of the American Wing” of the Baltimore Museum of Art, all paint a picture of mid-century society life. Stuffed Cabbage with Parsley Sauce, Doris Obrecht’s only contribution to “Random Ruxton Recipes,” is an additional peek at the dinner tables of a bygone Baltimore
Recipe:
- 1 good sized head of green cabbage
- 1 Lb country sausage
- 1 Cup breadcrumbs
- .5 Teaspoon celery seed
- 2 eggs
- butter
- cream or milk
- minced parsley
Mix together last four ingredients. Cut the core out of the cabbage and gently break open the cabbage without completely pulling apart. By spoonsful, insert the sausage mixture in between the cabbage leaves all through the head. Push cabbage back into shape and tie in a cloth. Drop slowly in boiling salted water and boil one hour. Drain the cabbage thoroughly before undoing the cloth and unrolling on a platter. Make a thin cream sauce, add chopped parsley and pour over the cabbage before serving. Plain boiled, buttered, parsley potatoes go well with this. Easy family main course. Serves 4.
Recipe from “Random Ruxton Recipes”, Church of the Good Shepherd, 1953.
