My Mother's Cabbage Soup
(meat)

Julie Weisman

My mother makes a delicious cabbage soup.  I had never made it, but felt that I should.  So, on a snowy day when we couldn’t really go anywhere, I decided to get the recipe and make the soup.
I called my mother for the recipe.  She said, “First I take the soup bones and the meat and boil it up for a couple of hours.  No, first I sauté the onions in my big soup pot, then put in the bones and the meat.”
How many soup bones so you use?
“Well, I use four – because I need to have one for each of my grand-dogs – but you only have two dogs so you probably only need two bones.”
I did not think I could write up the recipe saying: Use as many soup bones as you have dogs.  So, I attempted to quantify amounts.  The thing to remember is that it would be hard to mess this soup up.  So if you have more or less dogs, it is ok.  If you want it meatier, use a bigger piece of brisket.  It will be delicious.

Food Editor's Note:  This is delicious!  I made it with almost 3 pounds of brisket, as I love a good, meaty soup.  But you definitely need a very large pot – 12 quarts would be best.  I made the beef stock in an 8-quart pot, my largest, but I had to do the second phase in two pots!  You can make the beef stock in advance and refrigerate or freeze it until you are ready to continue.  Cut up the tomatoes before adding to the pot, or just break them up towards the end of the cooking when they are soft.  This recipe makes a lot of soup – about 6 quarts, which serves 12 or more.

Julie Weisman is an indispensable staff member of ShalomBoston.com and a great cook.  She gets a lot of her recipes from her mother and aunt, also fabulous cooks!