Second-Stab Saturday: Cabbage au Gratin-- better the second time, but not as good as I wished

We have a lot of surplus cabbage in the fridge. (We've been cooking a lot of it ever since we learned it's delicious when you don't boil it gray.)

Cabbage au Gratin 1-2 pounds shredded cabbage (one small or medium head) ¼ cup butter or cooking oil 1 pint white sauce 5 ounces (about 1½ cups) shredded cheese 1 egg ¾ cup bread crumbs About ½ cup shredded cheese for the top Heat oven to 350°. Grease a medium-sized casserole dish. Saute the cabbage the butter or oil until tender. Be careful not to overcook it since you'll also bake it. While the cabbage is cooking, make the white sauce (or heat it to simmering if you got it pre-made). Add the shredded cheese, turn off the heat, and then stir until the cheese is melted. This should cool it enough to beat in the egg without curdling it. If not, place the pot on a cold surface or in a larger pan full of cold water and stir it for a minute or so. Then beat in the egg. Place about half the cabbage in the pan. Sprinkle with half the breadcrumbs, then pour about half the cheese sauce over them. Repeat with remaining ingredients. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake until the cheese is browned, about 45-60 minutes. Adapted from Mrs. Mary Martensen's Century of Progress Cook Book (recipes from The Chicago American), 1933, via The Internet Archive

Every time I've made a cabbage recipe recently, I've shredded whatever part of the head I didn't use and then put it in a container. But this cannot go on. For one thing, I've got so many containers of partial vegetables that I can't put away any leftovers! For another, we're running out of refrigerator space. Our sour cream and eggs are hidden under various chopped quarter-onions and eighth-cabbages.

With that in mind, our recent cold weather took me out of the mood for anything too healthy. As Freezy sometimes says it's in the comments, sometimes it's to cold for vitamins. When I realized I had run out of egg noodles and therefore couldn't make haluski, this seemed like a good time to revisit the failed cabbage au gratin. For those who don't recall, the recipe tasted amazing but was a sad, drippy mess.

I decided to use a cheesy white sauce instead of attempting the sorta-quiche that the original recipe tries and fails to be. In a further attempt to clean out the fridge, I added the leftover gravy from a meatball-mushroom pie. I only note this because when I added the cheese, the sauce tasted an awful lot like a cheeseburger.

From here, the way forward seemed simple: layer of cabbage, layer of crumbs, layer of cheese, repeat until everything is used up. 

We want to make sure the cabbage is properly buried under hot cheese.

I was reasonably confident this would go right. It looked like nearly every other casserole I've ever made. (Don't things always look reassuring with cheese on top?)

Just like the original recipe, I beat an egg into this to theoretically set it-- which it didn't. I wasn't too mad, though. Everything tasted good, and (unlike the first time) it wasn't a weepy, drippy mess. It was still a mess, though.

The breadcrumbs in the middle all but vanished, which tells me they absorbed the water that would have otherwise turned our casserole into a big drip. But the crumbs on top became extra-dry. They also turned the top cheese into a separate, crispy cracker that wanted nothing to do with our vegetables. I guess if you want to get multiple dishes out of a single pan (you know, when putting five things in same oven isn't efficient enough), you could make cheese tuiles and a casserole at the same time.

In case you think I am exaggerating, the cheese slid off of the casserole as soon as I tried to cut into it. 

I guess this could be perfect for those couples where one person discreetly picks the toppings off of the casserole in the name of weight control, and the other slides their plate over to receive. (Of course, the weight-watching person in this couple would have to ignore all the cheese and gravy that lurks beneath the cheese they just lifted off.)

In closing, cabbage and cheese are great together. However, this is not a good way to unite them. I'm not mad I made it, and I didn't throw out the leftovers, but the method needs further redrafting.