Sour cabbage soup with meatballs – the traditional dish cooked at pig slaughtering time, from Sighetu Marmației. The recipe comes from Berta Chirilă, 65 years old, from Sighetu Marmației, collected as part of the Maramureș – GastroEtnoArt project of the Maramureș Museum.
🥣 Ingredients
- sour (pickled) cabbage
- raw, fresh pork ribs
- ground pork
- pepper
- salt
- garlic
- 2-3 drops of oil
- flour
- paprika
- sour cream
👩🍳 How to prepare
Boil the sour cabbage. When it boils, cut the raw, fresh pork ribs into pieces and simmer slowly with the cabbage.
For the meatballs, mix the ground pork well with pepper, salt and garlic; you can also add 2-3 drops of oil, mixing each time. Shape them round, like meatballs, and boil them with the cabbage.
Make an unroasted sauce from flour, oil and paprika, mix well and pour it into the soup. At the end, add sour cream, as much as you like. It is a dish traditionally cooked at pig slaughtering time.
📖 The story of the recipe
The recipe was given by Berta Chirilă, 65 years old, from Sighetu Marmației, and is part of the collection of traditional multi-ethnic recipes „Maramureș – GastroEtnoArt” published by the Maramureș Museum in Sighetu Marmației. Sour cabbage soup with meatballs was a dish of the Hungarian communities in Maramureș, cooked at pig slaughtering, when the family gathered around the table. Plenty of sour cream, in the housewives’ words, „so that it tastes good”, gave the final flavour of this hearty soup.
📺 Recipe video
The presentation of the dish by the Maramureș Museum: Sour cabbage soup with meatballs – video
🔍 What’s next
If you like traditional soups from pig slaughtering time, also try this sour cabbage soup with meatballs served with polenta, or korhelyleves – the Maramureș cabbage soup, also a pig slaughtering dish.
Recipe source: Maramureș Museum Sighetu Marmației – Maramureș GastroEtnoArt
Photo source: Chefi.ro















