(JTA) — It’s almost ingrained in Jewish culture: how you make your stuffed cabbage depends on where your grandmother came from.

For many, the dish is served on the holiday of Simchat Torah, much like latkes are associated with Chanukah, hamentaschen accompany Purim, and Shavuot brings a spread of dairy dishes.

So how did this savory, rolled-up dish become tied to the last festival of the High Holidays season?

“Most of the traditional foods we eat on Jewish holidays start out with a seasonal reason for their use, and later a religious significance is attached,” says Gil Marks, a Jewish food historian and author of the Encyclopedia of Jewish Food. “Vegetables like cabbage were in season during the fall and inexpensive, making stuffed cabbage a popular holiday dish. Cabbage was the scent of the shtetl.”

Travel back to the 16th century, when Jews first settled in shtetls. They mostly kept to themselves, but their food often adapted from the diets of their non-Jewish neighbors, Marks explains.

Stuffed cabbage was a staple for peasants during the cold season in places like Turkey and Persia, arriving to European Jews from the south and east. Jews living in areas such as Russia and Poland learned the dish from the Tatars, a Turkish group that ruled the region in the 16th century. Meanwhile, Jews in southern European countries like Hungary and the Balkans were influenced by their Turkish neighbors, who were under Ottoman rule.

Eastern European Jews adapted the dish with cabbage and kosher meat, naming it after a dove because the rolled-up appearance resembled a bird in a nest. In Russian, it was called golub, in Ukrainian holub, and in Yiddish teibel—all words for dove.

Those living in the Ottoman Empire prepared the dish using local grape leaves, giving it literal names in Turkish like sarma (wrap), yaprak (leaf), or dolma (stuffed).

From there, Jewish communities added their own flavors. Hungarian Jews might include a dash of marjoram, Syrians add cinnamon, Persians use dill and mint, and Romanians toss in garlic and paprika.

As meat was often expensive, many Middle Eastern and Romanian Jews added rice to stretch the amount, while Eastern European Jews used bread, barley, or kasha. Some Middle Eastern versions use only rice for the filling.

“They didn’t always have money to buy meat, but when they did, they saved it for special occasions and served their best dish on Simchat Torah,” Marks says.

When Jews immigrated to America in the 19th and 20th centuries, the dish evolved with new variations, such as cooking it in tomato sauce or a sweet-and-sour broth.

“I’ve met many people over the years who like to put their own twist on the dish, adding sour cream or parmesan cheese,” says Joan Nathan, an author and authority on Jewish cuisine. “But honestly, why change a recipe that’s been perfected over generations? We use the same recipe year after year, and that’s what makes it so special.”

With stuffed cabbage appearing at the end of Sukkot year after year—Simchat Torah follows immediately after Sukkot, and some American Jews spend the holiday’s first day, Shemini Atzeret, eating in the sukkah—the dish took on symbolic meanings. (Or perhaps these meanings were always hidden in the folds of the cabbage.)

“Some believe that stuffing food represents the harvest season, as Sukkot is the fall harvest festival. More importantly, it was easy to move in and out of the sukkah,” Marks notes. “It also has a visual appeal. One stuffed cabbage roll resembles a rolled-up Torah scroll, and two side by side resemble the Torah rolled halfway.”

Tori Avey, who writes the culinary blog Tori Avey, says she’s received stuffed cabbage recipes from readers worldwide. Many were similar.

“For a sweet and sour flavor, readers recommended adding sour salt, lemon juice, or apple cider vinegar,” Avey says. “One reader with Russian roots uses lemon peels. Some use sauerkraut for the sauce, while others opt for ingredients like cranberry juice, V-8, or grape jelly.”

Whether you stew, boil, sauté, or steam it, there’s no single right way to prepare stuffed cabbage. The important thing, Marks says, is to connect with your heritage.

“People remember the different variations of stuffed cabbage based on their mothers and grandmothers,” he says. “It’s not just food; it’s a cultural experience that’s both spiritual and nostalgic. It’s food that brings people back to their roots.”