Cooking Question - making cabbage rolls

[Mikey]

Since we have a decent amount of Polish peeps here thought i'd give my question a shot

I'm making cabbage rolls (done it many times), but this time I thought i'd use bacon instead of lard.

Have the bacon cut in tiny squares.

My question, should I fry it with the hamburger ? --- or mix it in raw and let the stove cook it ?

I'm only asking because it seems frying it with the hamburger would lose a lot of it's fat (in this case that's not a good thing)

What do ya think ?

[PNGwynne]

I would fry it--better taste. How lean is the beef?

Have you ever made cabbage roll casserole--same taste, quick & easy.

[TomStrong]

My wife says mix it in raw, especially if you're going to bake the rolls after frying the beef. Cooking the bacon twice mat scorch it.

[ubermanx]

Raw, definitely raw ...

[Mikey]

Update:

I fried it with the hamburger on PNGwynne's advice (missed the new replies to leave it raw) ...

Frying worked out nice. ---In the end had a slight amount of crunch and definitely gave off enough fat to flavor the rolls.

Next time i'll try it raw...- considering I love wet/not overdone bacon.

Thanks gents