If you want to speed up the process a tad, instead of grating the stale French bread you can substitute 3 cups of commercially prepared Italian bread crumbs in its place. Just combine with the shredded cabbage as needed. If you want to shortcut the cabbage shredding process you can use instead one bag of the commercially prepared coleslaw mix. Panko breadcrumbs are coarse, white, flaky Japanese breadcrumbs that add a crispy, crusty coating to food when pan-fried. The newest Panko item on the grocer's shelves is Italian flavored crumbs. If you can't find the flavored variety where you shop, simply buy the plain ones and add cheese and Italian seasoning to them to taste. To add additional flavor to the cakes, instead of boiling the cabbage in plain water, poach and simmer it in chicken stock. Use more or less bread crumbs as desired. You just want to fold in enough to give the cakes body and texture. Too much and they turn out bready; too little and the cabbage falls apart in the fry pan.