Using your Head

I didn't learn to appreciate sauerkraut until into my 20s. Now I can't get enough of it when I make it. I've enjoyed it several ways:

1 Ring Sausage
1 Bag Kosher Sauerkraut
1 Sliced apple

Put into crockpot for several hours, until your stomach rumbles.

Or, add it to a pork roast in a low heat oven and a roasting pan.

Or, spread it on an oversized hotdog or brat, wrap in tinfoil (to protect your shirt)

Just remember, if you buy canned sauerkraut, you might as well eat the can, as that is all you will taste.

For the record I happen to LOVE the Korean version of Kimchi ~ Cabbage & BBQ sauce?! REALLY can it get any better?  Didin't think so.. 
 
Being a good German I can't really say anything bad about Sauerkraut, I do have to agree with Micheal in the fact that it took me until I was in my 20's to really appreciate it.
 
I will admit to being a Coleslaw Freak as long as its in the white sauce & not a vinager one. and I do happen to prefer the red cabbage over the white... Wish I could find my Grandmothers recipe for coleslaw...I think I'm alright with a Sauerkraut Making Club (as long as they make it all far far away from my house)  it makes me kind of happy to know that the art of making a authentic food isn't being lost to the Heinz company & being poured into tin cans everywhere...   

Cabbage to a Country Boy is a delight any way it is fixed, and however it is fixed, it is Best accompanied by Hotwater Cornbread with a Big Ol' slap of Butter on it, and a generous dose of Green Pepper Sauce ....... A glass of cold Buttermilk wouldn't be bad either .......
 
Red Cabbage Borscht is outstanding too, with an Egg on top of each bowl, and lots of Coarse Ground Black Pepper .......
 
Uncommonly Good, Negative Calorie Food ... Costs you more to digest it than what you get in what you eat ....... Couldn't be all bad, and lotsa Iron too ... "for people who have, "Iron Poor Tired Blood ..."   Remember, Borscht spelled backwards is, THCSROB ..."
 
"Remember to keep those Cards & Letters coming in, and the Number to call in your Vote in New York is, JUDSON 9     7000 ......."   "Good Nite, and We'll See You Again, Next Week"

Picture above in Mr. Peterman's Article makes me think of, Dana Winter and Kevin McCarthy .......

Sauerkraut on bratwurst in a steamed bun. mmmmmmmm.....................................

 
Jalopkin~

Your Dana Winter/Kevin McCarthy reference is perplexing and obscure especially in light of the fact that the head so clearly resembles that of Winston Churchill.

There are times when pork spareribs, bone-in or boneless, are all but given away at $1.69 the pound.

It is then, that about four pounds of them are brought home, most of the fat removed and they are browned in the oven with a lot of pepper.

The resulting fat is poured off and the pan deglazed with a cup of cheap white German table wine.

That and the meat are placed in the bottom of the pressure cooker along with half an onion and covered with a couple of bags of rinsed sauerkraut.

After a hissing hour-and-a-half or so, it is set aside to cool and then refrigerated over-night.

All of the fat is skimmed off and the rest is heated and served over mashed potatoes with a big melting knob of butter on top.

No caraway seeds, no bay leaf, no juniper berries, no added salt even. Just unpretentious peasant food for unpretentious peasants and there is absolutely nothing that I would rather eat.

My pocket-sized mother-in-law, whose parents were Otto and Wilhemene, once leaned in to look at the plate in the middle of the table and declared: "Dem's eatin' bones" but she didn't need to be restrained from eating any of them.

 

Saurkraut and ham; corned beef and cabbage, stuffed cabbage, saurkraut and hot dogs and of course, cole slaw.  We needed an "all of the above" place to check.

I know that I'm not supposed to like canned stuff... but I really like canned sauerkraut. I've tried the stuff in glass jars and plastic bags, but they're just not the same. Makes me a traitor to the whole "real food" movement, I know, but there it is.

It's the same with tequila. I was all excited when the designer tequilas started coming out. I thought, "here's a snobbery even I can join in with." But it turns out that I LIKE the taste of garden variety tequila. Cuervo 1800 is as fancy as I care to go. They say it's mostly corn liquor. I'm okay with that.

I am particularly fond of red cabbage and apples (I forget the German name for this dish).

Cabbage (this includes bok choy, savoy and other forms) is quite tasty barely braised in a little sesame oil. Personally, I prefer my brassicas on the al dente side. Overcooking makes them tasteless mush.

Cole slaw is best when prepared with red and green and red cabbages, carrot, some dried fruit( blue berries, white raisins, cherries or cranberries) and a good old fashioned boiled dressing( cut with plenty of lemon juice or GOOD vinegar.

Cabbages keep well in the garden as they are cold weather crops. It is not unusual to see them standing in the fields waiting for harvest until Christmas in these parts.

 
Kristina~

I'm with you: for many years we bought German wine so cheap that the case price wouldn't have got you a decent bottle in a restaurant.

Currently, and to the embarrassment of fellow diners, I often order a glass of "Lambrrrusco,"

It is, according to House Guest, the primary seduction lubricant of a dapper Eastern Pennsylvania train passenger (he has video evidence), never comes with a cork and is enjoyed even by persons who do not ordinarily drink.

Around here, a glass is almost full and if anyone proposed charging more than $3.50, I would stand up long enough to knock him down confident that if the judge did not dismiss the case out-of-hand,  a jury of my peers would have me home and dry in time for lunch.

I am a little more discriminating when it comes to single malts though.

 
 
 
 
so Stoney the rumors are true.
You ARE a cheep date.

Stoney, try one of them there fancy German wines, sumpin' that sounds like "Ass Pate Laser". Really tasty-like.

[And with that, I do duck & run for cover...]

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."

How timely a topic; 

The Global warming scandals and election results in Massachusetts,

Let's not forget the "fish taco" so popular now. They tend to use shredded cabbage instead of lettuce on these.

My Mother-in-law, Italian, made a fried cabbage with oil, garlic, red wine vinegar and a little paprika, served hot.
 
Very tasty stuff.

When I wrestled in  high school I had pigs & beans in a blanket with a side of garlic toast for lunch on the day of a match.  I wasn't very good at wrestling and would accept any trick in the book.  While the P&B entree remains in my diet, I have added the produce of my adulthood hobby which is home brewed beer.  That'll loosen up the conversation!!!Moma says its always good for me to do out door chores till dinner has worked its way through the system.  Staying up late and reading before I go to bed is always encouraged as well.   It seems to imply a scientific theory or hypothesis (steeling from yesterday's conversation)  If it smells good going in and coming out, it must be good for you. So with that I am wondering if my application to the FDA will make it to the next round.

  
Isles,

Working in haste before men from the Teutonic Consulate force their way on board to thrash an apology out of you...

You mentioned "duck" and it reminded me of the sauerkraut baked version that I enjoyed at:

http://www.whitehouseinnonline.com/history.htm

a couple of weeks ago which could not have been better.

Rotkohl...it is a red cabbage dish from Germany and parts further East.  A little bit sweeter than saurkraut and it has plenty of clove in it...Thanksgiving and Christmas tradition in our family.
 
It's Dead-Prussian-Grandma story time.  She made her own saurkraut and rotkohl which she used in A LOT of other dishes.  One of my favorite stews that she used it in was what she called "hunter's soup", she would never eat it because "Za soups are poor peoplez food", and she would never admit to being poor enough to HAVE to eat soup...I kid you not. 
 
Hunter Soup is also called Bigos in modern day Poland in the region of Silesia (where grandma Toni came from).  I make it now based on an internet recipe, because grandma Toni cooked completely without recipes, and I freeze it in individual batches because my husband refuses to eat it.
 
The other day I needed a saurkraut fix and I was all out of the frozen homemade stuff my mom's neighbor makes...so in desperation I bought a jar at the grocery store...BLECH!  Bland, Bland, BLAND.  It was gross.  I started complaining to my husband that you just can't buy good food in the stores these days and he told me I sounded just like Dr. Praetorius from the Cary Grant film "People will Talk".  I had no comeback so I just replied with an oh so witty "And your point being?".
 
Rings: Let's start a club...I'll try making it if you will, and we can exchange samples.  Is it legal to send saurkraut in the mail?

Ooooh almost forgot my other favorite saurkraut dish...rouladen!  My mom would make this dish frequently when I was little because it was one of the few dinners she could get the kids to help prepare.
 
Rouladen is meat that has been cut into strips, had the schnikes pounded out of it, then you put fillings on one end and roll it up and cook it.  Some people say it can only be done with beef but we had chicken, pork, venison, lamb and some mystery meat. 
 
Mom would put raw shredded cabbage in the rolls for the kids and saurkraut in the ones for her and dad.  It was fun because we got to pick and choose what we wanted in ours.  When we were older mom would put out a dishes of toppings...sweet mustard, pickles, saurkraut, plain cabbage, onions, minced ham, carrots, potatoes, diced apples, cheese, etc.  Then we would assemble our own and she would brown them on the stove and then put the whole cast iron skillet in the oven to finish them off.
 
They were always served with plenty of sour cream.

Hey, just got an idea for the next time I make pierogies: Saurkraut and sausage mixed in with the mashed potato filling.  Since I had the day off on Monday I invited a friend over and we knocked out about 6 dozen pierogis with various toppings added to the basic mashed potatoes...so far the sauteed mushroom/onion combo is my favorite.

St. Pats is coming up, Menu:  bangers & mash with braised carrots & cabbage, trifle for dessert. 

 
A real favorite is to drain a couple of bags of kraut, pot them up and set it to roasting in the oven to acquire depth of flavor. Then, stir it into a fresh batch of mashed potatoes.

It is very good and like almost everything we make, dead easy.


and Miss Blue, affordable is the preferred term thank you.

Stoney do you add anything to your 'kraut?  When I'm cooking it just to eat by itself I like to add diced onion and green apple and a touch of vinegar and let it kind of braise.

 

Nachista,

Funny you should mention that. I don't but the patriarch at a duck camp where I was a happy and privileged guest, cooked up a batch with the ingredients you mentioned that had everyone heading for the two-holer the next day.

It was called something like "zweibel," went well with the pile of roast ducks and it was very funny watching big distressed men trying to get past each other on the bouncy two-plank walk out to Crescent Moon Manor.

Everyone that is, except me. They couldn't believe it and got a pool going.

I prefer red cabbage to green -- I love it shredded in salads.  When I was a child, my mother used to make sauerkraut with pork tenderloin.  I always mixed the sauerkraut with mashed potatoes, perhaps to deaden the flavor of the sauerkraut.  Now I don't hate it, but I still don't eat it by itself.  I especially like it in Reuben sandwiches.  And some restaurants make a Reuben wrap with turkey instead of corned beef.  And (I may be wrong about this) isn't shredded cabbage a part of Chinese egg rolls?

I was always one of the weird kids who loved things the other kids hated--sauerkraut is a top example (spinach and turnip greens is another). Our family had it at least twice a week or more often depending on what night we visited the grandparents.

Grandma Krebs always cut up Granny Smith apples and cooked them with the sauerkraut while Grandma Jones just stuck with the traditional caraway seeds. Mom's version depended on what we were eating with it.

And of course there's nothing like it on a Reuben sandwich. I actually had a Reuben sandwich the other day that had a heaping pile of corned beef and an equally heaping amount of sauerkraut on homemade dark rye bread and there was just the right amount of thousand island dressing (instead of being drowned in the stuff). I can still taste it if I close my eyes and concentrate. YUM!

Cabbage itself is a regular part of lunches and suppers in my house, red or green, braised, raw, chopped or shredded, made into coleslaw or whatever. And it's amazingly cheap, even if I decide to get the organically grown stuff.

Hmmm, I think I'll do sauerkraut roasted potatoes and kielbasa for supper tonight... All this discussion has made me hungry.

Cheers!

STONEY:  I just got hung up on the "POD" look, and got carried away thinking about Dana Winter ... Best Looking German woman I ever saw .......
 
KORTHAL:  Fried Cabbage is the Favorite of all my Favorites around here ... we fix Fried Cabbage at least once a week around here and it goes with everything else we eat ... As I said above, Country Boys, tho' we lack Sophistication and Social Graces, do enjoy our Cabbage, and all the Health Benefits that come with it ... That may be why we all stay so young and vigorous for so long ....... Even if there were no other benefits at all, it tastes so good we'd all eat it anyway ... and fixed right, you'll find there's not a fart in a Boatload ... As is colloquially expressed ...
 
CYNDY:  Shredded Bok Choy is often one of the fillers used to make, Egg Rolls ...

You don't know kimchi till you are on a pitching small boat in Chinhai Mon, Korea, at 6 AM and the crew are having breakfast kimchi! My team moved to the fantail and had Chips Ahoy and soda.

Jalopkin, isn't Bok Choy a Chinese form of cabbage?  Which would make me half right?

CYNDY: That makes you ALL Right !!!

OK!  Thanks, Jalopkin!

Nobody's brought up Brussel sprouts, which I understand is a small cabbage.  I absolutely love them, boiled until tender, with butter and black pepper!

or quartered and fried in olive oil with a little rocky seasalt   yummm

Sounds good, RoadYacht -- do you cook them before you fry them or just fry them raw?

Alas, looks like a short road trip to Portilllo's to feast on their version on the original Maxwell Street Polish Sausage. 

http://www.jimsoriginal.com/jimsoriginal/Welcome.html

My Mom used to peel and lightly brown a bunch of potatoes, drill holes into them (I'm almost certain she washed off the drill bit before doing this, but I'm 1,000% sure she washed it afterwards before returning it to my Dad's toolbox), stuff the holes full of sausage and then throw then into a pot of steaming sauerkraut for several hours.

Those meals already took me to heaven so I can't imagine what could be next.

....... And yes, give me a bowl of tender Brussel sprouts any day.

JALOPKIN - Great Borscht Post

Peace out

From the looks of things, the air tonight will be filled with the cooking aromas of cabbage and its relations, sausages etc. Might I suggest all include some umbels (caraway, dill, fennel, or anise) in their food preparation tonight; otherwise things might get a little "close" in the club car later. At the very least, pass the kummel around.

WELCOME  EODTECH

Yes, stoney, to sauerkraut in mashed potatoes.  Excellent stuff!
 
Also, wondering what to do with that spare rutabaga you've got sitting around?
 
No?
 
Well, okay, but I was going to say:  cut it up, boil it up, and add it to mashed potatoes.  It's a great add in, but alas, it's got nothing to do with the topic du jour.

I love Portillo's, I miss Portillo's, why oh why did you bring up Portillo's PL?
 
Here in Green Acres, we don't even have a McDonald's, much less something exotic like Portillo's.
 
Give me the country life...oh yeah, I'll just keep telling myself that.

I also love brussel sprout, PL.  You're making me awfully hungry, and it's only 2:33 in the afternoon.
 
We call them "little cabbages" for obvious reasons.
 
 

I know what that photo looks like, the one up there with JPeterman's commentary:  it's a dead ringer for that vicious plant in the movie "Little Shop of Horrors."

 

P4~

Yes. Audrey ll... FEEED MEE!!

PETER LAKE: THANKS !!!  I was sure that you would remember Ted Mack .......

 

Korthal~

Meant to say congrats on your well-deserved Honor Roll!!!

STONET:
 
Thanks, I was so suprised for such a simple statement.
 
Never thought it would happen to me.

That's to be STONEY.

Nachista:   I  own  a  small  piece  of  a  neighborhood  tavern  in  an  old  Irish  &  German  working  class  row  house  neighborhood,   now  gone  over  to  the  Yuppies,   walk  to  down-town  and  panoramic  view  of  city.    On  St.  Patty's  Day,  we  put  on  a  boiled  dinner  in  several  pressure  cookers,   the  kitchen  faces  the  street.   Then  we  crack  the  windows,  and  those  yearning  for   their  mother's  cooking   from  an  era  gone  by  are  lured  away  from  the  fancier  upscale  establishments,   like   mice  following  the  Pied  Piper.    We  have  an  original  45  rpm  record  of  "Sweeter  Than  The  Flowers"  by  Moon  Mullican,  from  1933.   When  the  Guiness  and  the  Bailey's  catalyze  new  best  friends  into  song,  not  a  dry  eye  is  present  in  the  house,  and  the  din  can  be  heard  echoing  all  the  way  downtown.

Korthal - as one of our very finest treasures you very much deserved your honor roll - and to be followed by Stoney the very next day; just goes to show the good taste and high standards of our host.  Congrats!

"Charge  of  the  Light  Brigade,"   TCM,  now.   In one  of  my  previous  karmas,   I  am  confident  I  rode  with  the  27th  Lancers.....

You all have made me ravenously hungry.
 
STONEY & KORTHAL- congrats- I never think to look until someone mentions them. Well deserved!!!!!!
 
This is the kind of topic where I wish I lived in New York, so that I could go out into the inky night & satisfy my food cravings...

SYONEY:
 
Congrats to you too.
 
Now that I've figured that out I'll be searching to see who gets awards.

I think I need more light here, that should be STONEY. Sorry STONEY.

 

Note to self: best to do congratulations by backstairs email and avoid the appearance of trolling.

  
 
At least you didn't offer her a glass of inexpensive wine  :)

Stoney - If anyone ever accuses you of trolling, I've still got friends who really know how to use a baseball bat even though they never played baseball in their lives who can set them straight.