Featured Was ist Das!? Ich habe ein problem mitt ein kleine deutsche silber becher!

Home made using a mild white wine, the way my grandfather used to make it, should be ok. We don't call it Sauerkraut of course, but zuurkool, but it is the same concept.

And there are those people who will eat Sauerkraut with anything. Just like someone eat spicy sambal with anything.

 

Hi,
My Gram was famous for her sauerkraut. Sporting clubs used to travel many miles to get her sauerkraut for dinners. Today I still DESIST sauerkraut. We had 40 gallon crocks making kraut. The lids used to "burp" and the smell of the rotting cabbage would stink the place up. My job was to stand on a stool and lift the lids and clear off the top 4" of decayed rotted cabbage off the snowy white stuff. I hated the smell and stench. The family I have now thinks sauerkraut comes in packages from the store, they have no idea of what goes in the making of the stuff.
greg

 

Oops.
No rotting involved in Dutch zuurkool (Sauerkraut), just fermentation.
It is said to have been a Chinese invention, btw.

 

The fermentation is a polite way of saying what I Interpreted.
greg

 

No, really, there were never any rotting cabbage leaves the way it was made in our family. They did add herbs and juniper berries, maybe that helped.

 

Hi AJ,
The cabbage was shredded on a cutting board. I still refer to sauerkraut as cabbage leaves. The cutting and slicing was not a problem, nor stacking the kraut into the crocks with water vinegar spices etc, It was after it started to ferment and the smell was growing. I am sorry if I depicted it in such a rude way but the smell of 400 gallons of cabbage fermenting in a small stone area. It was horrible to a young child.
greg

 

must certainly have been terrible as a child. normal Sauerkraut containers - stoneware or barrels - are covered by wood. the stoneware ones have a special groove filled with saltwater, so when the Kraut burps the gases can evade but no air can enter (this groove missing causes exactly the problem you describe - it gets bad and you have to throw away the top layer - sometimes of a heartbreaking slimy consistence, mmhhhh). on the wood barrels the lid is exactly fitting and a simple stone of adequate weight hinders the entrance of fresh air.

 

Isn't Korean kimchi buried in the ground while it ferments?

 

I think they only do it for storage with the really tall containers when it's already ready to use. sparing a fridge in summer and keeping off freezing by terrestrial heat in winter.

 

I never could stomach the sour taste of sauerkraut, or of anything else with a sour taste .. but I was once at an outdoor BBQ and it was served with pork sausage meat mixed in it .. it was rather good actually, is meat added very often ?? .. Joy.

 

I like sauerkraut, but never made it myself ... for good reason. I'd rather have the kimchi, but you take what you can get.

 

Germany
https://www.t-online.de/leben/essen-und-trinken/rezepte/id_75624684/schlachtplatte.html
Switzerland (pic shows one portion only)
https://www.brauchtumschweiz.ch/berner-platte

 

Those look good Fid but the one I ate had the loose sausage meat crumbled, cooked and mixed into the cabbage .. I just wondered if that was a common practice .. Joy.

 

could be. only place I've seen that done is in the francophone part of Switzerland - with saucisse vaudoise.
are you sure it wasn't simple bacon bits or lardons ?

 

I like kimchi more than kraut, just finished fermenting a gallon a couple weeks ago.

 

what spices do you use ?

 

No Fid, it was a spiced crumbled sausage meat .. like you get in regular pork breakfast sausages. The BBQ was at a native persons house .. I worked at a Native Friendship Centre in that town for several years and I was invited, maybe that's the way they cooked it .. it was very good. .. Joy.

 

I make a quick/easy method.. napa cabbage,shredded ginger root,green onions and Lee Kum Kee Chili Garlic Sauce since Korean chili powder is hard to find in my area.

 

that sounds good. when I have to lose a bit of weight next time, I'll have a look around for that Garlic sauce.