Sauerkraut

Before my mother’s obstetrician put her on a low salt diet (and probably because of) she ate an entire quart of sauerkraut in one sitting. This was in the early months of her pregnancy and it imprinted my senses with a deep and abiding love of sauerkraut. If left to my own devices I myself could eat it out of the can. I’m not partial to fancy versions that come in glass jars and still bear a striking resemblance to the cabbage they once were. No, for me it is the can of sauerkraut, gray and salty and a little squeaky when it is chewed. I love it on hot dogs. The right hot dogs, mind you.

When I was a little girl there was a sausage restaurant chain in Boston called Zum Zums that had such exotic sausages as Knockwurst and Brautwurst. They had great mustard at Zum Zums and the sauerkraut of my dreams – right out of the jar and heated up a little -the perfect accompaniment to the rich snap of a good hot dog.

I know you can get sauerkraut on a hot dog on the streets of New York as well as on a sausage at a Minnesota Twins Game at the Metrodome in Minneapolis. Sadly for me, when I was a kid you couldn’t get sauerkraut on your Fenway Frank – now I’ve heard it is available, but I can’t get tickets to a game to verify. I’ve eaten fabulous haute couture versions of choucroute garnie as I journeyed through Alsace. I have a lovely memory of sausages and sauerkraut that I ate in the Frankfurt airport while waiting for my connection – at the time it seemed like the best airport food I’d ever had.

And so it came to be that I married a Lithuanian. Lithuanians know about sauerkraut. It turned out I was doing it all wrong. You are not supposed to eat it right out of the can. It is not enough even to take it out of the can and heat it up. Sauerkraut from the can is a potent concentrated substance – to the Lithuanian mind. It is a condiment. This was a new teaching for me.

Now, I take a head of cabbage and shred it. Grate a carrot (for sweetness) and mix both of those with my lovely can of sauerkraut. I fill up my wide and flat braising pan with the cabbage, carrot, and sauerkraut mixture and then lay a few high quality kielbasas and a pork chop or two on top. Dose it with a small glass of dry white wine… I always have a bottle of vermouth on hand for that – cover it and put it in the oven. I uncover it for the last half our or so in order to brown the meat. It is delicious if not exactly nutritious (hey the cabbage is good for you).

Just so you know, I still sneak sauerkraut right out of the can… now and again.