Sauerkraut

sau.er.kraut (sour'krout') chopped cabbage fermented in brine.

The one word title of this blog is sufficient. Sauerkraut. With the title comes the complete essence of the sauerkraut experience; limpness, pungent smell, after-taste and the wondering how long it would be before the next sauerkraut dinner. For fear it would be soon.

The experience of sauerkraut deserves a blog picture, but since I'm still having trouble attaching pictures to my blog, I'll do my best to describe this Old World delicacy in words. Too bad blog doesn't have smell capacity. Sauerkraut contains vinegar, cabbage, and brine. Brine is so salty it smells like ocean air when you are close to it. The key word in the definition is FERMENTED, thus, the descriptive prefix, sauer. This plentiful garden vegetable (equivalent today would be the zucchini) is then lovingly shredded into slaw-sized lengths and soaked in wooden barrels filled with brine for as long as possible.

Can't you just see the Old World ships coming over the sea with unnumbered wooden barrels of sauerkraut next to the barrels of dill pickles? Never mind the family heirlooms, the sauerkraut and pickles go over with us. They'll love it in America!!

Somehow, this German inspired dish made it over into the Norwegian culture, probably through marriage. In Rothsay, Minnesota where my brothers Larry, Bob and I spent our summers, the German Lutheran church was one block from the Norwegian Lutheran church. (They finally joined forces in the 21st. century). The Germans had their sauerkraut, the Norwegians our lutefisk. Lutefisk is the survivor fish of Norwegian culture and is worthy of a blog on its own. Let me write, I'm ever grateful to God for hardy Norwegians who figured out how to preserve the ever-plentiful cod in Norwegian waters to supplant the birch bark soup they made in tough farming times in the homeland. The Lord was their Provider.

The combination smells of lutefisk and sauerkraut at Christmas time in Rothsay must have been something as it hung in the icy winter air. This little town of 359 souls (still under 400 population today) all gathered at separate churches to enjoy their yearly feast. By the way, each church claimed Martin Luther as their own.

We Hamar Lutheran kids always knew there would be a table full of buttery, gelatinous lutefisk that moved like jello. We held our noses figuratively as we passed the lutefisk on the way to jello. Jello. The most inventive food group! The bowls danced and sparkled like rubies, emeralds, amethysts on the table. Next stop, lefse table!

Recently, we had our every decade meal with sauerkraut. It provided a very nice picture there on the grill. Perfectly seasoned bone-in pork chops, grilled to juicy perfection with a small clump (would that be klump in German?) of sauerkraut on the side. Just nothing like a happy husband having one of his favorite meals.

Possibilities for meals with sauerkraut are endless. Country pork ribs, sausage, hot dogs, pork chops, pork roast, etc. Sauerkraut is one of those veggies (really?) that your mom would say, "c'mon, try just a spoonful." The look told us it wasn't a friendly request. Lesson: be thankful for all things. Who knows, there may be a sugary jello later to make the fermented, salty taste go away.

Enjoy life whatever it brings.