Sauerkraut....

badjak

badjak

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Location
Zambezi Valley, Zambia
Do you like it, dislike it?
Do you buy or make your own?
How do you use/prepare it?

I've always liked sauerkraut.
We used to buy it in the supermarket. They had a big barrel at the veg section and they scooped out however much you wanted.
We would eat it mashed in with potatoes, and with smoked sausage (gelderse rookworst), bacon (spek) and jus.

I can very sometimes get it in a can here, but it's not very good, so I make my own.
Made 3 kg yesterday, so now we wait.

What about all of you?
 
We love it! I buy it, sometimes from one of the places around here that make their own in-store.

Pork and sauerkraut and sausages cooked in kraut (along with potatoes) is how we usually have it.

I usually drain and rinse it, then cook it in wine, with a grated apple in there, a little brown sugar, ground caraway, and juniper berries, among other things.

MrsT will eat it cold, unadulterated, straight from the jar.
 
Well done you!
I love sauerkraut. Mostly I buy it.
During the cold months November to February I'd guesstimate once or twice a month. The rest of the year whenever I feel like eating it.

For New Year's Eve I traditionally cook Sarma, with whole Sauerkrauted Cabbage leaves...it's basically meat wraps within. It is slowly cooked for 2,5 to 3 hours and is delicious. Usually Spek (bacon) I'd put in between layers of Sarmas. And it's a treat.

Very popular in my region. As mentioned by Tasty and elsewhere, we love it with sausages and potatoes.

Sometimes it is served as side salad, cooked or just pickled as is.

Very popular dish is Krpice sa zeljem, which is "ripped cloth pieces" with cabbage, that may or may not have regular fresh cabbage mixed with Sauerkraut, and the "cloth" pieces are a type of square thin flat pasta...my boyfriend cooks this often, usually without Sauerkraut. I like it with. I'd eat both certainly, just with gluten free pasta for me.

My Mom did a simple side the other day mixing Sauerkraut with regular cabbage, apparently my Dad loves it.

It is readily available in 3 to 4 brands in most of the stores, usually locally produced.
 
I love it too. We have a family tradition of making it ourselves. Of course, when we're short on time, we'll buy it from the store, but homemade just tastes better. I remember we used to have a barrel of it at the local supermarket, and you could just take as much as you wanted. Those were the days!
 
Reviving this as I recently made 2 batches.
1 small batch which came out fine and a big one that I had to throw out :(
I think because I didn't pack it thight enough and didn't put enough weight on it.
Some mould, which I removed. It didn't come back, but the cabbage turned soft and mushy.
Cabbages are still in season, but the weather has warmed up.
We're at 35 daytime and 12 oC nighttime (90 and 54 F resp).
So... Can I still make sauerkraut or do I need to wait for next winter.
I got no aircon
I am thinking of putting the vessel inside a cooler box to prevent temperature swings and using a minimum of 2.5% salt?
 
I was always kind of indifferent towards sauerkraut - until I married a Polish man. Now I can’t get enough of the stuff!

I make my own (funny enough, my husband’s family always bought theirs). I actually just started a batch in my crock just the other day (first batch in a while).

We eat it with sausages, on reuben sandwiches, stewed with a smoked pork hock, or just as a side.

At the very beginning of the pandemic, when grocery stores were being cleaned out as everyone was panicking, I rode my bike down to the deli in town here, and bought 6 very large, nice smoked pork sausages. For those first few days in lockdown, every evening, we’d pan-fry one of those sausages and eat it with lots of sauerkraut. So tasty!

The owners retired and the deli shut down a couple years ago - I miss it.
 
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