About 3 weeks ago I made my own sauerkraut for the first time. You can find the post about it here. For the last week, I have been checking and tasting it daily to see if it was ready. Today I decided it had fermented enough so I packed it up into smaller containers and refrigerated it. In hindsight, the next time I make sauerkraut I will let it go just a little further and get a touch more sour as I really like sour things, though my wife thought it had just the right amount of sourness. Either way I am very happy with the results. My homemade stuff is so much better than the store bought stuff, and it is so easy to make. I don’t know why it took me so long to attempt to make sauerkraut, but after this experiment I think it will become, at the very least, a yearly thing. Maybe next year I will make a larger batch and attempt to can some when it is done.

Of course, once the sauerkraut was ready I couldn’t wait to cook with it so I threw together one of my favorite dishes, Choucroute. Technically what I prepare is not truly choucroute as I use beer in my dish as opposed to white wine (usually Riesling) and I skip many of the traditional spices such as juniper berries, mace, nutmeg, etc. in favor of caraway seed, but choucroute sounds so much better than Sausages Braised with Sauerkraut. This dish can be made up pretty quickly, but I prefer to cook it slow and low for 1-2 hours as I find this long, slow cooking yields a depth of flavor that quick cooking just can’t achieve. (continue reading…)

I’m sure there was a time in my life when I didn’t like sauerkraut, but I can’t remember it. I do remember, in my distant past, not being overly fond of it, but I can’t remember ever disliking the stuff. That is not the case today nor has it been the case for many, many years. Topping my hot dogs and brats, served as a cold salad similar to cole slaw, or even as an ingredient in chocolate cake, it is one of my favorite ways to eat my vegetables. My favorite way to prepare sauerkraut though is to slow cook it with numerous pork products (sausages, bacon, salt pork, pork chops) onions, apples, caraway and beer. Pork and sauerkraut are a match made in heaven, as far as I’m concerned, the kraut’s sharp tang a perfect foil to pork’s fatty richness.

I realized, not long ago, that as much as I enjoy sauerkraut, I had never made it from scratch before. I knew that I would have to remedy that this year so this past week I headed out to our local farmer’s market to pick up some cabbage. At the stall of one of my favorite farmers there I found a giant head of cabbage, weighing in at 13 pounds. I had my doubts about a cabbage that big the farmer assured me that it was sweet and tender. Deciding to place my trust in him, I bought the cabbage for a whopping $2.50 and brought it home to turn it into sauerkraut.

Kraut making is a rather easy task. At it’s most basic you shred the cabbage, you salt the cabbage, you pack the cabbage into a container, cover it and let it ferment for a few weeks. That’s about all there is too it. Well…..almost. There are a few things to keep in mind, but trust me making sauerkraut is a pretty easy process. (continue reading…)

One thing I’ve learned, living here in Wisconsin, is that this state is obsessed with Bratwursts. It’s a passion that seems on the verge of mania. If you think I exaggerate I invite any of you to drive through any number of towns on any given weekend and you will see plenty of evidence. On any weekend from May through October you would be hard pressed to find a town that doesn’t have at least one “Brat Fry” going on, and oftentimes larger towns will have 2, 3, 4 or more going on simultaneously. These are usually fundraisers for community or high school groups from the Lions, to Rotary, to Band Boosters. The obsession doesn’t stop there either. Ask most people what is on the menu for their summer celebration and I bet brats are included somewhere on that list. On nice weekends throughout the summer it almost becomes impossible to escape the sweet smell of brats sizzling over an outdoor grill. I can almost envision the entire state being blanketed by a giant cloud of smoke from all the grills frying up the thousands upon thousands of brats required to satiate this state’s collective hunger for these humble sausages.

Brat making in Wisconsin is a local affair. Sure there are a number of companies mass producing brats for nationwide distribution and you’ll find these same brands in any of the large grocery stores in any town in Wisconsin, but Wisconsin is still one area where local butchers still flourish and most of these butchers produce their own brats. These handcrafted sausages are flavorful and complex, easily rivaling any of the great fresh sausages of Europe. Brats make a great addition to a traditional Choucroute and bring a wonderful flavor to any recipe calling for sausage, but grilling is where the brat really shines. There are 3 basic philosophies to grilling brats: 1. is to gently grill the brats over medium heat. Cook them too quickly or at too high a heat and they burst open spilling their flavorful juices and fat all over the grill, 2. is to first poach the brats in a mixture of beer and onions until cooked all the way through and finishing them on the grill, and finally, 3. is to first grill the brats quickly then finish them in the beer and onion poaching liquid. I prefer the straight grilling method though if I am not serving them directly off of the grill I do place them in a warm bath of beer and onions to keep them warm.

Most local grocery stores sell “brat buns” which are basically a larger version of a hot dog bun. That’s one of things I hated about living in Chicago and trying to make Italian Sausage Sandwiches; you either had the choice of hot dog buns which were too small or sub rolls, which were too large and, oftentimes, too hard. These brat buns perfectly fit the larger sausage. As far as toppings are concerned, brats should be topped with mustard, onions and sauerkraut, in my opinion. Forget the ketchup, it has no place on top of a brat. Use it for your burger and fries. One word about sauerkraut; sauerkraut should always be rinsed before using whether you are serving it cold or hot. Most people miss this step and end up serving a product that is so overpowering it obscures most of the other flavors in the dish.

The Beer Braised Onion recipe I offer below is a great accompaniment to a brat. This recipe was created with brats in mind. It would also make a great topping for burgers or other grilled sandwiches though if not planning on serving it over brats you might want to consider substituting other flavors for the cinnamon and nutmeg.

Beer Braised Onions

2 Tbsp. Butter
1 large Onion, peeled and cut into a julienne
8 oz. Beer, preferably something a little sweet and malty
2 tsp. Sugar
½ tsp. Salt
½ tsp. Black Pepper
1 pinch Cinnamon
½ pinch Nutmeg

Melt the butter in s sauté pan and add the onions. Season with the salt and pepper and cook until wilted and just starting to brown. Add the beer and simmer uncovered until the liquid is reduced by half. Add the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg and continue to cook until almost all the liquid has evaporated, stirring regularly to prevent the mixture from burning. Remove from the heat, taste and adjust seasoning to your liking.