time again for choucroutte

[Antiochus Epiphanes]

Choucroute Garnie à l'Alsacienne
Sauerkraut Garnished with
Smoked, Cured, and Fresh Pork
Serves 6-8

No other dish shows off the richly varied charcuterie of Alsace quite like choucroute. This recipe was adapted from one of eight varieties served at Maison Kammerzell, Guy-Pierre Baumann's legendary choucroute institution in Strasbourg.

1-1/2 lbs, fresh ham hocks
1/4 cup goose fat
3 small yellow onions,
peeled and finely chopped
4-1/2 lbs. sauerkraut,
drained and rinsed
3-1/4 cups Alsatian riesling or
other dry but fruity white wine
1-1/2 lbs. boneless pork loin
1 lb. smoked ham
1/2 lb. slab bacon
Bouquet garni with 1 head garlic, 3 whole cloves,
6 juniper berries, and 5 coriander seeds added
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
12 medium red bliss potatoes, peeled
6 fresh pork sausages,
such as saucisses de Strasbourg
3 blood sausages (optional)
1 tbsp. peanut oil
6 smoked pork sausages

1. Place ham hocks in a large pot. Cover with water and simmer over medium heat for 1-1/2 hours. Drain and set aside.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt goose fat in a dutch oven, or a large heavy pot with a lid, over medium heat. Add onions, cook until soft, 10-15 minutes, then add sauerkraut, wine, ham hocks, pork loin, ham, bacon, and bouquet garni. Season with salt and pepper, cover, and cook in oven until meats are tender, about 1-1/2 hours.

3. About 35 minutes before serving, place potatoes in a pot of salted water over medium-high heat and cook until tender, 20-25 minutes. Drain and keep warm.

4. Prick fresh and blood sausages, if using, with a fork, then place in a skillet, cover with water, and simmer over medium heat for 10 minutes. Drain. Dry skillet, add oil, and heat over medium heat. Brown fresh and blood sausages (if using), turning occasionally, then remove. In the same oil, adding more if necessary, brown smoked sausages, turning occasionally, then remove. To serve, spoon sauerkraut onto a large platter, discarding bouquet garni. Slice pork loin, ham, and bacon, and arrange on platter with ham hocks, potatoes, and all sausages.

Cutting Cabbage
The word choucroute has also come to mean the show-stopping dish, definitive of Alsatian cuisine, of sauerkraut topped with copious portions of pork in myriad forms — but it translates simply as fermented cabbage. The earliest reference to sauerkraut in Alsace dates from the 15th century. For hundreds of years, until the early 1900s, Sürkrüt-schniders, or sour-cabbage cutters, toured the countryside, shredding cabbage to order. Today, the process is left to professionals. "You could make it at home," says Xavier Schaal, managing director of the Choucroutal cooperative in Geispolsheim, "but you'd need at least a hundred kilos of raw cabbage at a time."

[from this book which you should consider buying:]
Saveur Cooks Authentic French
Rediscovering the Recipes, Traditions,
and Flavors of the World's Greatest Cuisine
By The Editors of Saveur Magazine
Chronicle Books, November, 1999
Hardcover, $40.00
320 pages, 400 full-color photographs throughout
ISBN: 0-8118-2564-7

[Antiochus Epiphanes]

a couple other recipes

http://www.germandeli.com/gd5.html

http://www.recipezaar.com/55461

[Antiochus Epiphanes]

mine is lots simpler. basically I get some sauerkraut and throw it in a casserole dish with some caraway seeds. then I brown up some pork chops and sausage. I will use whatever sausages look good in my freezer as I regularly buy and eat many different kinds both the usual fare like johnsonville brats and also knockwurst and that sort of thing when it can be had. I brown an onion along with that, and throw it in the casserole and toss together with about a cup of dry white wine. I cook it on 375 or so for a couple hours or longer if I need to reduce the wine, given however much I slop in there. That's basically it. Serve with dijon mustard.

[Antiochus Epiphanes]

here's another one I found. This one's pretty elaborate.

choucroute a lalsacienne

2.5kg white choucroute preferably raw
1 onion chopped
1OOg goose fat or lard
1 shin of semi salted pork blanched
1 lightly smoked blade of pork blanched
600g semisalted best end of pork in 1 piece blanched
4 pigs tails blanched
1 small piece of fresh pork rindrolled into a sausage shape and tied up with string
Aromatics (in a muslin bag):1 bay leaf; l0 juniper berries; 2 garlic cloves peeled 4 cloves 6 peppercorns
500ml riesling
250ml chicken stock
1.5kg potatoes
8 Montbeliard sausages
2 Morto sausages
8 Strasbourg sausages
4 white veal sausages
2 pieces of black pudding
1 tablespoon oil
salt and freshly ground pepper
strong Dijon mustard for serving

Wash the choucroute in plenty of cold water until the water is clear drain then carefully squeeze it with your hands a little at a time to extract the moisture. In an earthenware or castiron casserole sweat the onion in twothirds of the goose fat. Spread half the choucroute on top then add all the pork thc pigs tails and the muslin bag of aromatics. Spread over the rest of the choueroute and pour on the wine and chicken stock. Melt the remaining goose fat pour it carefully into the casserole and put on a tightfitting lid. Cook over a very low heat for about 2
hours. While the choucroute is cooking peel and wash the potatoes. Place in a saucepan and cover with lightly salted cold water; 30 minutes before the choucroute is ready cook the potatoes until tender then drain. Forty minutes before the choucroute is cooked put the Montbeliard and Morto sausages in a pan of cold water and poach gently. After 30 minutes add the Strasbourg sausage. Do not let the water boil or the sausages will burst. Smear the black pudding and veal sausages with a little oil and cook them under a medium hot grill for 68 minutes. Slice the meats cut the pigs tails in half and discard the bag of aromatics and the pork rind. Taste the choucroute and adjust the seasoning if necessary . Put the choucroute into a large deep dish. Slice the grilled sausages and black pudding and alternate them and the sliced meats with the poached sausages on top of the choucroute. Arrange the potatoes like a border around the edge. Put the dish of piping hot choucroute on a hotplate in the middle of the table and be quite sure not to forget the mustard

prep time 45 min
cooking time 2 hours

This Recipe Serves 8

[Antiochus Epiphanes]

To get loaded while cooking this, I would choose a dry white like I was adding to the recipe like Sauvingnon blanc from New Zealand Marlborough region. Tohu is one label my wife likes. Or, failing that, some cheap pinot grigio from the supermarket.

I you toted some of this stuff off to a football game tailgate, I think it would go great served piping hot, with a cold bear spiked with vodka, a drink I call "the tailgate special."

[Whirlwind]

From cooking with wine, to drinking boilermakers, you certainly are a man of varied tastes! My hat is off to you in that regard. Sauerkraut is not that difficult to make, my father told me stories about them making it when he grew up on the farm. Just don't tell anyone how, if you still want them to eat it. Do you rinse yours?
Around here, pork and sauerkraut is THE dish for New Years Day. Going to slip some bacon in next time, that sounds tasty.

[SSanguine]

My oh my oh my that is a complicated recipe. You need like 3 stoves and 3 women in a kitchen for a week from 6am-5pm just to get it done. Wow, most people definently do not have that kind of time to make such a dish.......

I like to make a dish with smoked sausage, sauerkraut, potatoes, and lots of onions in it. Simple quick and yummy.

I don't like dishes that become to "complicated". Usually the best tasting meals are the most simple. A Little bit of this, a little bit of that, a little bit of love, and that's that.

[Antiochus Epiphanes]

From cooking with wine, to drinking boilermakers, you certainly are a man of varied tastes! My hat is off to you in that regard. Sauerkraut is not that difficult to make, my father told me stories about them making it when he grew up on the farm. Just don't tell anyone how, if you still want them to eat it. Do you rinse yours?
Around here, pork and sauerkraut is THE dish for New Years Day. Going to slip some bacon in next time, that sounds tasty.

Is that right? south Pennsylvania?

No I just buy the sauerkraut in the supermarket and drain it. Should I rinse it for some reason?

[Antiochus Epiphanes]

My oh my oh my that is a complicated recipe. You need like 3 stoves and 3 women in a kitchen for a week from 6am-5pm just to get it done. Wow, most people definently do not have that kind of time to make such a dish....... I like to make a dish with smoked sausage, sauerkraut, potatoes, and lots of onions in it. Simple quick and yummy. I don't like dishes that become to "complicated". Usually the best tasting meals are the most simple. A Little bit of this, a little bit of that, a little bit of love, and that's that.

Yes well I like to look at the more complicated recipe and then "reduce" it to myself. I dont have time for complicated stuff, but when I try out a new recipe I will try and follow the recipe at least the first time. In this one I think that the white wine in the stuff is key. dry but fruity = sauvingnon blanc or pinot grigio is fine.

[Antiochus Epiphanes]

From cooking with wine, to drinking boilermakers, you certainly are a man of varied tastes! My hat is off to you in that regard. ......

Thanks, I am big on diversity where food is concerned-- not people. LOL

I have eaten such lovely dishes as "natoh" (Jap-- rotten soybeans) and many different kinds of "kimchee" (Korean- rotten cabbage). Those are probably the strangest and least appetizing things I have eaten.

The strangest western things I have eaten are all organ-meats that most Americans dislike. Such as, sweetbreads-- which are glands, and blood sausages from various nations.

I do like Arab food as well, except that they overcook the meat. I like meat saignant.

[SSanguine]

Yes well I like to look at the more complicated recipe and then "reduce" it to myself. I dont have time for complicated stuff, but when I try out a new recipe I will try and follow the recipe at least the first time. In this one I think that the white wine in the stuff is key. dry but fruity = sauvingnon blanc or pinot grigio is fine.

I absolutely love white wines, to drink and to cook with. Especially riesling. I took a trip up to Canada in the Niagara region and I was surprised to find so many great wineries. I bought a Late Harvest Riesling, a Vidal, and an awesome Ice Wine(which is kinda pricey like 350ml for $50), but if you enjoy a nice fruity and sweet dessert wine go with it. I need to make another trip up there because it is wayyyy to expensive to ship :p

I tend to do the same thing with recipes, and then after I have had them preparing it the chef's way, I revise the recipe and make it to my taste. I also love to look at cook books from the depression era. It gives you a good outlook and guide on ways to simplify meals.

[SSanguine]

Is that right? south Pennsylvania?

No I just buy the sauerkraut in the supermarket and drain it. Should I rinse it for some reason?

You are okay if you buy your sauerkraut in the store. I believe that Whirlwind is referring to the method of making sauerkraut.

It can actually be a long process. A bit different from kimchee though yuck!

It is a low-salt Fermentation process. I'm not going to do a long drawn out speech of how it was done the old fashion way, but a short version.

Cabbage was cut up thin, adding about 1oz of slat per 2 1/2lbs of cabbage thoroughly mixing up, pack it into a container firmly, cover with cheesecloth weighted down by a plate, checking fermentation regularly and removing the SCUM off of top layer and changing cloth if need be. It was kept at room temperature covered with a piece of wood anywhere from 1-4 weeks until ferementation is done. If you keep the kraut in a room of about 60degrees for a month it will be top quality BUT if you keep the kraut in a hot room fermentation should not take as long but will not taste as good. Of course this all has to be canned. blah blah blah you get the picture .....

I think kim-chee is buried for like 3 months or something. yuck yuck.

[Whirlwind]

Yes A.E., Lancaster PA. Where a whole area of the city is still called "Cabbage Hill'. Alot of people rinse the 'kraut before using it. That weakens the flavor.
I don't know about it being low salt, SS. From my father's descriptions, and my tastebuds (which LOVE salt), I'd say it's very salty.
And A.E., I don't eat sweetbreads, that's brain. Or liver, that's the original animal's blood filter. Have you had scrapple? "Everything but the oink', combined with corn meal. Sliced, floured, and fried. Served with catsup or syrup.
Never ate any of those fermented duck's eggs, did you?

[SSanguine]

I think that the fermentation may have something to do with the "salty yet sour taste". My grandmother still likes to fry up cow tongue and sometimes make some good ole' headcheese. . . . . . They have you try these things when you are young and don't know exactly what they are, then when you grow up you feel sick to your stomach all of the times you ate them. Really now, headcheese, it just sounds suspicious. I guess though if we were all poor and starving with no money we would eat whatever was put in front of us or die.

[Antiochus Epiphanes]

tongue is just a muscle and it can be great. In Madrid I had some awesome lengua de ternera, sliced thinly with a tomato-creme sauce.

headcheese, now that's gross. cant do that. but, if the pieces were all ground up into little bits and called "hot dogs," I might be ok with that. LOL

Meheecanos have a gross thing that they call, barbacoa. It's the face of a roasted pig, pulled and shredded. It's not too bad, if you can trust the butcher. But that's the deeper question isnt it? To trust a Mexican butcher? Because I have cut jowl of pig during a hog-roast and enjoyed it, but I have also picked some ligamentary and vascular leavings out of barbacoa that I found pretty disgusting.

I have had sweetbreads that were non-brain endocrine system. In the USA they dont serve brain pretty much anywhere anymore, I suppose because of thse mad cow scares, but you can still get sweetbreads in some French restaurants. Hypothalmus, or maybe pancreas or something like that. Pretty yummy stuff, every time I've had it which is no more that 5 or 6 times my whole life, but memorable events.

[SSanguine]

tongue is just a muscle and it can be great. In Madrid I had some awesome lengua de ternera, sliced thinly with a tomato-creme sauce.

headcheese, now that's gross. cant do that. but, if the pieces were all ground up into little bits and called "hot dogs," I might be ok with that. LOL

Meheecanos have a gross thing that they call, barbacoa. It's the face of a roasted pig, pulled and shredded. It's not too bad, if you can trust the butcher. But that's the deeper question isnt it? To trust a Mexican butcher? Because I have cut jowl of pig during a hog-roast and enjoyed it, but I have also picked some ligamentary and vascular leavings out of barbacoa that I found pretty disgusting.

I have had sweetbreads that were non-brain endocrine system. In the USA they dont serve brain pretty much anywhere anymore, I suppose because of thse mad cow scares, but you can still get sweetbreads in some French restaurants. Hypothalmus, or maybe pancreas or something like that. Pretty yummy stuff, every time I've had it which is no more that 5 or 6 times my whole life, but memorable events.


As long as I have the option I will do my best to stay far away form any animals brains and the head. I Love cooking and baking but eating anything in from the head really turns me off because growing up on a farm I see those sweet faces everyday and it is just easier to send them off to the butcher and not be reminded of the faces looking at me when I walk by or feed them. I probably shouldn't have a problem with it, but I have since I was little. I want no part in eating anything that I could physically see when the animal was alive. . . . . . . . :eek:

If you can eat it, the more power to you.

[Antiochus Epiphanes]

understand, I love animals and if I felt like they were pets I would not want to eat them either. I didnt grow up on a farm so I dont have that problem. I am OK eating bambis too. LOL

[SSanguine]

understand, I love animals and if I felt like they were pets I would not want to eat them either. I didnt grow up on a farm so I dont have that problem. I am OK eating bambis too. LOL


Mmmmm bambi isn't too bad . . . . . I don't raise deer, I just run into them with my car . . . so I don't have a problem eating them since they wrecked my little car :( I thought that I had hit a dog, but everyone tells me it was a deer . . . It happened in the springtime and the hair is still in the tire, whatever it was, I don't care, I still don't like deer!!