I’d like to try this recipe for Pork Shanks, but it calls for “1 (32-ounce) packaged refrigerated sauerkraut, rinsed and drained well” and I have no idea where to get sauerkraut or what brand to buy.
I’m in California, if that helps with store or brands.
(Please don’t tell me to make it myself, my grandfather used to make sauerkraut and I won’t.)
Any supermarket will carry it. Ask in the meat department. It will come in a large glass jar. I buy it at Vons regularly. Any brand will do.
You can buy it in jars, but I find the stuff that comes in a bag and is refrigerated is of higher quality. Around here, they have it in the meat department, right by the pork. Handy!
You can also get it in a big plastic bag. I usually find it in the canned vegetables section, though, not the meat department. But yeah, it’s not exactly exotic.
Just go to your local Safeway. They have it in a jar.
Get the store brand, it’s fine. No rinsing is necessary, just drain it really well.
You’ll probably need two jars.
It’s pretty salty & sour if you don’t rinse it. I grew up in a no-rinsing household; I like it MUCH better now that I rinse it.
Really? I find that it has much more taste unrinsed, but then again, that’s only for the bottled stuff. I find that home-made has to be rinsed because it’s so much stronger.
Just about any supermarket should carry Hebrew National, it’s usually near the hot dogs.
And any decent deli that carries Boar’s Head should have that brand on hand. It’s my personal favorite.
My husband and I are going to make our own really soon, which I’m probably more excited about than I should be. 
Thanks everybody. I think I’ll try rinsing some and do a taste test.
Fresh and Easy carries a jar brand that is pretty good. I am in So. Cal.
I like Gundelsheim Barrel Sauerkraut. I can eat that right out of the jar.
Funny you should mention making your own. I inherited my grandmother’s recipe box and it has a recipe for Sauer Kraut. Now Grandma was Italian but her husband was German/Scots so I’m thinking she may have got the recipe from his family. It reads;
“3 1/2 tablespoons or 2 ounces salt for 5 lb. cabbage, cut and stomp until its own juice flows freely.
We put 41 lbs in a 6 gal crock 1950
We put 16 lbs in a 2 gal crock 1967”
That 1950 batch must have lasted a long time. I always smile when I think of my little grandma stomping on cabbage like it was grapes.