Frank’s Kraut is the common brand here in the Midwest, and it’s sold in both cans and jars. From their website:
Seek the bagged sauerkraut in the refrigerators. It’s $2, about the same as a can of Frank’s*, and isn’t as, well, canned. It’s firmer and less thready/more shreddy.
I’m eating mushroom & sauerkraut (my fave!) pierogi this week for lunches. They’re from the local grocery and I pan fried them, covered on med, with a five pack of Johnsonville Hatch chile brats.
*corrected typo: Drank’s, lol. Though I do always reserve the juice, can or bag, and hardly ever don’t take a sip or more. Pucker for days.
I admit to some misgivings about a product prominently labeled “Kraut”, not “Sauerkraut”. Makes me think of “Froot Loops” which is carefully spelled to ensure it doesn’t need to have any actual fruit in it.
Cook’s Country did a taste test and they recommend getting the canned over the plastic bags. Both the taste and the texture were better. The audience panel agreed.
Damn! Now I have a taste for sauerkraut, which I haven’t had in ages (except on a Reuben).
When I was growing up my dad used to cook up sauerkraut in a pressure cooker with sausage and potatoes. Unfortunately I can’t remember any of the details, except that it was delicious.
I’m just recommending trying a bag, a lot of people aren’t aware other types exists. I like canned for Reubens and sausage toppings but sturdier bagged for more rigorous cooking like OP’s saute or kapusniak.
We can also buy sauerkraut (or similar preserved cabbage) from open, self-tonged tubs at Polish and Russian groceries around here. It’s next to the open tub of herring, by the freshcut sunflower heads.
Why do Polish and Russian grocery stores have freshcut sunflower heads? Purely decorative?
Because they tried having freshcut goat heads and those didn’t sell well? 
Beats heck outta me and thank you for asking; I was going to do the same.
Where is @ThelmaLou in this discussion? I believe that she and I once agreed that fried, browned sauerkraut was the only way to prepare it!
Contrary to misconceptions, sauerkraut isn’t uniquely German and is appreciated throughout eastern Europe. My Dad used to ferment a barrel of it at a time and my Mom browned it on a frying pan, often with bacon. As a kid, I loved it, and still do! And it’s fantastic as a condiment with jumbo all-beef hot dogs with some added swirly mustard!
I don’t claim that I have any magic recipe for preparing sauerkraut, but I generally just drain the white stuff and then fry it in a non-stick pan with olive oil until it browns. Garlic, bacon, onions, etc are all optional. The sauerkraut itself is fine sustenance!
I have three magic words for you Gyrate: Quality, Freshness and Flavor.
It was reviewed by the Chairman of the Pork Council!
Seeds, I assume. I’m, um, semiactive in the sunflower seed scene and people grill 'em, the whole head, with S&P and parmesean. These eating ones aren’t all that pretty, as big as a platter and already birdpecked. Edit: High on my list of things to buy & try!
The main difference between canned and shelf-stable jarred sauerkraut, and sauerkraut in refrigerated plastic bags, is that the can / jar version has been pasteurized, so it has no probiotics and is effectively already cooked. The refrigerated stuff is raw and is full of beneficial little buggies. I usually cook my sauerkraut, so I’m not too worried about probiotics. I mean, I love sauerkraut, but the raw stuff is a little too sour for me-- I like the mellowness that cooking (or at least heating in the case of the canned / jarrred stuff) imparts, so probiotics be damned. I usually eat yogurt anyway, so I think I’m good gut biome-wise.
Yavol! 
And I endorse the rest of your post, too.
America’s Test Kitchen says that the canned version is superior to any refrigerated product, because the canned sauerkraut lists as ingredients: cabbage, salt. Nothing else. Refrigerated products have other ingredients. Can’t speak knowledgeably about pasteurization or buggies.
- fry up some bacon until crisp. Set bacon aside
- drain most of the bacon grease from the pan but leave enough for step 3
- slice and brown a medium onion in bacon grease for a few minutes until soft
- rinse a jar of sauerkraut and add kraut to onions in pan
- leave on low heat for 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally
- while pan is heating, boil 8 ounces of spaetzle for 12-14 minutes
- drain spaetzle and stir it in with the onions and kraut until heated through
- crumble up reserved bacon and sprinkle on top
variants include adding mushrooms, a teaspoon of caraway seeds or even grated Butterkase cheese.
Interesting. I do take the word of ATK as gospel, having made several of their dishes, carefully following their directions, with great results. If they say canned is better, I’m listening. Anyway, I wasn’t claiming one was better than the other in the first place, just different. But next time I’m at the store I’m checking the ingredient list for the refrigerated bag stuff 
Once upon a time, a case of sauerkraut from Canada accidentally made its way down to an HEB grocery store here. I bought a jar and it was the best sauerkraut I ever had in my entire life. But when I went back for more, the grocery manager said it was a mistake and they would never be getting any more. It was this:
Karthein’s Unpasteurized Organic Sauerkraut With Naturally Occurring Probiotics
I phoned the company in Montreal and their products are available in some northern USA cities, but alas, not in Texas. 
I can’t even tell you exactly why it was so good, except that I would eat some (straight from the jar), then put the jar back in the fridge (this is a refrigerated product), and a few minutes later, I’d start craving it and go back and have some more. And over and over. Did those sneaky Canadians put drugs in the sauerkraut–we know how they’re trying to get us all hooked on fentanyl! Screw the fentanyl-- I need more Karthein’s sauerkraut!!
If you live toward the Canadian border and like sauerkraut, keep your eyes open for this stuff. I still long for it, but then there are so many things I still long for that will never come to pass… but I digress… If you can’t find it in stores, maybe you can buy it out of the trunk of someone’s car-- a guy in a black raincoat, or maybe an RCMP hat, especially if he’s hanging around delis.
All right, today’s trip to the grocery store netted me the bacon and a bag of kraut from the produce section refrigerator. I was going to buy a couple of onions but the ones available were all on the large side, so I bought a container of uncooked mirepoix instead.
Y’all are giving me lots of good ideas to work with. I won’t be trying any of them tonight, alas, since by the time I got done with other things I was too tired to cook. But I have plans, oh yes.
Given what’s been said about canned versus bagged, I intend to use the effectively cooked canned with the braunschweiger since I can just heat it briefly and not melt the meat. I’ll use the herb and garlic butter for that. Not sure whether I’ll start off cooking down some of the mirepoix.
For the raw bagged, I’ll start with the bacon, cook the mirepoix in the bacon fat till softening, stir in the kraut and saute that, then add back the crumbled bacon (what’s left after I nibble on a strip or two) just before plating it.
I likely won’t bother preparing a pasta or other base for the result, just tuck into the sauerkraut as the meal.
I make my own sauerkraut. Finely chopped cabbage with Celtic sea salt or Himalayan pink salt and some garlic, dill and mustard seeds. A couple weeks in a fermenting jar. Very tasty.
I’ve made it, as well. Fermenting is a very messy process.
Cabbage is cheap, or very easy to grow. Those worms drive me batty though.
My recipe:
Thick cut garlic bologna, cut in manageable strips.
Onion ribbons.
More garlic.
Can or jar of sauerkraut.
Dump all in frying pan with heated butter.
Heat til bologna sizzles and browns on the edges.
Even kids will eat it.
It’s not the Canadians per se, it’s the Montrealers that get you. As I mentioned before, the settlement of so many ethnicities in Montreal in the early 20th century created a food mecca of markets and delis that still persists today. I don’t just mean Jews and their heavenly chopped liver and full-sour kosher pickles – oy vey! – but so many others. Back when life was good, and simple, my Mom and Dad would come visit me in Ontario, hauling in a cooler, on the train, deli goodies from Montreal. And OMG they were incredible. When the smoked meat was unwrapped, the smoky aroma permeated the whole kitchen!
Now throw that in, warmed up, on some rye bread with freshly browned sauerkraut and mustard, and you got yourself a sandwich!