There’s been a lot of talk about pork and sauerkraut together, and for good reason, since they do go really, really well together.
But you know what’s even better than combining already cooked pork with sauerkraut? Maybe not better, but different in a great way-- cooking a pork roast or shoulder with sauerkraut. There’s something magical that happens when you cook pork and sauerkraut together as a kind of stew. Old German recipe. My Grandma used to make this, and I loved it as a kid. Even my older kid, who was (is) a famously picky eater, loved when I made this.
This recipe has roasted potatoes as a side dish, but I just throw the potatoes in with everything and make it an easy-peasy one-pot meal. This is a slow cooker recipe, but you could probably do it in an Instant Pot in an hour or so.
Wow, that sound delicious! I’ve bookmarked the recipe to try once I’ve eaten through what I have (one person, small appetite).
Meanwhile, I picked up a container of Lloyd’s pulled pork and a packet of Rana skillet potato gnocchi today, put them in a nonstick skillet with the leftover sauerkraut, and let it simmer for a while till it was heated through and married well.
I’m munching on it now, and it’s good. Of course the barbecue flavor dominates, but it’s tasty and satisfying. I’ve got enough left over to refrigerate half and freeze the other half.
At some point I’m going to try the shredded fresh cabbage approach, but I have lots of food to get through before then.
I’ve made this before twice but the second time I drained the sauerkraut first and replaced the sauerkraut liquid with cider (the British alcoholic kind) - total game-changer
Good question. I was thinking a German lager like a Dortmunder Union might add a subtle malty sweetness that mellows and balances out the sourness of the kraut. But you might be right.
Some experimentation may be in order!
(With a fair amount of taste-testing before, during and after adding to the P&S to ensure quality )
Ribs are so good baked or smoked (and/or par/boiled) it’s easy to overlook their magnificence when braised. Sauerkraut or Mexican guisado are great with ribs.
I was grocery shopping this morning and checked the refrigerated bagged kraut. There were two brands- the store brand, which also had sodium benzoate and another preservative I forget. Why do they have to add preservatives if they’re refrigerating it? The other brand, Cleveland Kraut, as mentioned upthread simply has cabbage, salt and caraway seed.
I picked up some Cleveland brand and some jarred kraut. I also picked up some pork, so gonna make pork and sauerkraut for Sunday dinner! Forgot to pick up any hard cider or special beer though, so I’ll just add a bottle of Bell’s Two-Hearted ale I have on hand.
I wish I took some photos of the labels and varieties. While I didn’t expect the preservatives in the refrigerated ones, now that I’ve reconsidered it, the reasons they add them are clear: we expect crisp, white sauerkraut from bags and not from canned. In fact, the bags are transparent and the product inside is indeed quite white.
I really gotta find that Cleveland caraway kraut, it sounds great. I’ll be travelling to Michigan soon
The Cleveland Kraut I bought (with just cabbage, salt and caraway seed) looked plenty white to me. I thought maybe the Cleveland Kraut had a short shelf-life, but the ‘best buy’ date was September 30, 2026. So I don’t know why other refrigerated brands choose to use preservatives.
Anyway, I made pork & sauerkraut for dinner yesterday, and it turned out fantastic. I browned pork in a pan, removed the pork, added thin-sliced onions and browned them in the pork fond, then added the pork, onions, sauerkraut and a chopped up apple to my Instant Pot with a bottle of Bell’s Two-Hearted IPA. After an hour on high pressure that pork shredded right up.
Normally I’d add potatoes to the pot after the rest had been cooking for awhile, but since I used the Instant Pot I baked some potatoes separately, then cut them up and added to the P&S at the end.
It was delicious with the Two-Hearted IPA, but next time I would like to try a darker beer.
My next sauerkraut endeavor – the ingredients have been collected and I figure to try it tomorrow:
Based on the recipe here, as was posted above, I’m trying it with a few adjustments. To start with, since I’ll be the only one eating it, and my slow cooker is only medium-sized, I passed on the pork shoulder and picked up 1.37 pounds of boneless spare rib pork.
I did get a white onion, garlic (might drop down to two rather than three cloves), a Granny Smith apple, and a 22-ounce bottle of Guinness Extra Stout. I may not use the liquid from the Cleveland Kraut envelope since I have the stout, or I may put that in and use half the bottle of Guinness – what say you, pork and sauerkraut chefs?
I’ve been following this thread for a while and decided to try pork & kraut in a slow cooker. I couldn’t find an appropriately sized pork leg or shoulder joint so used a small gammon joint. I think this is just ham in US English. I added onions, the gammon, kraut, and a tin of Weston’s Vintage cider to the slow cooker and cooked it on low for 8 hours. The meat pulled apart nicely but was too salty for me and the kraut lost all of its sourness.
I had a similar experience with a beef & kimchi stew where the kimchi lost all of the flavours that I like about it. So for me Sauerkraut and kimchi are going to remain sides/accompaniments to meals instead of an ingredient.
The slow-cooker experiment has been set in motion!
I decided to use up some bacon I had on hand, so I fried half a dozen or so slices in a nonstick skillet till ready to crisp up on the paper towel, then sauteed the onion slices in the bacon fat for several minutes. They weren’t entirely caramelized when I took them out to sear the boneless rib meat in what was left of the bacon fat.
I put the seared meat on top of the onion and apple, sprinkled the diced garlic on top, crumbled the crispy bacon over that, dumped in the sauerkraut, then poured half the bottle of Guinness over all, covered, and set it on low.
Now I wait.
It’s a good thing I didn’t get a shoulder roast given the size of my crockpot. By the time all the ingredients were in there was barely half an inch of clearance to the rim.
To answer your question, even though your pork & sauerkraut is now in motion, I did not bother draining the sauerkraut when I made it last Sunday, and I added 12 oz. of beer to mine. It was not too much liquid at all, though I used a big pork roast and added a lot of sauerkraut, so yours might turn out more liquidy since you made a smaller quantity..
Good luck with yours! Looking forward to hearing how it turns out with the added Guinness-- sounds like a good choice of beverage to use.
That’s encouraging. If I have a lot of liquid left over maybe I’ll cook up some rice in it, but there wasn’t a lot of liquid in the kraut I used, seemed like less than for canned kraut, proportionately. But we will see. I shall report the results in, oh, maybe seven or eight hours.
I’d bet a decent amount there’s your problem. The curing, etc., of the gammon added a lot of flavors the kraut can’t overcome. And a LOT of salt.
For the dish to stay tangy and kraut-forward, the meat needs to be pretty bland. Plain pork, mild sausage or even, (heresy) chicken serves that purpose.
Yes, ^this^ exactly. I’m not really sure what a gammon joint is, but if it is salt-cured like a ham, it would add way too much salt in addition to what’s already in the kraut. A plain cut of fresh, uncured pork is what this dish needs.
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