I’ve decided I’m simply not a sauerkraut kinda girl, so I won’t try cooking with it again. But It’s been educational, got me hauling out the slow cooker to start using again, given me some ideas to explore and a basic recipe to build off of.
I’m also planning to do split pea soup now – instead of a ham bone, chop the uncooked bacon I have left and toss that in, along with the peas, onion, carrot, maybe some garlic, and chicken broth. Hmmmm… There’s also a bag of lentils in the cabinet. Maybe try slow-cooking some of them in beef broth, with carrot, onion, garlic for sure and a few chopped slices of braunschweiger.
The best use of sauerkraut is as a cold relish on top of hot meat and/or potatoes. Don’t let misadventures with cooking it into another dish discourage you.
It was a few weeks ago now but I didn’t see it at the grocery I checked when in town. Busch’s or something? It seemed upscalish and like a better chance that Kroger or Meijer and they did have Dearborn branded fresh bags but with prevs and no caraway. I bought some apples and a can of Detroit Coney chili that I haven’t tried yet.
I’m glad I happened to notice this, because I have a jar of kraut and a somewhat fatty thick slice of pork shoulder I’ve been planning to thaw and cook on a cold snowy weekend. However, I forgot how to proceed! Do I cook the meat in a casserole dish on top of the sauerkraut? Serve both prepared separately? What do I add? Onions, bay leaf, caraway see? Baked or fried? How should I do this? I don’t have a crockpot, stove and oven only…..In the past I’ve cooked pieces of pork in a pyrex dish, low and slow, in barbeque sauce later stuck under the broiler for a minute. But I want to incorporate the sauerkraut into the cooking process - in tribute to my Eastern European ancestors who I vaguely remember cooking something tasty. My mother on occasion cooked spareribs and kraut together in a pressure cooker, heavenly! But that was over 50 years ago!
I’m not sure how large your ‘slice’ of pork shoulder is, but depending, cut it into chunks to make pieces that are more manageable. Not as small as stew meat size, but a little smaller than Rubik’s Cube size. Salt and pepper to season, and pan-sear in a bit of butter or oil on several sides to brown the pork.
Remove pork from pan and add thinly sliced onion. Cook until browned / carmelized (careful not to burn), adding a bit of liquid toward the end-- either wine or dark beer or some sort of stock-- to deglaze the pan if necessary.
Add onions, pork and sauerkraut to a casserole dish or some sort of oven-safe covered dish that’s just large enough to be able to fit the pork with the kraut and onions so the pork is submerged. You could also simmer it on the stovetop in a covered stew pot. Add just enough liquid if needed-- again, either wine or dark beer or some sort of stock, to make sure the pork is submerged, but is not too liquidy. Extra seasoning at this point is strictly personal preference. Bay leaf, caraway seed? Those would be fantastic additions. A peeled and chopped apple is a good addition at this point as well. But this dish is all about simplicity, so no need to go too crazy with seasonings, unless you want to.
Cook in the oven low and slow (275-300F) or simmer on the stove top (again, covered- don’t want evaporation) until the pork fat is rendered and the pork is easily shreddable. This’ll probably take a couple-few hours. Maybe as long as 4 hours.
I think potatoes are a natural side for this. Either bake the potatoes separately, or even better, chop the potatoes up like you’d do for a stew, and add them to the pork and kraut in the last 40 minutes or so of cooking-- the potatoes absorb the krauty, porky goodness that way.
I’d do a braise or covered bake in the pyrex. Trim the shoulder well. I’d put a smoky bacon or (even better) dry cured sausage. Caraway = yes, please. As mentioned upthread, I like allspice in there, too
I overdid bay in a pot of rice a month ago and am avoiding it at the moment. It was only two leaves but was overpowering and I’m sorry to say I tossed it.
Oh, thank you, that’s very kind of you to share that preparation! I did look online and found a recipe at a craft beer site, I think addition of beer would be just the thing. (I’ve made Guiness beef stew in the past, just excellent). I ruminate over my food, really only eat once a day and don’t get to go out to eat very often, so I like to make something special - because I do love to cook .
