SC - period suerkraut?

[Tyrca at aol.com]

In a message dated 97-10-05 22:32:51 EDT, you write:

<< 
 Pickled cabbage  - very oriental - called Kim Chee in Korea.
 This was a dish used by Chinese laborers building the Great Wall of China
 over 2,000 years ago.  It was made with shredded cabbage and fermented in
 rice wine.  How it found its way to Germany and the Alsace - I don't know!
 Korean Kim Chee (kimchi) is made of fermented vegetables - usally cabbage or
 turnips with hot, red peppers and sealed in pots and buried underground.  It
 keeps indefinitely in the modern day refrigerator.
 Audrey (ann1106 at aol.com) >>

This is just my opinion, and not at all documented, but German Saurkraut is
made by salting the fresh cabbage, and leaving it in the crock to ferment on
its own.  It seems to me that this process didn't have to be imported from
anywhere, but could have risen very easily from a good housewife trying to
preserve some of her fresh cabbage through the winter.  We know that they
were already preserving meats this way.  I don't think it is that difficult
to see the progression.

I could be terribly wrong, though.  I don't even own a medevial cookbook yet.
(g)

Tyrca
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