SC - Re Kraut recipes

[Philip & Susan Troy]

> Date: Tue, 13 Jan 1998 20:07:51 EST
> From: Mordonnade <Mordonnade at aol.com>
> Subject: SC - Kraut
> 
> A few days ago, I posted some German recipes from the "Dutch Fork" region of
> South Carolina, and I requested opinions on how period they were, or how to
> possibly change them so that they were period.  I have yet to recieve any
> replies to this request.  Have I stumped you, or is it that they are too oop
> to be of use?
> 
> Thanks, 
> Mordonna

Sorry, I just hadn't gotten up to that yet. I'm getting the Digest, and
am slowly managing (HA!) to dig out from under a huge pile of incoming
e-mail.

The deal with sauerkraut seems to be that it is extremely ancient. IIRC,
pots of it have been found in the foundations of both the Great
Pyraminds and the Great Wall of China, suggesting that it was eaten, in
both cases, by stonemasons and other laborers.

Unfortunately, there appear to be no German or other Western European
(and no Eastern European, AFAIK) recipes extant from period. Cabbages of
various sorts do appear to have been eaten, but the recipes don't
suggest it was in any way preserved, unless perhaps by storing it in a
vegetable cellar over the winter. On the other hand, since there are
also very few recipes for pickles in general, from the Middle Ages,
either the technique may not have been popular, or it may have been one
of those things cooks just knew how to do, without going into detail, or
it may have been exclusively a peasant type of thing. My inclination,
though leans towards medieval people just eating the cabbage and other
vegetables when in season, more or less, or storing extra supplies in
the cellar, in piles of things like sawdust or sand to keep them dry and
free of mold. This also may suggest why cabbage al;ways seems to be
boiled in some way: if it became dry and hard, this would seem to be the
best way to make it edible.

Now. Where were we? Sauerkraut may or may not be "period": I don't know.
I have no real evidence to suggest it was, other than a reasonable
assurance it was being made thousands of years ago. For all I know, that
could be akin to saying roasted mastodon heart is a period dish. In both
cases the available records don't seem to suggest it.

Of course, as with things like salt or dried fish, it may be that
preserved foods are used interchangably, to some extent, with their
fresh counterparts. So, you might get away with finding a German cabbage
dish, and simply using rinsed or soaked sauerkraut in its place. I
recall seeing a pretty old (but not period, probably) Transylvanian
recipe for stuffed cabbage which calls for the whole cabbage to be
pickled in brine, as with sauerkraut, and then used in a fairly standard
recipe for stuffed cabbage. So dishes like the pig's tail in kraut, and
the liver dumplings in kraut, might as easily be made with fresh cabbage
as with sauerkraut. I suppose there's always the possibility some of the
fresh cabbage recipes from period sources could be made with sauerkraut,
suitably desalted and de-acidified.

Either that, or a nice cabbage-and-pig's tail stew sounds pretty good. I
suspect the meat dunplings and the cabbage would likely be served as
separate dishes in a period meal, though.

Adamantius
troy at asan.com
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