Cassell's dictionary of cookery

Sauer Kraut (another way).— Select sound solid cabbages, slice them across, and place the slices in a barrel in layers about four inches high ; over each layer strew a handful of salt and some caraway seeds. Press the whole down tightly, and when the barrel is full place a heavy weight upon the end. After standing a week, according to the temperature, the mass will begin more or less to ferment ; and when the fermentation is over the barrel should be headed up. There is no vinegar used in the preparation. Sauer Kraut (Dr. Kitchiner's recipe).— Take a dozen hard white cabbages, trim and divide them into quarters, take out all the stalks from the heart of the cabbage, cut it transversely with a knife or chaff-cutter into very small slips. Mix six pounds of salt with four ounces of juniper berries and an ounce of caraway seed; put the cabbage into a cask, first strewing the bottom with some of the mixture, then a layer of cabbage; take care that the head of the cask slips down within the staves and fits closely to the sides; press the cover down, and lay a large stone on it. Set the cask in a shed or outhouse for three months, it will then be coming ready for use. When you use it take care of the stone and cover, scrape aside some of the top, take out what you want, and replace what you scraped off the top, and cover down the cask as closely as before. Put the kraut into a stewpan with a little cold water, simmer it for half an hour, drain in a colander ; when done, put the meat you intend to dress into the stewpan and cover it over with the kraut ; put just water enough to stew the meat and give gravy to serve up with it. When you dish up, put the kraut and gravy first into the dish, and lay the meat on them. It may be added that some sauer kraut is so juicy as not to require any water : the fatty materials employed by the Germans to stew with it are generally sufficient. Sauer Kraut, To Cook.— Lay a goodsized piece of butter in a saucepan, and let it melt. Put in half the sauer kraut, and lay on this the meat to be made ready with it : either ham or bacon smoked and pared, pork, or any sort of sausage. Over all place the other half of the kraut, pour in a glassful of white wine, and add a little water occasionally to moisten it. Cover the saucepan closely, and let the contents stew gently tiU the sauer kraut is soft and yellow. When cooked enough, take oiit the meat. Dredge in a table-spoonful of flour, let the kraut stew half an hour longer, then place the meat again in the saucepan to get quite hot. Stir the kraut now and then with a wooden spoon, and take care that it does not burn. What is left over of the sauer kraut is good warmed up on the following day or a day or two after ; it may be served with some other meat. As an accompaniment to smoked meats, roast pork, sausages, &c., sauer kraut may be prepared in the way just described, but without the meat ; if so, stir in a thickening of flour and butter before sending to table. It is to be observed that sauer kraut can hardly be cooked too much. It requires at first from two and a half to three hours' stewing. SAU ( 833 ) SAU