Sauerkraut

Choucroute

What it is

Labourers on the Great Wall were fed fermented cabbage two thousand years ago, and the technique reached Europe later by way of the steppe. Captain Cook carried barrels of it and lost not a single man to scurvy on a three-year voyage.

In the kitchen

Rinse it if it is aggressively sour, but keep some of the brine for the pot. Long slow cooking with fat is what mellows it.

Goes with

Pork Juniper berry Lard Potato Caraway Onion Black pepper Bay leaf

Same species

Baek-kimchi Broccoli Brussels sprout Cabbage Cauliflower Cavolo nero

Also used with

Lactic acid Pork knuckle Pastrami Mangalitsa pork

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