Have a guess!
--Betty
A little riddle: What is this?
Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau
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Planapo
- Posts: 1583
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- Location: Germany, in the United States of Europe
A little riddle: What is this?
I don't know, if it's too easy, so for now, I don't say anything further that could give it away.
Have a guess!
--Betty
Have a guess!
--Betty
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Charles Krebs
- Posts: 5865
- Joined: Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:02 pm
- Location: Issaquah, WA USA
- Contact:
I'm with Laurie. The start of “cole slaw” (here in the US)
Weißkohlsalat... koolsla...
Now Betty, you're in Germany. Make it red cabbage, get some apples, vinegar and a few more ingredients, simmer for awhile and you've sent me back to Mom's cooking
(Oh yes... if it's not cabbage and really something inedible.... never mind!)
Weißkohlsalat... koolsla...
Now Betty, you're in Germany. Make it red cabbage, get some apples, vinegar and a few more ingredients, simmer for awhile and you've sent me back to Mom's cooking
(Oh yes... if it's not cabbage and really something inedible.... never mind!)
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Planapo
- Posts: 1583
- Joined: Tue Nov 07, 2006 2:33 am
- Location: Germany, in the United States of Europe
Guys, thanks for participating! You got it right from the very start. (Chris gets points for the most creative imagination.)
It is shredded cabbage, could have become a "Weisskohlsalat" or a nice "Krauteintopf" (cabbage stew). But the 20 kg we shredded yesterday would have been a bit too much. Kraut is a more southern German word for Kohl (=cabbage).
My next clue to what I was doing there in the kitchen yesterday, would have been the other ingredients.
Charlie look, the salt is from Bad Reichenhall. It's quite likely that your grandma and great-grandma were using salt that was mined at the Reichenhall saltern. And most probably they also made their own Sauerkraut themselves. And yes, for Christmas dinner, with Knödel and goose or duck, mostly we have Rotkraut made the way you know it from your mom. (Just add some caraway and an onion into which you stick some cloves, and later add a good amount of black currant jam/jelly and your recipe is complete.)
However, without any further clue, Barry has guessed correctly what I was preparing: Sauerkraut, but the Wurst will have to wait : The shredded cabbage was salted and stamped into a special "brewing" barrel. Now the barrel is standing in the warm kitchen for the next 2-3 days to start fermentation, CO2 bubbling started already this morning. It will then be kept for another fortnight in the cooler corridor, until we carry the pot down into the cool cellar. The sauerkraut will be ready shortly before Christmas and last till spring. It can be eaten raw right from the barrel as salad (with some other ingredients) or you can use it for a wide variety of other cooked dishes. There's just one thing: When you open the pot, a quite characteristic odour is set free. So when entering the house, uninitiated visitors might ask, if there's been an issue with the sewage pipe. 
It's an ancient method of food conservation, that was already done by the Romans that way, and in East Asia they also use this method. You can do it with lots of other vegetables and fruits, e.g. fermented green beans are yummy too. The fermentation is done mainly by lactic acid bacteria, said to be very healthful (so you don't need "yakult"). Over here you can buy Sauerkraut in every food store, but then it's pasteurized and not as healthful. Non-pasteurized, fresh Sauerkraut is only sold in a few stores, and made from organic cabbage, (like mine here) it's quite expensive, so we keep up the tradition and make it ourselves.
Hope you enjoyed our little deviation into culinary and cultural peculiarities. I did!
--Betty
It is shredded cabbage, could have become a "Weisskohlsalat" or a nice "Krauteintopf" (cabbage stew). But the 20 kg we shredded yesterday would have been a bit too much. Kraut is a more southern German word for Kohl (=cabbage).
My next clue to what I was doing there in the kitchen yesterday, would have been the other ingredients.
Charlie look, the salt is from Bad Reichenhall. It's quite likely that your grandma and great-grandma were using salt that was mined at the Reichenhall saltern. And most probably they also made their own Sauerkraut themselves. And yes, for Christmas dinner, with Knödel and goose or duck, mostly we have Rotkraut made the way you know it from your mom. (Just add some caraway and an onion into which you stick some cloves, and later add a good amount of black currant jam/jelly and your recipe is complete.)
However, without any further clue, Barry has guessed correctly what I was preparing: Sauerkraut, but the Wurst will have to wait
: The shredded cabbage was salted and stamped into a special "brewing" barrel. Now the barrel is standing in the warm kitchen for the next 2-3 days to start fermentation, CO2 bubbling started already this morning. It will then be kept for another fortnight in the cooler corridor, until we carry the pot down into the cool cellar. The sauerkraut will be ready shortly before Christmas and last till spring. It can be eaten raw right from the barrel as salad (with some other ingredients) or you can use it for a wide variety of other cooked dishes. There's just one thing: When you open the pot, a quite characteristic odour is set free. So when entering the house, uninitiated visitors might ask, if there's been an issue with the sewage pipe. It's an ancient method of food conservation, that was already done by the Romans that way, and in East Asia they also use this method. You can do it with lots of other vegetables and fruits, e.g. fermented green beans are yummy too. The fermentation is done mainly by lactic acid bacteria, said to be very healthful (so you don't need "yakult"). Over here you can buy Sauerkraut in every food store, but then it's pasteurized and not as healthful. Non-pasteurized, fresh Sauerkraut is only sold in a few stores, and made from organic cabbage, (like mine here) it's quite expensive, so we keep up the tradition and make it ourselves.
Hope you enjoyed our little deviation into culinary and cultural peculiarities. I did!
--Betty
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rjlittlefield
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