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Sauerkraut

My Dad was crazy about this; it’s what I recall him craving the most.  He always happily obliged my mother as chief taster when she was in the kitchen trying to get the flavors just right. 

I know my Dad was smiling down from heaven the other day as he watched us make his prized Sauerkraut.

However, sauerkraut is not what we called this dish, being Polish, we referred to it as kapusta (kah-POOS-tah), a word meaning cabbage.  It just sounds wrong.

Anyway, I grew up on this stuff.  Just the aromatics alone take me back to my childhood kitchen.  I can still see the pot my mother cooked it in and my Dad standing there, waiting to inform her if it was sour enough or needed more salt.  It’s a good memory but one that leaves me a bit emotional.

My Mom and I made this the day we made pierogi, let’s just say it was quite the kitchen marathon.  This is one of those dishes that gets better every day it sits in the refrigerator.  It also freezes very well.

The flavor is incredible and tastes nothing like the sauerkraut we put on our hot dogs.  It’s nothing short of amazing. 

You should try it.

To make kapusta, you start by making a stock.  You will need 3-1/2 pounds of pork neck bones; they will have some meat on them.  These are easily found at the grocery store or from your butcher.  Just ask, if they don’t have them right then, it will not be a problem getting them by the next day. 

Place them in a roasting pan, on a rack (sprayed with PAM) and place them in a 350 degree oven for one hour, turning them over after thirty minutes.

Here is what they look like when done cooking.

In a large, heavy pot (I used my Dutch oven), place the roasted neck bones, one large, yellow onion, quartered, and a 3/4 pound ham hock.  Fill with enough water to cover the ingredients.  Bring to a boil and simmer, covered, for three hours.  When done, strain the stock, reserving separately the neck bones and the ham hock. Pour the liquid back into the pot and spoon off any fat accumulated on top.  Reserve this fat, you might need a little later.

Remove meat from the pork, neck bones.  It will pull off and shred so easily.  Set aside.

My Mom uses a mixture of fresh and jarred sauerkraut in this recipe.  It really gives it a good flavor. 

Chop I head of green cabbage and open two 24 ounce jars of store-bought sauerkraut.  Drain the jarred sauerkraut, reserving the juice.

Bring the stock back to a boil, adding the cabbage, the jarred sauerkraut and the meat from the pork neck bones.  Let simmer while you prepare the other ingredients.

 

The inside skin of the ham hock you reserved from the stock has a layer of fat.  With a knife, remove that fat and begin to fry it up in a nonstick pan. 

To the same pan, add 2 large chopped onions and one 8 ounce package of sliced mushrooms.  As you cook this there might not be enough fat in the pan to cook the onions and the mushrooms so slowly add the fat you skimmed off the top of the stock that you reserved.  Use only as much as you need, this will really give it flavor.  Cook until the onions are soft and translucent.

Add the mushroom-onion mixture to the simmering sauerkraut.  Continue to simmer the sauerkraut until the onions almost melt in your mouth, about an hour to an hour and a half.  Leave the lid 3/4 on top, allowing for some release of steam.  As it cooks, periodically taste and decide if it is sour enough for you.  If it is not, add back the sauerkraut juice you reserved from the jars to make it as sour as you like.  Also, you will need to salt and pepper it to your liking. 

This makes a big pot and can feed a crowd with leftovers.  It freezes well, so enjoy.

Smacznego (smatch-nE-go)!  The Polish equivalent of bon appetit.

Mom’s Sauerkraut (Kapusta)

3-1/2 pounds pork, neck bones
3 large onions, divided
3/4 pound smoked or regular hamhock
1 head of green cabbage, shredded
2 twenty-four ounce jars sauerkraut
1 eight ounce package sliced mushrooms
Salt and pepper to taste

To make kapusta, you are going to start by making a stock.  You will need 3-1/2 pounds of pork neck bones, they will have some meat on them.  These are easily found at the grocery store or from your butcher.  Just ask, if they don’t have them right then, it will not be a problem getting them by the next day. 

Place them in a roasting pan, on a rack (sprayed with PAM) and place them in a 350 degree oven for one hour, turning them over after thirty minutes.

In a large, heavy pot (I used my Dutch oven), place the roasted neck bones, one large, yellow onion, quartered, and a 3/4 pound hamhock.  Fill with enough water to cover the ingredients.  Bring to a boil and simmer, covered, for three hours.  When done, strain the stock, reserving separately the neck bones and the hamhock. Pour the liquid back into the pot and spoon off any fat accumulated on top.  Reserve this fat, you might need a little later.

Remove meat from the pork neck bones.  It will pull off and shred so easily.  Set aside.

My Mom uses a mixture of fresh and jarred sauerkraut in this recipe.  It really gives it a good flavor. 

Chop I head of green cabbage and open two 24 ounce jars of store-bought sauerkraut.  Drain the jarred sauerkraut, reserving the juice.

Bring the stock back to a boil, adding the cabbage, the jarred sauerkraut and the meat from the pork neck bones.  Let simmer while you prepare other ingredients.

The inside skin of the hamhock you reserved from the stock has a layer of fat.  With a knife, remove that fat and begin to fry it up in a nonstick pan. 

To the same pan, add 2 large chopped onions and one 8 ounce package of sliced mushrooms.  As you cook this there might not be enough fat in the pan to cook the onions and the mushrooms so slowly add the fat you skimmed off the top of the stock that you reserved.  Use only as much as you need, this will really give it flavor.  Cook until the onions are soft and translucent.

Add the mushroom-onion mixture to the simmering sauerkraut.  Continue to simmer the sauerkraut until the onions almost melt in your mouth, about an hour to an hour and a half.  Leave the lid 3/4 on top, allowing for some release of steam.  As it cooks, periodically taste and decide if it is sour enough for you.  If it is not, add back the sauerkraut juice you reserved from the jars to make it as sour as you like.  Also, you will need to salt and pepper it to your liking. 

This makes a big pot and can feed a crowd with leftovers.  It freezes well, so enjoy.

Comments

  2. Kitchen memories are really special-we seem to continue to share them with our loved ones even when they are gone. This is a dish my dad would enjoy. I will make it for him when I visit this fall. Thanks for the story and recipe.

    Reply

  6. My grandparents were Polish, and I too grew up with found memories of Kapusta. My grandma sauteed onions in bacon drippings before adding packaged sauerkraut and brown sugar. It was served as a side dish or as a filling for the pierogis.
    If you think Kapusta is a funny word, how about Golumpkis? —Have you ever made them? I have modified my grandma’s recipe. If you are interested, let me know and I will send it to you.

    Reply

  10. oh Cathy this looks wonderful. I had homemade sauerkraut a few years ago and was amazed at how good (and different) it was from what you can purchase. I looked for a recipe, but couldn’t find a good one. Thanks so much for this post.
    Lea Ann

    Reply

  16. At the point of reading this article i have found myself starving!

    I am intrigued in to foriegn cuisine as i am based within the UK I am only accustomed to traditional roast meats, pork, beef etc.

    However since coming across your blog you have inspired me to delve in to your cooking.

    Many thanks

    Reply

  18. This looks fantastic. My grandparents were Hungarian and my grandmother cooked lots of cabbage recipes. I just wish I had all of them. I will have to post a couple that I do have. I want to try this. It was so great that you did this with your mom. What memories!

    Reply

  23. Holy Mother of Pearl!!! That looks insanely good. My Husband’s Mother is Polish and Irish. The last 2 recipes
    are going into my recipe file. I make a really good sauerkraut, but yours made me drool on my keyboard. My mother in law tells a story about a cookie her mother/ grandmother made around Christmas..Kruschecky ( spelling is way off) Her husband called them cross chickens. Can you steer me towards a recipe for them? Mother in law lost hers.

    Reply

  24. First of all, I have to say THANK YOU for photographing the steps to ALL of your recipes. I tried to do the same today and could not believe how much work it was. Work to stop, photograph, then try to find another pair of hands to help. Wow! Thanks for all the great recipes and hard work you put into this blog! 🙂

    Reply

  25. This looks so lovely. I love real sauerkraut, and have never made it. Will have to do this once the cooler weather sets in, as it would be so great to enjoy with a roast…pork, of course.

    Reply

  29. Bookmarking to make very soon. This would make my Polish hub very happy. Isn’t this, though – Bigos? I thought with the addition of the meat, and some jarred sauerkraut it sounded similar to that. Happy memories!!

    Reply

  30. What a blessing for you to be spending all that time with your Mom, cooking up memories! From your descriptions, I could almost smell the sauerkraut through the computer. I bet your Dad was smiling down that day!

    Reply

  32. Thanks for sharing this recipe! I am so making this! I’ve been looking for this kind of recipe ever since attending our local Polish Festival this summer! Love your site and your reading about your new journey!
    Best of Luck!

    Reply

  39. my brother has recently become obsessed with sauerkraut (much to the dismay of anyone in a 50-yard radius of him), so i might pass this on to him if he ever gets inspired to make his own. 🙂

    Reply

  40. You’ve been posting all these wonderful family recipes! You should submit some to our event.

    Anyway, this is totally fabulous. As were the pierogis, btw, I think I had trouble commenting that day. being of Polish stock myself, I completely appreciate a good pierogi.

    Reply

  47. We also grew up eating Sauerkraut. I like the addition of the mushrooms. We never made it with the pork in it, but it looks great.I love making dishes that were my dad’s favorites, too! Great memories!

    Reply

  49. I love this recipe, and I love the story that goes along with it. Ethnic influences of the Italian version were an enormous part of my upbringing, and I’m immediately drawn to other’s experiences as well. This is a great memory and recipe for you, and will be so for your kids, and their kids, and so on. LOVE IT!

    Reply

  50. This recipe sounds really great. I have a recipe that I found a few years ago for kapusta. I use pork chops and smoked sausage along with onion, cabbage, sourkraut and cream of mushroom soup. I know, cream of mushroom soup, but we think it is very good. It’s our New Years Day dinner along with smashed potatoes. I’ll give your recipe a try sometime soon. Sounds great!

    Reply

  51. Cathy, On the off chance you don’t know this, you live in “pig neck bone” heaven. Carlton Farms on Saturday morning has all the piggy parts you’d ever want out in the big coolers at their retail shop. My 8 year old daughter and I make it a regular pilgrimage. Some days we’re looking for tongue or Oxtail and other days it might just be some pork butt. For father’s day we got a pig head and trotters and made head cheese. I’m trying to establish food traditions with my children as well as reinforce the notion that meat does not come from little styrofoam trays, but rather real animals and therefore needs to be treated with respect. I’m new to your blog, but see it becoming a regular part of my day. Keep up the good work and welcome to the valley. Al W

    Reply

  52. Cathy, On the off chance you don’t know this, you live in “pig neck bone” heaven. Carlton Farms on Saturday morning has all the piggy parts you’d ever want out in the big coolers at thier retail shop. My 8 year old daughter and I make it a regular pilgrimage. Some days we’re looking for tongue or Oxtail and other days it might just be some pork butt. For fater’s day we got a pig head and trotters and made head cheese. I’m trying to establish food traditions with my children as well as reinforce the notion that meat does not come from little styrofoam trays, but rather real animals and therefore needs to be treated with respect. I’m new to your blog, but see it becomeing a regular part of my day. Keep up the good work and welcome to the valley.

    Reply

  54. I’m not a fan of sauerkraut or kapusta ;-), but I enjoyed this post very much, Cathy. Glad you had this time together with your mom and I’m sure your dad looked on with joy.

    BTW, I made your original dairy version of the Snickerdoodles ice cream this evening for my mom’s BD and it was a big hit!! Can’t decide if I like this version or the non-dairy coconut milk version better. 😉

    Thanks so much for all your great recipes!
    Shirley

    Reply

  55. Oh my does this bring back good memories of my sweet Polish Mother. I love kapust and all things with kruat or cabbage. My little grand daughters love it also. My mother and now myself stuff our turkey with kruat. I rinse my kruat a little. Thank You for the great recipes

    Reply

  57. I’m half Polish. This is one of my favorites too. My Babchie made it and she did call it Kapusta. I’ve never used neck bones to make it but will certainly give them a try. My grandmother usually used country-style pork spare ribs for the meat. My grandfather was a butcher and made his own Kielbasa for the holidays. Mom told stories about how she and her brothers and sisters would try to disappear at Kielbasa-making time. Apparently, my grandfather got quite vocal when the casings would burst if the kids over-filled them!

    Thank you for reigniting the memories.

    Reply

  59. This kraut sounds fabulous. I use neck bones too, but I never thought to add fresh cabbage to the kraut. I am of Slovakian decent, so I’m familiar with all things cabbage and kraut. My hubby and I have kraut or cabbage once a week. Thanks for this recipe.

    Reply

  60. This was FABULOUS!!!!!! I added a little caraway seed and some polish kielbasa at the end for extra meat but this recipe would have been yummy without it! A great Halloweenie meal! We’ve been eating this for 4 days, it makes a ton so I’ll be making another batch for freezing. Thank you!

    Reply

  61. I made your recipe this evening, and although it made a lot of dishes for myself, it was absolutely perfect and i cant wait to share it with my mother and grandmother. Perfect cold weather dish paired with mashed potatoes. I did not change one thing. Next time i may add another package of mushrooms as the addition of them was divine. Thanks for sharing!!

    Reply

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