Sauerkraut and cabbage - can you tell which is which?
Not every tradition is worth hanging onto. One of my pet peeves is how Hungarian recipes handle sauerkraut dishes. With the passage of time, sauerkraut gets increasingly sour. That is why recipes containing sauerkraut will instruct rinsing the sauerkraut before cooking. But that's just removing the health benefits fermented foods provide... like moving things along. Why not mellow the sauerkraut with fresh cabbage instead? If you still rinse sauerkraut, you are discarding the good stuff. You may be thinking that brining
the green cabbage and discarding the cabbage juice is the same thing. Well not
quite. Fresh cabbage juice cannot produce the same probiotic and
enzymatic benefits of sauerkraut juice.
COOKING WITH SAUERKRAUT
1 cup sauerkraut
2 cups thinly sliced fresh
green cabbage
Salt to taste
- Brine the fresh cabbage first.
- To brine it, rinse the thinly sliced green cabbage under running water.
- Next, sprinkle it with salt. The amount of salt used is a matter of taste.
- Let the cabbage brine in salt for at least an hour, it will let some of its juices.
- Squeeze it out really well.
- Place the sauerkraut in a bowl.
- Add the brined cabbage and stir to combine.
- If you have time let the mixture sit for an hour or longer.
- The mixture should taste pleasantly sour.
- Use this when the recipe calls for sauerkraut.
- Always taste sauerkraut dishes before salting. There is a good chance the dish will not need additional salt.
