Sauerkraut

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  Sauerkraut is finely cut raw white cabbage that lactic acid bacteria have fermented into something sour, with a remarkably long shelf life. Captain James Cook trusted it enough to take it on his first and second Pacific voyages, hoping it would prevent scurvy. Soured cabbage on an explorer's ship raises some odd questions. Who first packed shredded cabbage in salt, and was it really a German idea? What goes on among the microbes while it cures? And how did the name of a plain food become tangled up with an insult?

  673

• 2. Roman Roots

  ›

  Cato, in his work De agri cultura, and Columella, in De re Rustica, both wrote about preserving cabbages and turnips with salt. Their pages show that fermented foods already had a long history in many cultures. Plinius the Elder, writing in the first century AD, is reputed to have been the first writer to describe making sauerkraut, according to Wilhelm Holzapfel and his colleagues. He wrote of what the Romans called salt cabbage, kept in earthen vessels.

  Popular folklore has long credited the Golden Horde with bringing sauerkraut to Europe along the trade networks it formed across Eurasia. Mack and Surina, writing in 2005, found no evidence for that theory. They found no sign that fermented cabbage arrived from an East Asian source either. What they did find was evidence of sauerkraut production in Europe dating back to the early period of the Western Roman Empire.

  Some claim that suan cai, a fermented cabbage from China, was already being made when the Great Wall was built. The Romans pickled forms of cabbage too, and they are the more likely source of modern European sauerkraut. Mack and Surina add that the Slavic peoples of Europe probably discovered fermented cabbage on their own. Whoever started it, the real work was done by bacteria, and a 2004 study showed their story is more tangled than anyone had assumed.

  458944

• 3. Three Waves of Bacteria

  ›

  Shredded cabbage, layers of salt and time are the whole method. This is lactic acid fermentation, the same kind of pickling behind traditional pickled cucumbers that have not been heat-treated, and behind kimchi. Nobody has to add the bacteria. Lactobacilli are airborne, and they culture on the raw cabbage leaves where they grow.

  The fermentation moves through three phases, sometimes collectively called population dynamics. In the first phase, anaerobic bacteria such as Klebsiella and Enterobacter lead, and they begin producing an acidic environment that favors the bacteria to come. The second phase starts once acid levels climb too high for many bacteria. Then Leuconostoc mesenteroides and other Leuconostoc species take dominance. In the third phase, various Lactobacillus species, including L. brevis and L. plantarum, ferment any remaining sugars and lower the pH further.

  Yeasts are present as well. If the fermentation temperature runs too high, they may yield a soft sauerkraut with poor flavor.

  A 2004 genomic study found an unexpectedly large diversity of lactic acid bacteria in sauerkraut. It concluded that earlier studies had oversimplified the picture. Weissella turned out to be a major organism in the initial heterofermentative stage, which lasts up to day 7. Lactobacillus brevis and Pediococcus pentosaceus also had smaller populations in the first 14 days than previous studies had reported.

  The Dutch sauerkraut industry made a useful discovery about shortcuts. Combining a new batch with an old batch produced an exceedingly sour product. This practice is known as backslopping or inoculum enrichment, the same idea as in sourdough. It bypasses the first and second stages, which matter for developing flavor. The cause is mainly the greater initial activity of L. plantarum.

  Properly cured sauerkraut is acidic enough that Clostridium botulinum, whose toxins cause botulism, finds no favorable environment in it. Fully cured, it keeps for several months in an airtight container stored at 15 °C (60 °F) or below. In temperate climates, that covers the whole winter and early spring. Neither refrigeration nor pasteurization is required, although both prolong storage life. Cured this way, a batch outlasts the season, and the word that names it has traveled and changed far more than the cabbage.

  1617151

• 4. A Contested Name

  ›

  The English word sauerkraut is borrowed from German, where it means sour cabbage. The dish itself did not originate in Germany. Other languages describe it in similar terms.

  In the Netherlands it is known as zuurkool, and in France the name became choucroute. Across Slavic and other Central and Eastern European languages, the names mean fermented cabbage, much like the German. Czech has kysané zelí, Polish has kapusta kiszona, Ukrainian has kvashena kapusta, and Romanian has varză murată.

  The word Kraut, derived from this food, became a derogatory term for the German people. During World War I, American sauerkraut makers worried that the public would reject a product with a German name. They relabeled it liberty cabbage for the duration of the war. A food sold under a patriotic alias still faced a plainer question from shoppers, which was whether it did them any good.

  1413223

• 5. Health Claims

  ›

  Before frozen foods, refrigeration and cheap transport from warmer areas, winter in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe offered few fresh sources of vitamin C. Sauerkraut, like other preserved foods, supplied certain nutrients through those months.

  Many health benefits are claimed for it today. It is a high source of vitamin K and, if uncooked, vitamin C. Fermentation increases the bioavailability of nutrients, which is said to make sauerkraut even more nutritious than the original cabbage. It is also low in food energy and high in calcium and magnesium. It is a very good source of dietary fiber, folate, iron, potassium, copper and manganese.

  Unpasteurized, uncooked sauerkraut also holds live lactobacilli and other beneficial microbes, and it is rich in enzymes. Fiber and probiotics are said to improve digestion and promote healthy bowel flora, protecting against many diseases of the digestive tract.

  During the American Civil War, the physician John Jay Terrell (1829-1922) was able to reduce the death rate from disease among prisoners of war. He attributed this to feeding his patients raw sauerkraut.

  Sauerkraut and its juice are a time-honored folk remedy for canker sores. The treatment is to rinse the mouth with the juice for about 30 seconds several times a day. Another version places a wad of sauerkraut against the sore for a minute or so before chewing and swallowing it.

  In 2002, the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry reported on Finnish research. The isothiocyanates produced during sauerkraut fermentation inhibited the growth of cancer cells in test tube and animal studies. A Polish study in 2010 pointed to detoxifying enzymes. Cabbage juices, particularly sauerkraut, induce them, and that may explain protective activity seen in population studies and animal models.

  There is a downside. Eating a great deal of sauerkraut may cause bloating and flatulence, because of a trisaccharide called raffinose that the human small intestine cannot break down. This does not harm long-term health, though it can be uncomfortable. Sauerkraut also has a very high sodium level. Luck is part of its reputation as well, since Romani people consider it a lucky food.

  3536343345

• 6. Eastern Kitchens

  ›

  In Armenian, Belarusian, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Czech, Slovak, Polish, Russian and Ukrainian cuisine, chopped cabbage is often pickled together with shredded carrots. Cooks may add caraway seeds, or whole or quartered apples for extra flavor. Cranberry adds flavor and helps the cabbage keep, because the benzoic acid in cranberries is a common preservative. Bell peppers and beets are added in some recipes for color. The result is a sauerkraut salad, typically served cold as zakuski or a side dish.

  A very mild homemade version exists too. White cabbage is pickled with salt in a refrigerator for only three to seven days, producing very little lactic acid. In Russia, cooks sometimes ferment twice. The first step yields an exceptionally sour product, which is then corrected by adding 30-50% more fresh cabbage and fermenting the mix again. Flavor additives such as apples, beets, cranberries and sometimes even watermelons usually go in at this second step.

  Sauerkraut also works as a filling for Polish pierogi, Ukrainian varenyky, and Russian pirogi and pirozhki. It is the central ingredient in traditional soups, including shchi, a national dish of Russia. Poland has kwaśnica, Slovakia has kapustnica, Ukraine has kapusniak, and the Czech Republic and Moravia have zelňačka. It also goes into the Polish hunter's stew called bigos.

  In Bulgaria, Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, North Macedonia and Slovenia, the usual practice is to pickle whole cabbage heads. They can become a simple salad of shredded cabbage seasoned with paprika or black pepper, or cabbage rolls such as sarma or arambaši. Bulgarian cooks make pork with sauerkraut, a banitsa filled with sauerkraut, and beans with sauerkraut. They also make kapama, a clay pot of sausage and meat with cabbage rolls and sauerkraut.

  In the northern parts of Serbia and Croatia, sauerkraut is often added to bean soup. In central Serbia, a local specialty called wedding cabbage is made by slowly stewing roughly cut cabbage with at least three kinds of meat: lean, fatty and smoked.

  Szeklerland uses sauerkraut as an essential part of székelygulyás and of erdélyi rakott káposzta, a type of casserole. In Romania, whole pickled heads called varza murata wrap the national dish sarmale. This roll of pickled cabbage leaves with minced pork and rice is Turkish-inspired, yet it has its own personality and tastes very different from its Ottoman predecessor.

  512192023

• 7. Western Tables

  ›

  In Germany and Austria, cooked sauerkraut is often flavored with juniper berries or caraway seeds, and popular variations add apples and white wine. South Tyrol makes its version with juniper berries, extra-virgin olive oil and smoked pancetta. Traditionally it is served warm with pork, such as eisbein, schweinshaxe or Kassler. Sausages are another partner, whether smoked or fried, Frankfurter Würstchen, Vienna sausages or black pudding. Roasted or steamed potatoes, or dumplings such as knödel or schupfnudel, usually share the plate.

  The Czech national dish vepřo knedlo zelo puts roast pork together with knedlíky and sauerkraut. Similar recipes are common in other Central European cuisines.

  In Alsace, France, sauerkraut is the main ingredient of choucroute garnie, which means dressed sauerkraut. It comes with sausages such as Strasbourg sausages and smoked Morteau or Montbéliard sausages, plus charcuterie like bacon and ham. Potatoes often join them.

  In Chile, the dish is called chucrut. It is a common topping for sandwiches and hotdogs, especially for completos.

  Pennsylvania has a New Year's Day tradition of eating sauerkraut with pork. The Pennsylvania Dutch started it, and it is thought to bring good luck for the coming year. Elsewhere in American cuisine, sauerkraut serves as a condiment on sandwiches and hot dogs. In Maryland, particularly in Baltimore and on the Eastern Shore, it is a traditional accompaniment for the Thanksgiving turkey.

  As Europeans, especially Germans, emigrated to other countries, many of them kept making and eating sauerkraut around the world. It is also popular among Ashkenazi Jews. Sauerkraut is far from the only vegetable treated this way, as many others are preserved by a similar fermentation process.

  2124262228

• 8. Fermented Cousins

  ›

  India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan share achaar, while the Philippines has atsara. In Friuli, in northern Italy, the equivalent is brovada. Korea is famous for kimchi, and Japan has tsukemono.

  El Salvador makes curtido, and Central America more broadly has encurtido. The Caribbean has kabichima. Dill pickles are the version found in eastern and central Europe, and kiseli kupus is the name used in Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia and Bulgaria.

  The most unexpected relative on the list is silage, a fermented feed that goes to cattle rather than to people.

  21175152