Vorrat aus dem Fass (the fermented reserve from the cellar, served as a side all year)
Sauerkraut with caraway and juniper — barrel sauerkraut
PreservingReconstruction🍋 🫙facile30 min active + 3 to 6 weeks fermentation
Finely shredded white cabbage, salted and packed, left to ferment for weeks until tangy and crisp, perfumed with caraway and juniper. The quintessential preservation technique of Germanic lands — alive, acidic, essential in winter.
Why this dish? In the large household of the Black Cloister that Katharina "managed efficiently," vegetables had to be preserved for the Saxon winter. Lacto-fermented cabbage in a barrel — rich in vitamin C, lasting months — accompanied the fish, bacon, and porridges of Luther's table.
The Saxon winter is long and the Devil loves empty bellies: that is why we pack the cabbage into the barrel in autumn, with salt and caraway, and let time do its quiet work. Patience! What God transforms in silence is worth more than what man rushes. When January comes, this sour cabbage awakens the mouth and keeps the body upright — serve it with bacon or fish, and you will bless the foresight of your housewife.
Ingredients
- •White cabbage — several heads (base to ferment)
- •Salt — a good measure (brine, preservation)
- •Caraway (Kümmel) — a handful (signature spice)
- •Juniper berries — a handful (flavor and antiseptic)
How it was made : Lacto-fermentation of cabbage is ancient and central to Germanic and Slavic cultures: packed with salt in wooden barrels, cabbage kept all winter and provided vitamin C, preventing scurvy. Without understanding microbiology, people empirically mastered brine, packing, and submersion. Local caraway and juniper flavored and sanitized.