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Choucroute
Sauerkraut braised in Riesling with juniper and a full parade of pork and sausages — Alsace's great feast dish, forgiving and magnificent
- Prep
- 25 min
- Cook
- 120 min
- Serves
- 6
Ingredients
- Raw sauerkraut, rinsed once, squeezed — 1.5 kg
- Duck fat or lard — 60 g
- Onion, sliced — 200 g
- Garlic — 10 g
- Riesling (dry) — 350 ml
- Chicken stock — 300 ml
- Juniper berries — 12 (5 g)
- Bay leaves — 2; cloves 2; caraway seeds 2 g
- Smoked pork loin (kassler) — 500 g
- Smoked pork belly, thick slice — 400 g
- Strasbourg sausages (or frankfurters) — 6
- Montbéliard smoked sausages — 3
- Waxy potatoes — 800 g
- Black pepper — 2 g
- Dijon and horseradish, to serve
Method
- Melt fat in a wide cocotte; sweat onion and garlic 5 min.
- Add sauerkraut, juniper, bay, cloves, caraway, pepper; turn to coat.
- Add Riesling and stock; bury the pork belly and smoked loin in the kraut.
- Cover; braise at 160 °C for 90 min.
- Add Montbéliard sausages for the last 30 min. Poach Strasbourg sausages separately at 80 °C for 10 min (they burst if boiled).
- Steam potatoes 20 min.
- Taste kraut — it should be tender, winey, barely sharp.