The Joy of Pickling by Linda Ziedrich

Author:Linda Ziedrich
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harvard Common Press
Published: 2016-08-20T16:00:00+00:00

Sauerkraut in History

It’s no accident that we use a German name for fermented shredded cabbage; although sauerkraut has been popular throughout most of Europe and North America, Germans have long loved it the most. According to Mark Kurlansky (Salt: A World History, 2002), by the sixteenth century tradespeople in Alsace called Surkrutschneider were slicing cabbage and salting it in barrels with such seasonings as anise seeds, bay leaves, elderberries, fennel, horseradish, savory, cloves, and cumin.

By the seventeenth century, the Dutch were making and eating a lot of sauerkraut, too, and this may partially explain their maritime dominance during that era. Because of its high vitamin C content, raw sauerkraut can prevent scurvy. The many barrels of sauerkraut, or zuurkool, on Dutch ships helped them withstand long sea voyages better than other sailors.

When a doctor informed the British admiralty in 1753 that sauerkraut could prevent scurvy, the navy set up special stores in British ports to provision naval vessels with sauerkraut. Captain James Cook had it served to his crew at each meal, and in 1776 he was awarded a medal for demonstrating that the antiscorbutic really worked.

While remaining a staple food in eastern Europe, sauerkraut lost popularity in the United States and western Europe through the latter part of the twentieth century. Americans ate only 1.1 pounds per person in 2003, less than half the amount we consumed in 1970.

Reliable recent figures for sauerkraut consumption are hard to find. It seems, however, that kraut is making a comeback in the United States—while at the same time more and more Germans are shunning the stuff. At this point we may be eating more krauts than the so-called Krauts.

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