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Local Food Journey

Six tips for a perfect New Year’s Day pork and sauerkraut dinner.

Posted by Jamie Oberdick on 12/30 at 09:49 AM

Eating pork and sauerkraut for good luck on New Year’s Day is a Pennsylvania tradition based on a few rather rural observations. First, you have pork because pigs root forward, while chickens and turkeys scratch backwards. Therefore, the folk logic goes, eating pork equals progress in the next year.

Then there’s the sauerkraut, which symbolizes prosperity. This is because sauerkraut apparently swells as it ferments.

Whatever the reasons for eating it, pork and sauerkraut is an excellent, hearty meal for a mid-winter day. Here are six tips to help you make the best pork and sauerkraut possible:

- If you had a bit too much fun on New Year’s Eve and your energy level isn’t up to making a big meal, you can do pork and sauerkraut via crockpot. There are plenty of recipes out there for crock pot pork and sauerkraut that are simple to make with minimal effort.

- Bone-in pork roasts or chops have more flavor than boneless.

- Don’t trim all the fat from the pork before cooking, so it won’t dry out.

- To rinse or not to rinse, that is the question with sauerkraut. A good general rule of thumb is it’s a good idea to lightly rinse commercially produced sauerkraut, but do not rinse locally made or homemade sauerkraut. The reason for rinsing is to remove the brine, not just for the salt, but for the vinegar. Homemade and locally made sauerkraut brine tends to be tastier.

- Try putting a cored apple, cut in half, under all your ingredients when making pork and sauerkraut. It adds a nice flavor. Also, a classic flavor addition is caraway seeds, but be sure to follow the exact amount in the recipe so you don’t overwhelm the other flavors with the strong flavor of caraway.

- If you are making the pork separate from the sauerkraut and doing a roast, be sure to let the roast sit for at least five minutes. You will have a juicier roast.