Episode 18 – Choucroute Garnie à la Juive: An Alsatian Jewish Mouthful

“Alsace” – A region in northeastern France. The Rhine River (and border with Germany) runs along its east side. The region of Lorraine lies to its west, followed by Champagne.

“Juniper berry” – The fruit of a type of conifer tree in the cypress family. It is what gives the distinct flavor (and name) to gin.

“Pesach” – The Hebrew name for the Jewish holiday of Passover.

“Ulpan” – an intensive Hebrew-language course, particularly one taken by new immigrants to Israel.

Sources and links:

Choucroute vs. (shortcut) sauerkraut

A standard (non-Jewish) choucroute garnie

Me making choucroute garnie à la Juive (Henry’s recipe is reprinted below)

What is charcuterie? (hint: not everything that is arranged beautifully on a platter)

Joan Nathan, Quiches, Kugels, and Couscous: My Search for Jewish Cooking in France

Protected identity status for Alsatian choucroute

Baeckeoffe

About goose prosciutto

How American Jewish hot dogs differ from European sausages

About Jewish style borscht

A picture of Henry Lippmann and his Choucroute Recipe:

Print Recipe

Henry Lippmann's Choucroute Garnie à la Juive

Henry's recipe that he shared with me, for you...

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: French

Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 2 kg of kosher choucroute from Alsace AOP (appellation of origine) LePic brand, certified kosher by Strasbourg Beth Din
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 carrot
• 300 ml olive oil
• 50 gr goose fat
• 800 gr pickelfleisch (salted beef)
• 400 gr smoked meat
• 4 saveloy sausages
• 4 cervelas sausages with garlic
• 8 Strasbourg knacks (hot dogs)
• 1 dry sausage C 400 gr
• 4 gendarmes (kabanos)
• 8 medium potatoes
• 8 juniper berries
• 4 bay leaves
• 1 small onion, studded with cloves
• salt
• pepper
• 1 liter Alsatian lager beer or white wine (Riesling, Sylvaner,pinot blanc, during Pesach)

Instructions

• Rinse the Sauerkraut in cold water and drain it in a colander.
• Peel the carrot and slice it. Chop the onion and peel the cloves of garlic.
• Cut the smoked meat in cubes of 2 cm, and cut the dry sausage in thick slices at least 5 mm each slice.
• Peel the potatoes and steam them for 10 minutes (they don’t need to be fully cooked).
• Heat the olive oil and the goose fat in a big pot or a big pan. Add the chopped onion, the garlic, the slices of carrots, the cubes of smoked meat, and the slices of dry sausages. Continue until the onions turn light brown.
• Add the sauerkraut and stir. Let it cook until the cabbage starts to slightly caramelize and gets color.
• Add the salted beef, cut in 4 pieces. Stir again.
• Pour the beer or the white wine. Add salt, pepper, juniper berries, bay leaves, and the onion with the cloves. Simmer for an hour, checking regularly that there is always some liquid. If not, you can add some water.
• Cut each saveloy in 2 pieces lengthwise, and the gendarmes and cervelats with garlic in 2 pieces widthwise. Add them to the pot on the sauerkraut. Cook for another 1⁄2 hour.
• Add the potatoes, and let them cook and take the taste of the cabbage.
• Heat up the Strasbourg knacks in hot water.
• Present the choucroute on a preheated dish, with all the ingredients around and on top of it.
• Serve with hot mustard, and a very dry and cold Alsace wine, such as Riesling, Sylvaner, or pinot blanc.

Notes

Choucroute is a very popular dish for the Shabbess lunch meal in Alsace. You can keep it warm on your plata (hotplate) from Friday evening, and it will be even better.