Edible Antics - Having Fun With Food: Eating Healthy in Wisconsin with Nutritious Sauerkraut Pork Chops

So you don't like sauerkraut? Is this because you didn't eat it as a child or because you did? Have you tried it baked with apples and brown sugar? Have you had it in a seasoned wine sauce? Did you ever try it mixed with hickory-smoked bacon and served smothered over pork chops? The following recipe combines all of these delicious flavors into one dish, humbly named: Sauerkraut Pork Chops. It comes from the cookbook, Foods That Made Wisconsin Famous, by Richard J. Baumann.

1/4 pound bacon (hickory smoked recommended)
6 loin pork chops about 1 inch thick
2 pounds sauerkraut, drained and rinsed
1 jar (15 ounces) chunky applesauce (regular is OK, but chunky is preferred)
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 cup dry white wine (or champagne)
Dash pepper
1/4 teaspoon paprika

Dice bacon and saute until crisp; drain on absorbent paper. Saute pork chops separately until golden brown on both sides. Mix diced bacon, sauerkraut, applesauce, brown sugar, dry mustard, wine, and pepper. Place 1/2 of the sauerkraut mixture in bottom of shallow 9x12 -inch casserole. Place pork chops on top of mixture and cover chops with remaining sauerkraut mixture. Sprinkle with paprika. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

So you like the other ingredients in this recipe, but you're still skeptical about the sauerkraut. "Why risk mucking up the pork with sauerkraut?" you ask. "Aren't green beans a safer bet?" I do have a wonderful recipe for pork chops and green beans which someday I'll post. But that recipe is not nearly as nutritious as this one.

Nutritiondata.com gives sauerkraut a 4+ star nutrition rating. Sauerkraut is low in cholesterol and fat, and a good source of calcium, magnesium, vitamins: C, K, B6 and folate, and minerals: iron, potassium, copper and manganese. It is also an excellent source of dietary fiber. Wikipedia describes how the fermentation process of cabbage works to produce sauerkraut rich in lactobacilli. Lactobacilli are beneficial bacteria found in yogurt and are often prescribed to combat harmful bacterial infections.

Because of its nutrition and long shelf-life, sauerkraut has been a staple food of peoples in northern climates for centuries. From Germany to northern China our ancestors survived and prospered with fermented cabbage.

But beyond nutrition, let's get practical. A jar of sauerkraut is every harried cook's standby veggie.

For months, years even, it can sit in the cupboard, and in a frantic, final-hour dash to make dinner, it can be snatched out, opened up, dumped out, heated and served. There - good nutrition hits the table in an eye-blink! One speedy dinner at our house is the traditional German meal of sauerkraut and sausages. Pour the sauerkraut in a casserole dish and arrange your favorite sausages such as bratwursts (cooked, not raw), knock-wursts, and frankfurters on top, cover, and bake for about half an hour at 350 degrees.

Sauerkraut and sausage is standard fare at German restaurants. And in Wisconsin supper clubs, it's not uncommon to find that the Thursday night special is pork chops smothered in sauerkraut, proceeding Wednesday's liver and onions, preceding Friday's fish fry, and culminating in Saturday's prime rib! Sauerkraut is built-in to Wisconsin's heritage. It is a true WISCONSIN food!

But say you care little about heritage foods. You seek modern mixes of flavors. You're well-educated about food. You're proactive in fighting modern illness with robust nutrition. Well, sauerkraut is the food for you! With a cupboard well-stocked in sauerkraut you are ready for victory over avian flu! ABCNews reported that flu-infected chickens recovered when fed fermented cabbage. Feed sauerkraut to your adolescent daughters and you may reduce their risk of breast cancer by 74%.

But how will you persuade your daughter to eat it? The trick is making it tasty. The following list of foods can be mixed into sauerkraut and/or served with it to entice even the pickiest of eaters. (I know, I made sauerkraut pork chops last night and I actually witnessed a bit of cabbage enter 8-year-old Lauren's mouth!)