What do you think should go with that? I was going to roast up some potatoes in salt and olive oil, because, well, roasted potatoes with salt and olive oil, but I’m wondering if anything else really needs to go into that pot besides the pork, the sauerkraut, and maybe some salt and pepper. An apple or two, maybe? – I’m not really familiar with sauerkraut, you understand. So I don’t have a feel for how to just throw this together and make it all taste good anyway.
12 thoughts on “So, I’m doing a slow-cooked pork pot roast with sauerkraut tomorrow.”
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What, no carrots and/or onions? Yankee-nation is a strange place indeed.
Oh, yeah, definitely the carrots or onions – and the potatoes, except that I’m going to roast them this time – normally. But the sauerkraut is unknown territory for me. Not really a part of the cooking background, growing up: I don’t know what it reacts with.
For something with such a strong flavor it tends not to affect other veggies too much. But it does flavor meat cooked with it to a certain extent. The acid in the sauerkraut does tenderize the meat so the meat absorbs some of the taste. That’s why I like slow cooked sauerkraut and pork ribs it tenderizes the meat so it literally falls off the bones. So carrots, potatoes, radishes, onions, and celery will all retain their basic flavor. Not sure about apples or other fruits but I would expect them to follow the same pattern.
I would add chunks of a tart cooking apple, and add some brown sugar to the mix with the acid of the sauerkraut and slow cooking you will get a nice sweet edge to the caramelization of everything. Throw in some dried fruit if you have some: prunes, apricots, cherries, all go with pork and flavor the mix.
We normally just toss the potatoes in with the sauerkraut, sometimes with carrots. Since you’re slow cooking it I wouldn’t recommend potato dumplings. You could toss some celery and radishes in if you want to get fancy. And then there’s always bacon cook it first and pour off the grease then add the bacon as flavoring.
We normally slow cook pork roast with apples without the sauerkraut.
Gotta concur with BG here. Potatoes onions and carrots; I’d also put in celery. And cook the kraut separately.
Apple would definitely work, as would greens.
I’ve had really good luck with garlic and mustard as flavor complements to both sauerkraut and pork, although neither one can really stand up to long slow cooking. You might try taking another chopped onion, frying it with the garlic and mustard, and then tossing it into the slow cooker alongside the pork for the last 20-30 minutes.
Definitely roast the potatoes separately.
Yes to apples. It sweetens up the dish.
So, general consensus is: cook the sauerkraut separately, fancy it up a bit, add the apples to the pork?
Sounded like “meat + sauerkraut” “veggies separate”, which .. is about how I do crock pot “yankee pot roast”. (Mrs. Cat does not like her roast beef gravy tasting of carrots)
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Cook up some bacon, sear the beef in the bacon grease, put in crock pot – pour bacon grease over the top and throw in any bacon you haven’t managed to eat yet. Season (salt, pepper, hint of garlic, maybe a small diced onion) and then let crock for 6-8 hours.
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Slip into the kitchen about an hour before its’ done and fill a baking dish with sliced carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnips, parsnips, rutabagas, and other root veggies, glaze with spoonfuls of drippings from the crock pot, roast uncovered at 350 for an hour.
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Suppertime!
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Mew
Don’t listen to them; stick with the roasted potatoes. Add some carrots; I never knew how good roasted carrots are until recently.
Put sliced onion and apple in the pot. Also, wave some caraway seeds in the general direction of the pot… from a great distance.
First of all, drain the sauerkraut and squeeze it dry. Reconstitute it with a cup of white wine (drink the rest of the bottle). Think spices: fennel or caraway and mustard seeds, thyme, a bit of garlic, a bay leaf, grate a carrot for color, absolutely a few apples (granny smiths and a hard red– not red delicious– that’s a fake apple) with skin on and in chunks.
You’ll want to splash a few tablespoons of apple cider vinegar into the pot as well. Put a finely chopped onion in the pot– roast the rest of them.
If you have time, put the pork in a 425 oven with some salt (sauerkraut has a ton already), pepper, and a heaping tablespoon of brown sugar as a rub. Brown for color and flavor and then drop in the crock pot. You’re not cooking the pork, just color and flavor.
Towards the end of the cooking, about an hour before serving, stir in about half a cup of barley. It’ll soak up the extra liquid and give it a solid earthy flavor.
I make a this dish every fall (several times) and it gets rave reviews. I got the recipe from a Polish grandmother of a friend.