LeRoy Pennysaver & News

LE ROY PENNYSAVER & NEWS - OCTOBER 24, 2021 by Lynne Belluscio A couple of days ago, Sandy Brady called to say that they were going to drop off a large crock at LeRoy House. These large crocks were often found in the cellar of the farm house. Usually they were used for sauerkraut or pickles. (One in our family was used to preserve eggs in water glass.) Today, we don’t realize how important it was to have sauerkraut to keep families healthy, because, sauerkraut is one of the most valuable sources of vitamin C. You have to remember that during pioneer times, people did not have access to citrus fruit and even into the middle of the 1900s, citrus fruit was expensive. Sauerkraut is often thought to have originated in Germany, but in fact, its origins can be traced into China many hundreds of years ago. And folks knew that they didn’t get sick with what was to become known as scurvy, if they ate sauerkraut. Early naval explorers lost entire crews to scurvy, but the English Navy discovered if they rationed sauerkraut to the sailors - -even gave them the juice from sauerkraut, they survived months as sea. And cabbage was cheap. Today most people don’t make sauerkraut. They buy a canned variety. Up until 1985, nearby Phelps was known for their sauerkraut factories. (They still hold a huge four-day sauerkraut festival each year.) Silver Floss was processed and canned in Phelps. I can remember driving by the huge wooden cypress vats full of sauerkraut and the smell was unmistakable. The fields nearby were filled with cabbages, and in the fall, truckloads of cabbage clogged the roads on the way to the processing plants. Today there seems to be a renewed interest in making home-made sauerkraut and there are plenty of recipes on the internet. It’s made in small batches in canning jars. Salt is added and it is fermented for about two weeks. The recipes today aren’t much different from an 1838 recipe that was found in the 1838 journal “The Genesee Farmer.” It was suggested for a family of 6 or 8 people, that fifty heads of cabbage be preserved. After it was shredded, it was salted and stamped gently with a wooden rammer. (I have had a wooden rammer for a long time. Never used it, but it is now joining the crock in the basement of LeRoy House, along with a cabbage slicer.) It was important to have a wooden cover put on the top of the sliced cabbage. A heavy weight was put on top so the cabbage wouldn’t float above the juice. There are so many ways to serve sauerkraut. As a side dish, people often add apples or sometimes caraway seeds. It is frequently served with German or Polish sausage or some kind of pork. Boiled potatoes are served as well as apple sauce. Reuben sandwiches with corned beef are served with sauerkraut, but my daughter made some very good Ruben pizza. I recently heard that there is an excellent sauerkraut chocolate cake. Why? Because, you get a good serving of vitamin C with your dessert. I’ve tried looking for references toLeRoyandsauerkraut and haven’t found anything. I have found some coleslaw or cold slaw recipes. In the 1911 “Women’s Exchange Cook Book” published in 1911 by the LeRoy Gazette, there is a recipe for hot slaw. But slaw is not sauerkraut and it doesn’t have the vitamin C content. It is freshly shredded cabbage with a dressing. The hot slaw recipe calls for a dressing of 1 cup vinegar, a tablespoon of butter, a teaspoon of sugar which is boiled and then poured over the cabbage. It is seasoned with salt and pepper. “Stir an egg into a cup of milk and heat to a point just below the boiling point. Turn this over the cabbage. Serve at once.” Sauerkraut