What, no recipes?

Uncooked and unsalted sauerkraut may be very healthy, like ModernAngel states, but personally I don't much like the stuff in its pure state. Too sour. (Did you know, health food stores sell sauerkraut juice. Juice. *shudder*). What sauerkraut needs is to be diluted. Potatoes do a good job of this, as do greasy foods, and pork fat is the champion. Combine all of these foodstuffs, and you get something very tasty indeed! I shall give two recipes here, one a rather simple sauerkraut stamppot and the other a casserole with banana that my mother often makes in winter. The sweet banana gives a nice contrast with the sour sauerkraut and the hearty meat. If you don't like banana, you could try making it with chunks of pineapple.

For each dish, for two people you need 500-700 grams of potatoes, made into mash and 400-500 grams of sauerkraut.

For the stamppot, either mix the raw sauerkraut through the mashed potatoes (the healthier option) or boil the potatoes together with the sauerkraut until the potatoes are done and them mash them up together. To this mixture, add 100-150 grams of smoked bacon, streaky if you can get it, cut into small pieces and fried until brown. Add them to the stamppot together with the frying grease and mix everything well. Serve with pork sausages and lots of mustard.

For the casserole, take an oven proof dish and spread half of the mashed potatoes out on the bottom. Put the sauerkraut in a layer on top of this. Cut two peeled bananas into slices and put these on top of the sauerkraut. Fry 250 grams of minced meat (either beef or half beef, half pork) together with a diced onion until the meat is brown and the onion soft. Season the meat with salt and pepper. Put all of this in a layer in the oven dish. Cover with the remaining mashed potatoes and sprinkle bread crumbs over the top. Put small flakes of butter here and there (to help brown the bread crumbs) and put the casserole into a moderately hot oven until the bread crumbs are brown and crispy. When serving, make sure that each person gets a bit of every layer.