Choucroute Garnie a l’Alsacienne Dinner Kit and Recipe

Choucroute Garnie a l’Alsacienne Dinner Kit and Recipe

Everybody at Heritage Foods waits with bated breath for when it's seasonally appropriate to eat Choucroute Garnie a l’Alsacienne! Good news, now is the time! We are so excited to share with you a Meal Kit with the ingredients to enjoy this hyper-caloric (while still sustainable!) feast!

We're happy to see this humble dish gain newfound attention and reverence as consumers seek out more authentic, regional cuisines. With origins in the Alpine regions of Europe, this meal is built for winter and stacked high with winter ingredients including an array of cured and braised meats soaked in winter vegetables like cabbage (in the form of sauerkraut!).

Our version of Choucroute Garnie includes a recipe card, one of our favorite sauerkrauts, and 100% pastured heritage meats: 

  • Bratwurst Sausage Links, 1lb pack, handcrafted in the traditional style by the expert sausage makers at Paradise Locker Meats, this award-winning German-style pork sausage is extremely juicy and versatile.
  • Smoked Hocks, one 2-3lb pack, maple-cured, the meat on these shanks is so good they are perfect on their own!
  • Signature Bacon, 1lb, a true classic! When people think of bacon, this is it — perfect for any and all palates. Produced in a maple sugar cure, this sweet bacon is a staple and has been our top seller for over 15 years.
  • Smoked Kielbasa Links, one 12 oz pack, this traditional smoked kielbasa is flavorful with a fantastic snap. Each link ismeticulously smoked creating this perfectly balanced, delicious version of a classic Polish staple.
  • Sauerkraut, 16 oz pack, by Cleveland Kraut, this is real, raw sauerkraut fermented naturally with just salt & caraway seed — packed with traditional Bavarian flavor with a fresh crunch.

An excerpt from our friend Jeffrey Steingarten’s The Man Who Ate Everything:

“Every traditional recipe includes sauerkraut, water, j berries (for their characteristic ginny taste), onions (for their flavor and sweetness), black peppercorns, cloves, garlic, goose fat or lard, and potatoes. Chicken broth is sometimes mixed with the water, sometimes not. Bay leaves and wine are found in most recipes, fresh thyme and coriander seeds less often, butter and cooking oil never. Apples and carrots, which sweeten the chou-croute, appear only occasionally, as do cumin and caraway—they are more German than French. Cooking times vary from one to twelve hours; the stove top is heavily favored over the oven.”

“The meats found in nearly every recipe are smoked bacon, salted bacon, and smoked or salted pig’s knuckles or shanks (jar-ret jambonneau [neck]). Nearly as universal are smoked palette de pore, Strasbourg sausages, and salted loin of pork…Beef is out of the question. Every recipe includes three of four types of sausages, half of them call for quenelles of pork liver, poached at the last minute. Lesjoues (cheeks) and epaule (shoulder) are found now and then, sometimes fresh and sometimes smoked.”

"...Simmered with wine and spices and everything an Alsatian pig can contribute to a man's well-being--it's sturdy knuckles and shanks, its  dainty feet and meaty jowls, its mirthful belly and brawny shoulder--quintal d' Alsace is raised to the dizzying, almost inconceivable gastronomic summit known as choucroute garnie a l' Alsadenne."

Recipe

Cook Time: 2-3 hours. Serves: 6-8 people

Included Ingredients:

Additional Ingredients:

  • 2 cups dry white wine (Riesling preferred)
  • 2 medium onions, diced
  • 2 cloves of garlic, smashed
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2 cloves
  • 10 juniper berries
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • ½ teaspoon caraway seeds
  • Cheesecloth (for sachet of spices)
  • 1lb small potatoes (marble, fingerling, or Yukons)
  • 1-2 cups water or stock 

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Fit a baking sheet with a wire rack, then place the hocks on top. 

Roast hocks until skin is crispy and brown on all sides, about 20-30 mins.

Meanwhile, cut bacon into ¼” dice and cook in a Dutch oven over medium heat until the fat has rendered and bacon has become crispy, 8-10 minutes.

Remove the bacon, drain the fat and reserve it for later use, leaving just a tablespoon still in the pot. Heat the Dutch oven to medium-high and sear the bratwurst and kielbasa on both sides. Set aside.

Using the remaining bacon fat, sauté the onions over medium-high heat until translucent and just beginning to brown.

Deglaze the pan with 2 cups white wine, scraping the brown fond with a wooden spoon and boil wine until reduced by half.

Add the crushed garlic and spices (clove, juniper, black pepper, carraway seed, bay leaves) to a mesh spice bag or cheese cloth tied into a sachet and add to the Dutch oven.

Add the crispy hocks and bacon to the Dutch oven and cover with the stock or water. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Cook until hocks are tender, about 1-1.5 hours. During the last 30 minutes of cooking, add in the potatoes and sausage. Continue to cook until the potatoes are fork tender. 

When potatoes are tender, add in ½ of the package of sauerkraut (reserve the rest to garnish) and simmer for 3 mins. Remove the sachet and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Remove the meat, potatoes, and sauerkraut to a serving plate and enjoy with reserved fresh sauerkraut on the side. 

Shop the kit here.

 

Back to blog