green cabbage
I want to try to make a sauerkraut stew due to the huge health benefits and sauerkraut interests me. However I have serious issues trying to understand what sauerkraut really is. Here when you go to the grocery store and buy some ready sauerkraut, it seems to be labeled as 95% of "valkokaali", that doesn't seem to even exist and my google search takes me to the definition of "keräkaali" (Brassica oleracea).
What am I missing here? What type of cabbage exactly is sauerkraut made of?? I'm going insane trying to understand this detail.
OK first let's clear out some terminology. Excuse my poor knowledge of Finngolian.
>valkokaali
White cabbage?
>keräkaali
Head cabbage?
>hapankaali
Sour cabbage?
Sauerkrat is made of white cabbage. I haven't seen it made of red cabbage ever (maybe Russians do that, it sounds like a Russian thing to do). Red cabbage is head cabbage just like regular (white) cabbage. Usually here too you only say "red cabbage" but white cabbage is just "cabbage". So perhaps this is why usage of "valkokaali" confuses you there – it's not a word usually used since that's just regular cabbage – but here it is specified to disambiguate from the red variety (which I presume you'd call "punakaali", please notify me if that sounds like a word to you)
t. sauerkraut (kisuzéle) pro
Rated.
Sauerkraut is made of Weißkohl or Spitzkohl. Both are different cultivars of Brassica oleracea. I don't understand much about biology, but I think plant cultivars are something like dog breeds. Ultimately, both a pug and a German shepherd are canis lupus familiaris, but very different. In the same way, both red and white cabbage are brassica oleracea, but actually quite different.
I really like the version with red cabbage. But I don't think it is made the same way and I don't know about health benefits. It's pretty good, though. Goes very well with all sorts of meat and in Iceland they even serve it with whale.
Additional interesting info about Icelandic cuisine: They know Rotkohl quite well, but not Sauerkraut. When asked to describe the taste, I struggled, but the German teacher said it was very sour. I objected, but she explained that to Icelanders it is very sour, because they aren't used to sour foods at all, while German cuisine has plenty of sour things.
Very informative post, thank you, just what I was looking for.
>White cabbage?
Correct.
>Head cabbage?
More like "ball" or "coil" cabbage.
>Sour cabbage?
Correct.
>Sauerkrat is made of white cabbage. I haven't seen it made of red cabbage ever (maybe Russians do that, it sounds like a Russian thing to do). Red cabbage is head cabbage just like regular (white) cabbage. Usually here too you only say "red cabbage" but white cabbage is just "cabbage". So perhaps this is why usage of "valkokaali" confuses you there – it's not a word usually used since that's just regular cabbage – but here it is specified to disambiguate from the red variety (which I presume you'd call "punakaali", please notify me if that sounds like a word to you)
I think this sums it up well and I can now continue to attempt to cook my stew. Your translation "punakaali" is also the correct for red cabbage.
Thank you for additional information. I dipped my toe a little bit into the world of winegrapes and cultivated a german breed "Siegerrebe" once, they were preddy good.
How come? At what point do they use vinegar in the process? I used picture related product and its ingredients are:
- Organic white cabbage (95%)
- Organic carrot
- Sea salt.
"Made by traditional recipe of Lactic acid fermentation (maitohappokäyminen)" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactic_acid_fermentation
