Strictly speaking, November’s dish started cooking at the back end of September when I cut the last of the summer cabbages before they rotted on the stalk or were eaten by the slugs or both. And what do you do with 20 pounds of white cabbage? There is, after all, a limit to the amount of coleslaw or boiled cabbage that even a glutton can eat. In many parts of Europe the answer would be so obvious the question wouldn’t be worth asking: sauerkraut in Germany, choucroute in Northern France.

Home made sauerkraut

This is what you do. Take:

10lb white or green cabbage
2tbs juniper berries
2 tsp black peppercorns
10 bay leaves
2-3oz coarse sea salt

Halve, or if large, quarter the cabbages. Cut out the cores and discard along with the outer leaves. If your cabbages are anything like ours have been this year, you will also need to wash thoroughly in cold water. You then need to shred the cabbage as finely as you are able, as if you were making coleslaw for 200. Then pack the cabbage in layers in an earthenware crock. Sprinkle each layer with salt, juniper berries and peppercorns and insert bay leaves at random. Put a plate over the top of the final layer and a heavy weight. (I use a 4lb weight sealed in a plastic bag.) Put a clean tea towel over the top of the crock and the lid.

As the cabbage ferments under the weight, it will produce a surprising amount of liquid which will cover the cabbage in no time at all. You should remove any excess liquid together with any scum that forms. Be warned, the process is quite smelly but providing you have used plenty of salt and the liquid covers the top of the sauerkraut, it will not go off. After about a month, the sauerkraut should be ready. It can either be kept in the crock or decanted into large jars. It should keep to several months in a cool place or in the fridge.

Sauerkraut and smoked sausages

Traditionally sauerkraut is cooked with smoked pork, bacon, or as in this simple dish, smoked sausages. The sausages I used came from a Polish delicatessen.

Four 4 you will need

2lb sauerkraut
1 lb onion
2 oz lard
Medium cooking apple.
Glass of dry white wine
8 smoked sausages

Rinse the sauerkraut in cold water and drain. Slice the onions and fry in the lard for a few minutes until they start to soften. A heavy, ovenproof pan in best. Peel, core and slice the apple. Add the sauerkraut and apple to the onions and fry for a few minutes. Then add the wine. Lay the sausages over the top of the sauerkraut, cover and cook at about 150 degrees C for a couple of hours. If you like you sauerkraut to be completely soft, you can cook for longer, up to 4 or five hours, adding the sausages a couple of hours from the end. Serve with boiled potatoes.

A good pub quiz question is what is the second crop of the champagne region of France. The answer, as you will have guessed, is “cabbages”. The champagne method is a means whereby winemakers transform a slightly thin, slightly acidic, dry white wine into something very special. While I sincerely hope that victorious FI drivers do not take to spraying the crowd with sauerkraut, I hope that you will agree that home made sauerkraut is also something special.

PS If anyone knows a vegetarian dish you can use sauerkraut in, please let me know.