The word “sauerkraut” unifies two German words that translate to “sour” and “vegetable”. Making the chopped and pickled delight is a favourite fall pastime for Garth Wunsch.
Wunsch will be hosting a sauerkraut-making class at the end of the month at Seasons Pharmacy and Culinaria on Lorne Street, in the West End, where he has hosted sourdough bread making classes in the past.
Now he’s back this fall to teach the art of making sauerkraut. Most people have heard of sauerkraut, but for those who don’t, the dish is cabbage fermented in salt that forms a tasty brine.
Wunsch was born in Mattawa and moved to Creighton at the age of seven. He has fond memories of sneaking forkfuls of sauerkraut from the 45-gallon barrel outside the family farm.
“The best was eating it frozen off the tip of a chisel that we would use to scrape it out of the barrel,” Wunsch said.
Wunsch’s paternal grandmother sold the sauerkraut. All those years, he watched her cook with a keen interest.
“We don’t realize how hard these farmers worked back then,” he said.
The wonderment of turning the superfood cabbage into sauerkraut was one of those recipes he mastered along the way.
In the next week he will be teaching future sauerkraut makers how to mix, smash, bruise and brine the cabbage just like the good ole days.
The course, which is already full, takes place the afternoon of Nov. 30. Students can buy the cabbage at Seasons supplied by Three Forks Farm on Manitoulin Island.
“At the clinic, we will learn how to chop it and weigh it to calculate the two-per-cent salt needed,” Wunsch said.
He expects all attendees will leave with a two-litre jar of sauerkraut to munch away at this fall and winter.
Wunsch admitted he started with trial and error, and it didn’t always go as planned.
“My first sourdough could have been a door stopper and while teaching my brother how to make his first sauerkraut, I was overzealous. We dried it out so badly that no amount of brine juices would have helped it,” he said.
In other words, everyone needs to exercise patience and come with the sharpest knife they own.
“I mean it needs to be a really, really sharp knife,” he said.
For more details on Garth’s workshop, follow this link.
Anastasia Rioux is a writer in Greater Sudbury. Let’s Eat! is made possible by our Community Leaders Program.