Pork & Sauerkraut: It's Traditional

Photo credit:  A Spoonful of Thyme

Around these parts (eastern Pennsylvania) the menu of choice for New Year’s Day is pork and sauerkraut.  It is said that to have the combination on January 1^st is good luck.  Where did that come from?  To find out, I consulted foodtimeline.org.  (Did you know that apple butter first came on the scene in 1765?)  According to the site, the tradition of ham or pork on the first day of the year originated in Germany, Austria, and Sweden.  In these areas, wild boar were caught in the forest and killed on New Year’s Day.  Some conjecture that the pig represents plumpness and getting plenty to eat; a sign of prosperity of sorts.  Others say that since the pig digs with its snout in a forward direction, it’s a way of looking forward as we move into a new year.  Okay…

Another site mentioned that you would never want to eat fowl on New Year’s Day, as birds scratch to find their food.  No one wants to have to scratch to make a living, right?  Sure, I’d rather root for it with my nose!  C’mon!

I’m thinking that pork and sauerkraut were all they had.  The kids turned up their noses, so the parents made this thing up about eating it bringing good luck.

It’s like when I didn’t want to eat the crusts from my breakfast toast and my grandmother would say, “If you don’t eat those, you won’t get curly hair.”

“Why would I want curly hair?” I would ask.

Although it must be true.  I never ate the crusts, and I've never had curly hair.

She also resorted to the “children starving in Africa” ploy.  That didn’t work either.  “Get me an envelope,” I’d reply.

My grandmother had a lot of superstitious behaviors.  There were the traditional ones, like opening an umbrella inside, walking under a ladder, or knocking on wood.  (If there was no wood around, she would rap on her forehead.)    Then there were ones I had never heard of; like always leaving a house using the same door by which you entered.  If your nose was itchy, it meant you were going to be kissed.  (Not something that any respectable 8-year-old boy wanted to hear.)  If you dropped silverware it meant company was coming.  I mean, really.  If you were carrying a bunch of silverware, it was easier to drop, and you were probably carrying that much because company was coming.

Once, we used her superstitions against her…kind of.  A common grandmother gift was scented candles.  She had five grandchildren and tons of candles, and she never burned them.  As she had come through the Great Depression and was a Latshaw, she saved things.  I’ll tell you about her used gift-wrap collection some time.  Waste not, want not!  We finally told her that it was bad luck to have unburned candles in your house.  We based this on nothing, totally making it up.  The next time we visited Grandmom it looked like a wake.  There were burning candles everywhere!  Of course all of the electric lights were off.  Waste not, want not!  You could barely make her out, except for the candle flame reflections in her glasses, and her dentures smiling in the darkness.  She was smiling because she was saving on her electric bill.

Whatever the superstition, I prefer to say that it’s our tradition to have pork and sauerkraut on January 1^st.  I love it, especially served with mashed potatoes.  My recipe follows.  Forgive the lack of pictures, but after all, I haven’t made it yet.  (That would be bad luck!)

PORK & SAUERKRAUT

Ingredients:

1 pork roast, 4-5 lbs. (I usually buy boneless, but bone-in is fine.)

2 cans (27 oz.) sauerkraut

1 cup apple cider

2-3 tart apples, grated

¼ cup brown sugar

½ teaspoon Caraway seeds

Kosher salt

Ground black pepper

Directions:

I use a covered roasting pan as well as the maxim “slow and low” to make roast pork.  If you have the time to roast for 3-4 hours, pre-heat the oven to 275°.  If you want to cut the time a little, use 325°.

Rinse the sauerkraut using a colander and cold water.  Some people like the strong, tart flavor of the juices, but most do not.  (I think that it might put hair on your chest…or at least remove varnish!)

Place the pork roast in the center of the roasting pan.  If your roast does not have the fat trimmed, position it fat-side-up.  Next, arrange the rinsed sauerkraut around the roast.  Sprinkle the top of the roast with Kosher salt and black pepper. 

In a medium bowl, combine the cider, (you can also just use water), and brown sugar and stir until the brown sugar dissolves.  Pour this over the sauerkraut.  Finally, add the caraway seeds and grated apples on top of the sauerkraut.

Start roasting with the lid on, periodically checking to make sure the pan doesn’t go dry.  If it does, add a little more cider or water.  You can also stir the sauerkraut once or twice during roasting.  If you’d like the roast more browned, remove the lid for the last half hour.  Your target internal temperature for well-done pork is 170°.  If the roast reaches 170° well in advance of your serving time, cut the oven temperature back to 200°-250°, and the roast will just get more and more tender.

It’s tough to make gravy from the kraut-flavored pan juices, so I usually use store-bought (gasp!) pork gravy for the mashed potatoes on New Year’s Day.  Sorry about that…but don’t get your snout out of joint!  Happy New Year!

(If you’d like a devotional to use on New Year’s Eve, ParkerFord Church Pastor Josh Bytwerk authored one.  Click here to download it.)

'Twas the Night Before the Night Before...Cranberry Relish

It’s the night before the night before.  The stockings aren’t hung by the chimney with care, but I really was hoping that Saint Nicholas would have been “there” to help with the potato filling tonight.  I never complain about cooking, but my legs are heavy this evening.  It must be all of that other bustle that goes along with Christmas.  There were more than a few last minute items to take care of today.

If you’ve read the potato filling post, you know that making it is a multi-step process.  So, I had pots and pans lined up all across my kitchen counter.  In addition, I made a “mega batch” of tomato soup for those who have to stay  at church between Christmas Eve services.  To make the white sauce faster I decided to divide the roux and milk mixture between two saucepans.  Not a creature was stirring?  Oh, I was stirring all right!  It worked, but was really a dumb idea.

In the interest of keeping it simple, I’m offering a recipe for a simple side dish…a relish.  It’s so easy to make, the ingredients are simple, and you get to use a tool!  It’s “There’s a Dad in the Kitchen” at its finest!

Cranberry Relish has graced our Thanksgiving and Christmas tables since I can remember.  No one remembers where the recipe came from, but my mother thinks it may have been Virginia High.  It’s different than most cranberries you’ve had in the past, and certainly an improvement on the jiggly blob that comes out of the can.   Plus, you don’t have to cook it!

At the end of this post, I’m also "serving" this year’s Christmas meditation.  Each year, for more years than I can count, I’ve written a Christmas devotional.  I’ve often given it at the Christmas Eve service at Parker Ford Church, but always share it with friends and family, enclosing it in Christmas cards.  This year’s meditation is entitled, “Ready and Waiting,” and appears below.

You have my best wishes for a joyous holiday, filled with the true meaning of the season.  I’m praying that you’ll be able to push aside all of the extraneous stuff that truly has nothing to do with Christmas, so that the miracle of Christ’s birth would become real to you.  Merry Christmas!

CRANBERRY RELISH

Ingredients:

1 lb. bag of fresh cranberries, rinsed

1 navel orange

¼ to ½ cup sugar

Directions:

To do this right, you’re going to need an old-fashioned meat grinder.  They’re the heavy kitchen tools that your grandmother fastened to her countertop and would crank to operate.  I have to fasten mine on a cutting board, as the bracket would ruin my kitchen countertops.  It helps to position a damp towel or dish cloth under the cutting board to keep it from sliding around.

After rinsing the cranberries, cull out any that are questionable.  The old rule of thumb, if it doesn’t bounce, it’s not good, works!  Prep the orange in advance, too.  Cut off just the very ends, and quarter the orange.  Cut each of those wedges in half across the wedge.  You’re ready to start grinding.

I usually grind the cranberries first.  Position a medium bowl under the “output” end of the meat grinder to catch the ground cranberries.  

Next, grind the orange pieces, skin and all.  You’ve heard of zest?  This relish has a boatload of zest!

After grinding, add about ¼ cup of sugar and stir.  You’re probably going to add another 3-4 Tablespoons of sugar, but a half cup usually makes the cranberry relish too sweet.

Refrigerate until you’re ready to serve.  It’s best to make this at least 24 hours in advance.  Stir it several times and taste test to see if you need to add more sugar.  As it marinates the relish will turn a dark red, (cranberry red, of course!)  This is a great accompaniment to turkey, but also goes well with chicken and other fowl dishes.

2011 Christmas Meditation:  “Ready and Waiting”

When you stop and think about it, Jesus’ birth went largely unnoticed.  His place of birth was totally obscure.  Not only was Bethlehem a hick town, but having a child in a cave filled with animals made his birth even less of an event.  Sure, there were the shepherds who “came with haste,” but it was only a handful.  Shepherds, after all, were seldom viewed as model citizens.  They were held in low regard.  They couldn’t leave their flocks to observe the Sabbath.  Even if they could have, it wouldn’t have mattered any way.  Because of their living conditions, they were regarded as “unclean,” unable to take part in religious ceremonies.  People probably heard the rumors about what they had seen on their hillside outside of Bethlehem, but most would have dismissed this without a second thought.  And the wise men didn’t arrive for another year or two.  Scripture tells us that Jesus’ family was living in a house by then.

It was no surprise that after about six weeks, when the time came for Joseph and Mary and the baby to go to Jerusalem for the required ceremonies, they were able to do so without drawing any attention.  They went to the temple for the required purification of Mary as the mother of a newborn baby.  The young family didn’t have the means for the preferred burnt offering of a lamb, so they took advantage of the allowance the law provided, offering two pigeons instead; one for the burnt offering and one for the sin offering.  As further prescribed by the law they took the required contribution of five shekels for the temple treasury.  This was for the redemption of the first-born.  All first-born males belonged to God.  In essence, the five shekels enabled them to buy their son back from God.  Isn’t it interesting that while they had to redeem their son, Jesus himself would become the redemption of not only the nation of Israel, but of all of mankind?

It would appear that the long-awaited Messiah had arrived largely unnoticed.  He, whose coming had been prophesied hundreds of years before, came in largely under the radar.  No one was ready and waiting…with the exception of two senior citizens.

Anna had been a widow for almost 60 of her 84 years.  She lived in the temple.  We read that she spent all of her time worshipping, fasting, and praying.  Night and day, she devoted herself to seeking God.

Simeon, was probably old as well. He, too, was no stranger to the temple.  Simeon was a godly man who was righteous and devout.  He was also acquainted with the Holy Spirit, and it was God’s Spirit who had revealed to him that he would not see death until he saw the Messiah.  What an incredible promise!

Moved by the same Spirit who had given him this blessed assurance, Simeon entered the temple courts.  It was there he came face-to-face with his Redeemer.

“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace.  For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: 
a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.”

“…in the sight of all nations…”  Isn’t it curious that everyone missed it; everyone, with the exception of a handful of shepherds and two old people?  Even those milling about the temple precincts were blind to what was going on.  Anna affirmed what Simeon had said, and she spoke to anyone who would listen…especially those who, like herself, were expectantly watching and waiting.

Almost everyone missed it; even those who were looking forward to Israel’s redemption.

It makes you wonder:  Why did God choose to come to earth in this way?  To the world, it wasn’t memorable.  It wasn’t impressive.  And yet, it fulfilled the prophecies of so many scriptures.

The people had what they needed in order to be prepared to receive the Messiah.  The prophecies were widely known and discussed.  Not only did the Scriptures inform them, but God’s Spirit was at work.  The Spirit’s full power would not be released until the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry, but for Simeon and Anna its work was effective.

We can’t be too hard on those in Jesus’ day who missed his coming.  We have everything that we need in order to find him, too…in fact more than they had.  And yet, how many times do we miss him?  It’s not just a casual, distracted slight.  Often, we are oblivious…inebriated by our cares and concerns, our wants and our desires, we miss him totally and completely.

Above all, we have to be ready for God to surprise us.  He doesn’t color inside the lines.  He doesn’t have to play by the “rules.”  He makes the rules.

Think about it.  Jesus was always catching people by surprise.  It wasn’t only his birth that caught people unaware.  His life, his teachings, and his ministry were shocking.  He said things that upended what had been thought to be rock-solid foundations.  He challenged the status quo, while at the same time fulfilling prophecy and revealing the true mind of God.  “You have heard it said…but I tell you…” 

What he said didn’t bring relief.  On the contrary, it raised the bar.  He made it clear that God has a standard for us to live up to, and that standard is perfection.  Good deeds and effort will never be enough.  The need for a Savior, the necessity of a Redeemer, cannot be argued.

And then he surprised us again.  He laid down his life as the ultimate sacrifice.  His blood, his perfect blood, shed to once and for all blot out our sins, enabling all who accept him and believe to become the perfect beings God demands.

There was still one surprise.  He rose from the dead to prove that death has been conquered, and that while we will continue to fight the battles of living in this world, the war has been won and the victory is assured.

The question this Christmas is:  Are you ready and waiting to receive Jesus, this little baby who showed the world that he was just full of surprises?

Family Recipe from the Vault: Log Cabin Cookies

There is hardly a month that goes by that someone doesn’t reminisce about the bakery to me.  It’s hard to believe that Latshaw’s Bakery has been closed for more than 35 years.  It was started by my great-grandfather Hosea in 1882 and my dad was the third generation baker.

Latshaw's Bakery, circa 1965
The 1961 Chevy station wagon in which I learned
to drive is in the driveway.

Everyone who misses the bakery usually misses a particular item that was sold there.  For some it is the cinnamon buns.  Others miss the cream puffs and éclairs.  For many it’s the pound cake.  However, more than any other single item, people mention a craving for the Log Cabin Cookies.

Log Cabins were serious cookies.  They were huge; 3½” to 4” in diameter.  Log Cabins were thick, not too sweet, and really a little dry, but I think that was why people liked them.  They were great for dunking.  Coffee, tea, or milk…it didn’t matter.  And when dunked, they didn’t fall apart.

We have the original Log Cabin recipe.  We’ve had it for years.  It’s been published in countless church cookbooks and it’s always passed along to anyone who asks for it.  However, I’ve never heard of anyone actually making the cookies.  It probably has to do with the fact that the recipe calls for 3 lbs. of sugar and 6 lbs. of flour.  (That’s pounds not cups!)  In fact, the recipe that we’ve distributed has a disclaimer at the bottom:  “We have no idea how many this makes!”

Here are the ingredients from the original recipe:

3 lbs. sugar

1-1/2 lbs. shortening

10 eggs

5 yolks

1 qt. milk

4 oz. baking soda

6 lbs. flour

Cinnamon

Cloves with spices & lemon flavor

This year, I set about converting the recipe from mostly weight measurements to cups or teaspoons.  Obviously, I knew it would also be necessary to reduce the recipe down to a manageable size.  Most home bakers don’t have floor mixers with the same gear box that Mack Trucks use.  (It’s true.  The bakery’s mixer had a Mack transmission…just no reverse!)

I knew I was on a difficult mission.  Recipes for baking are not always easily decreased successfully…or increased successfully, for that matter.  My first step was to find an online conversion website.  I found a great one!  Not only does it convert weights and measures, it also converts just about anything else you can think of…clothing sizes, currency, even astronomical units.  The site is  www.onlineconversion.com.  (Of course.)

I converted everything to cups or teaspoons.  Then I divided by 10.  The resulting quantities of the ingredients didn’t seem like enough, so I decided to divide by 8. Did you know that there are 27.4 cups in 6 lbs. of flour?  Divide by 8 and get 3.425.  I rounded to 3½ cups.  What’s another .075 cup of flour?  Here is my converted recipe.

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

6 Tablespoons shortening

2 eggs

¼ cup milk

3½ teaspoons baking soda

3½ cups flour

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¹/₈ teaspoon ground cloves

½ teaspoon lemon extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°.

Cream the sugar and shortening.  Next add the eggs, milk, spices, and lemon extract, blending until relatively smooth.  Add the baking soda and mix for about a minute.  Finally add the flour gradually.

I’m glad I didn’t divide the original recipe by four.  It probably would have burned out my Kitchen Aid mixer.  The dough produced by this recipe is very thick and the mixer was “groaning” when the final ½ cup of flour was added.  As long as you’ve added the flour gradually, it doesn’t need to knead for very long!

I honestly do not remember Dad adding any spices or flavoring to his Log Cabins and the quantities are not specified in the original recipe.  So, I made the first attempt without any just to see what the base taste would be.  The first batch smelled like Log Cabins while they were baking, looked like Log Cabins when they came out of the oven, and had the texture and consistency of Log Cabins.  But the taste was “off” just slightly.  They were pretty bland.  For the second batch, I added ½ teaspoon of ground cinnamon, 1/8 teaspoon of ground cloves, and about a ½ teaspoon of lemon extract.  The spices brought the taste right back to the way I remember.  When I make the next batch, I'm going to try to kick up the cinnamon a little and ease back on the ground cloves.

The cookie dough is pretty sticky.  Coat your countertop or cutting board with a light dusting of flour.  Take cookie dough, about the size of a golf ball, and pat it onto your floured surface.  Shape it into a disk about 2½” in diameter and about 3/8” thick.  Don’t use too much flour; just enough to keep it from sticking to the surface and your fingers.  It also helps to keep the dough cold.  I kind of remember Dad rolling the dough out and using a round cookie cutter to make the Log Cabins, but I’m not certain about that.  Mine got better as I perfected my shaping technique.

I remember a full sheet pan filled with granulated sugar at the bakery that was used almost exclusively for coating the tops of the Log Cabin cookies.  After dipping in sugar, the unbaked cookies were placed on large sheet pans lined with parchment paper.  That helped them to bake evenly and the cookies never stuck to pans lined with parchment.

After the cookies were positioned on the baking pans, Dad would mark the top of each cookie with an old two-pronged fork, crosswise, making kind of a double “X.”  I still have that old fork, and it was very cool to call it out of retirement for resurrecting this recipe.  I have to admit I was a little out of practice and marked some of the cookies a little too deeply.  I could hear my dad saying, “Use a lighter touch, Dave.”

Bake cookies at 350° for 10-12 minutes, until the edges just begin to turn brown.  Be careful not to over-bake.  This is not a real sweet cookie.  I wasn’t sure if my converted recipe was just “off” a little, or if Log Cabins came from a time before so much sugar and other sweeteners were used.

Oh, and I now know how many cookies the original recipe made.  This one-eighth recipe made 18 large (3½”-4”) cookies.  That means the original recipe made 12 dozen!  With that many cookies, you could build a log cabin!

Sloppy Joes: Neat! (But Not Everyone Thinks So)

People often tell me I should write a book.  Truth be told, that’s on my bucket list, for sure.  They’re referring to the treasure trove of stories that I carry around with me, “funded” by 35 years in the classroom and principal’s seat.  And yes, most of them are unbelievable.

This week’s recipe took me back to one of my early years as a principal.  On my calendar for one particular day was an appointment with a parent.  A mother had scheduled a time to meet with me and had not provided any clue as to the purpose for the meeting.  I always “loved” those meetings.  When you didn’t know the topic for the get-together, it was kind of like playing Russian Roulette…with five chambers loaded.  More often than not those meeting could be a challenge.  However, this was a responsible and supportive parent, so I wasn’t too worried.

As the meeting started, I could tell the mom was nervous.  She was troubled about something.  It was easy to tell.  Her concern had to do with the cafeteria.  “It’s about the Sloppy Joes that are on the lunch menu,” she said.

My mind tried to race ahead to the finish line.  Was it the government surplus ground beef that we were using?  Were the rolls too soft…too hard?  Was the meat too spicy?  Or, had her child stained a favorite shirt with the tomato-based beef?

“It’s the name,” she continued, “Joey (her son) is offended that they call the sandwiches ‘Sloppy Joes’ and he’s afraid that he’s going to be teased.  We were wondering if the name could be changed.”

You have never seen restraint like the restraint that I exhibited that day.  It was all I could do.  I didn’t know if I should laugh, be aghast, or be offended myself.  Change the name of the perennial Sloppy Joe?  It was un-American.  It would be like Frank asking that his name be removed with only “furter” left behind.  Or the Pope asking that his name be taken off of Eggs Benedict.  Had anyone ever asked Johnny Marzetti how he feels?

My restraint thankfully held.  I did manage to ask what she thought we should change the name to.

“Bar-b-cue,” she said.

Thankfully, she hadn’t said, “Sloppy Harrys.”  (I would have lost it.)  I replied that I didn’t think that we would change the traditional name of the popular sandwich.  I reassured her that in the event anyone did tease Joey we would handle it swiftly and appropriately, and that she should look on all of this as a character building experience.

She was not happy, as are most parents when they don’t get their way, but that was the last I ever heard of it.  Joe is an upstanding citizen today, and appears to be un-scathed from the childhood trauma associated with this dark chapter in his life.

This recipe is pretty much my own, gleaned from many others over the years and tweaked to “perfection” by trial and error.  (Any cook knows that you never quite reach perfection.  That’s what keeps you going back to the stove.)  I made these for a decorating party held at Parker Ford Church when we decorated for the Advent season.

SLOPPY JOES

(click on any image to enlarge it)

Ingredients:

1½ - 2 lbs. lean ground beef

1 medium onion chopped

1 cup (approx.) red and green bell pepper chopped

6 oz. can tomato paste

¾ cup ketchup

1 Tablespoon prepared mustard

½ cup water

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon chili powder

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon black pepper

3 Tablespoons agave nectar (or 4 Tablespoon brown sugar)

Directions:

Brown the ground beef and sauté the onion together, adding the chopped bell pepper about halfway through.  

I like to use bell pepper as it gives it some color.  This bell pepper is right from the freezer.  When I have leftover pepper, I often chop it and put it in a freezer bag "for such a time as this."  Bell pepper will lose its firmness when you freeze and thaw it, so using it in dishes like chili and Sloppy Joes is perfect.  Drain the excess fat.  Add the tomato paste, ketchup mustard and water and mix thoroughly.  

Incorporate the remaining ingredients fully, including the agave (or brown sugar).  Allow to simmer over medium low heat for at least 15 minutes.  Add some water if the mixture gets too thick.

I’ve recently discovered Blue Agave, which is an organic natural sweetener extracted from the agave plant.  Agave is a low glycemic index sweetener, so it is slowly absorbed into the body, preventing spikes in blood sugar.  That helps to prevent the “sugar high” and the let-down that follows.  The label on the bottle says it’s been used by ancient civilizations for 5,000 years.  It can be used as a multi-purpose sweetener and in baking.  You just have to remember that it’s 25% sweeter than granulated sugar, so you use one-fourth less.

Enjoy!