FOOD HISTORY: Sauerkraut

Sauerkraut Is finely chopped cabbage that is salted, then fermented in its own juice. "Sauerkraut" is the German word for "sour cabbage". However sauerkraut was not invented by the Germans. Over 2000 years ago, workers building the Great Wall of China started fermenting heads of cabbage in rice wine to preserve them  to have as a food source during the non-growing season. Genghis Khan and his Mongols substituted salt for the Chinese rice wine and brought their preparation as far as the eastern egde of Europe, 1000 years later. In the 16th century, the German tribes started to salt whole heads of cabbage to extract the water from the vegetable and allowed the mixture to ferment, turning the sugars in the cabbage into lactic acid which preserved the food. It was the Germans who gave the name "sauerkraut" to cabbage preserved in this way. Obviously the scientific knowledge about what was happening in the process was unknown to peoples of that time. Be that as it may, sauerkraut became popular among many Eastern European cultures as a way to preserve cabbage for use throughout the year. By the 1800's the cabbage was shredded, not left whole. This provided more surface area for salt to draw out the cabbage's juice more quickly, to  allow the bacteria to work sooner and to speed up the process. When the cabbage was fermented, it was stored in a cool place and remained good for long periods of time to be eaten with pork, the most popular meat of that region of Europe, if that was available or just plain in hard times. Sauerkraut, to this day, is a major ingredient in the dishes of Germany and the eastern European countries of Poland, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, The Czech Republic, Hungary, Estonia and Bulgaria. However, while sauerkraut was eaten for many years to provide food in times of want, it wasn't until the 1500 - 1800,s that sauerkraut made an impact on world history. This was the time of discovery with sailing ships travelling to unknown regions of the world with voyages lasting several months to years. During that time, 1000's of seaman lost their lives, not just to the rigors of the voyage but to the scourge of a disease called scurvy. In 1753, James Lind, a Scottish naval surgeon presented evidence that scurvy was associated with the limited diet of sailors on ships and noted that citrus fruits provided a quick and effective cure for the disease. He described his findings in his book, "A Treatise of the Scurvy". After his publication, citrus fruit, particularly limes, were carried on most sailing ships including those of the Royal Navy - this is why British sailors are known as "Limeys" -  even though it was not known at that time what component in the citrus fruits prevented the disease.* However, how do you keep citrus fruit fresh on a voyage lasting several months? In 1760, the British Crown tried various experimental foods to see if any of them could prevent the disease and replace the  limes with a more stable food. In 1768, Captain John Cook, the  famous explorer, provisioned his ship with one of these foods; 7860 pounds of sauerkraut. Cook, when returning to England three years later, reported not a single death caused by scurvy. Because of this, sauerkraut  became a staple food item on British navy ships and other sailing ships of that time. Thus, sauerkraut essentially resolved the world wide scurvy problem but, again, it was without the scientific knowledge as to how/why  eating it prevented the disease.. Sauerkraut was brought to the US by Mennonites, Christian Anabaptists and Amish who immigrated from Germany and Switzerland and settled in the Pennsylvania Dutch (DUTCH a mispronunciation of the German word DEUTSCH -  meaning "German" in that language. Still today, sauerkraut is one of the most popular dishes among the Pennsylvania Dutch made with apples, pork or sausages. In fact, sauerkraut and pork is the traditional New Years Day meal because of the belief that eating it will bring one good luck throughout the coming year.

* It was not until the 1930s that that Dr. Albert Szent-Gyorgy discovered ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and identified it as the nutritional factor which was lacking in the diets of persons afflicted with scurvy. Vitamin C is a natural component in citrus fruits and bacteria fermenting the cabbage in sauerkraut digest parts of the cabbage and, as by-products,  produce both vitamin C (ascorbic acid) and vitamin B.