Sauerkraut
For my grocery store adventure, I decided to try something I have been putting off for a while. The item I decided to try was sauerkraut. My family never made it growing up so I never really thought about trying it. My family has just recently started eating it, so I decided to give it a try.
Sauerkraut is fermented cabbage which is made very similarly to kimchi. It is known to have a long shelf life and a strong sour taste. The way it is prepared is why it has such a strong smell. The main reason I never tried sauerkraut is because of the smell. They say that smell and taste go hand in hand so maybe that is why it was never appetizing to me. The smell almost reminds me of food that is old and starting to be rotten.
To cook the sauerkraut, I put it in a pot and cooked it on the stove. It had an option to microwave it, but I figured the stove was the better option. I feel like this is a common way to cook the sauerkraut from what I have seen. It didn’t take much time and was finished in only a couple of minutes. I brought it up to a small boil and then added salt and pepper to taste. I don’t know if I became used to the smell, but cooking it made the smell seem to become more bearable. Cooking it didn’t really change the look of it very much. Cooking it seemed to release some of the juices of it but overall the color and texture seemed to stay the same.
After trying the sauerkraut, I didn’t really like it. It definitely has a very strong sour taste to it. The smell was too strong for me and I couldn’t really get past it. The smell was very overwhelming in my opinion. The texture did surprise me however. I thought it looked mushy but it wasn’t. The texture reminded me a of lettuce. The sauerkraut didn’t have a big crunch to it but it also wasn’t mushy like it looks. The good thing about it is that it is very easy to prepare, because all you have to do is heat it up.
It wasn’t the worst, but it isn’t something that I really enjoyed. I probably would not eat it again, but it was a good experience to figure out if I liked it or not. I don’t think there is a recipe that involves sauerkraut that I would like. It just isn’t for me. It is such an overpowering taste and it seems like it doesn’t really go with anything in my opinion. I know quite a bit of people like it and that it is healthy for you, but it just isn’t for me. I probably will not be eating it again.
I thought you did a great job describing the taste, smell, and texture. I've personally have never had sauerkraut, so this was a brand new description of the veggie. I liked how you went into how the texture was, since I'm not familiar with the food, it gave me a vivid picture of how it would feel and look. Emphasizing the smell of it to be overwhelming was important since it made a big effect on how you viewed the veggie overall. Great job, you hit all the necessities for this post in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a very interesting choice, Koy! I've had sauerkraut many times before with my family, mainly on the side with dinner, and I'm personally a fan of it. But I do understand why it is something you don't like. I do like that you described the taste, smell, and texture very well, especially with how overwhelming it was. I agree with Noah on the necessities for the post. And if you're curious, there actually is a chocolate sauerkraut cake recipe (https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/sauerkraut-chocolate-cake/).
ReplyDeletehow different do you think the taste would have been if it was cooked in a microwave compared to how you did it?
ReplyDeleteWhen you say "they say" I wondered who exactly. I'd change "food that is old" to "old food that's starting to rot" or maybe "rotting food found on the wrong side of the expiration date". On the "to cook sauerkraut" sentence, "cook" was used twice which seemed kind of redundant. For this, I would try "First things first, I simply only needed a pot and the stove to cook the sauerkraut". If you want to keep the original sentence, then change "cooked on the stove" to "heated it on the stove with water". On "it didn't take much time" sentence, replace "much time" to "long" and maybe change "was" to "I". I would delete "the smell was overwhelming in my opinion" since it seemed to repeat the previous sentence. Lastly, I would also suggest to combine the sentences "the texture did" and "I thought it looked mushy" since they looked to be sentence fragments. I never knew Sauerkraut existed but I've tried kimchi before which is basically tomato soup with noodles. A good read!
ReplyDelete