Tips
We traditionally add locally available sausages such as Knacker/Knackwurst, Frankfurter, Wiener (weenies), St. Johanner sausages, and Käsekrainer to name just a few.
Weißwurst sausages (white veal sausages from Munich) need to be cooked separately but are also commonly served along.
You can add sausages that are available in your country. Pork sausages are your best choice to flavor your Sauerkraut! Bonus if you add smoked sausage.
You can use Italian sausages, Kielbasa sausage, other Polish sausage, Andouille, Bratwurst, or simply hot dog sausages!
Using pork belly slabs is also a common way to flavor cooked Sauerkraut. It can be used instead of the sausages or with the sausages. You get to choose!
Don’t skip on the spices. Every spice adds flavor to your Sauerkraut, and together they make it an authentic dish with a great flavor profile.
We don’t add salt to this dish because homemade fermented Sauerkraut is full of salt already. If you use store-bought Sauerkraut, add salt to taste.
Beer adds so much flavor to a Sauerkraut dish! You can also use white wine instead of beer, but I think it just tastes better with beer.
Adding white wine instead of beer to Sauerkraut is a tradition in the neighboring Alsace region in France. We wrote a detailed post about the Alsace wine route.
Sauerkraut in Alsace is known as Choucroute and the similar sausage and Sauerkraut dish is called Choucroute garni.
