Oktoberfest Kraut, Sausage/Spareribs and Potatoes

Judikins's Note:

My dear husband has evolved this recipe over the years. He almost always makes it, but the other day he wrote it down since he was going to be home late and we had guests coming for dinner to have this very dish. I decided it needed to be shared since we have so many requests for it and after all, it's amost Oktoberfest time. We eat it at least twice monthly, and simply vary it a bit with the meat. This can also be made in the crockpot and cooked at least 4 hours on high and 4 hours on low. You may have to experiment since crockpots are different.

• Total Time: 4 hrs 20 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 4 hrs

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 lb German sausages or 1 lb sausage, of your choice or 1 lb spareribs
• 1 lb high quality beef hot dogs or 1 lb hot dog
• 1 quart sauerkraut
• 1 large sweet onion, coarsely diced
• 1 (12 ounce) can beer (not light)
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 (4 ounce) container apples, cauce diced or 1 small apple, diced
• 2 large russet potatoes, peeled and chunked
• pepper
• caraway seed (optional)
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic (optional)

Directions:

1. In a 5-6 quart heavy Dutch oven, add 1 tablespoon olive oil.
2. Brown sausages or ribs.
3. While they are browning, drain and rinse kraut at least twice to remove the excess salt.
4. Chop onion.
5. When sausages/ribs are browned, place them aside on Dutch oven lid.
6. FILL POT: Handful of kraut, add wieners, fil in with onions, add more kraut, add sausages, fill with remaining onion, and add last of kraut, all in layers.
7. Add contents of beer and 2 tablespoons brown sugar. The alcohol cooks away so don't worry, it does add a great deal to this recipe.
8. Add applesauce.
9. Add water to surface of kraut.
10. Liberally apply black pepper.
11. Add potatoes.
12. Bring to boil, cover tightly and simmer 3-4 hours (don't shorten the time, this is critical), checking periodically so it doesn't dry out.
13. Serve with sour cream or plain yogurt and a high quality mustard. I prefer Country Dijon or German, my DH prefers yellow. Either way, enjoy, my friends!

Reviews

[cooking with love]

We loved this dish. It had a nice mellow and rich flavor to the sauerkraut. I don't like the acid taste sauerkraut usually has so this was wonderful. I used only bratwurst as that is what I had in the freezer and it worked well. Didn't use the caraway as no one likes it here at our house. I will definitely make this again. Next time though I will use less water as there was way too much at the end of the cooking time. Will only add some water and more if it is needed.