Also known as red cabbage sauerkraut, this is made by preserving sliced red or purple cabbage in a brine. It is like sauerkraut but made with red instead of green cabbages.
Purple Kraut Trivia
- In Pennsylvania, it is a tradition to eat pork and sauerkraut on New Year’s Day for good luck, while in Baltimore, locals eat sauerkraut and turkey during Thanksgiving.
- Katie Crouch, in the 2021 novel entitled Embassy Wife, mentions purple kraut: “The plates he served were heaped with fried kudu, zebra, or oryx, garnished with steaming potatoes and freshly made purple kraut.”
- Purple kraut is also mentioned in another novel, entitled Zeitgeist by Kirsten Arcadio. “The food arrived, yet more of the purple kraut stuff adorned with various sausages and meat schnitzel things we eat every day here.”
- Some people in some places have a different kind of purple kraut, the one made with beets rather than red cabbage. In a book written by Alissa Segersten and Tom Malterre entitled Nourishing Meals, it mentions purple kraut made of beets. “My children call this ‘purple kraut.’ The flavor is tangy like regular sauerkraut, with earthy undertones from the beet and carrots.”
Purple Kraut Buying Guide
You can buy purple kraut in supermarkets and groceries. Artisanal, small-batch, homemade purple kraut are also sold online via e-commerce website or via social media. You can also find this in pop up stalls and farmers markets.
When buying purple kraut, always check the container. Make sure all the safety measures are intact and undamaged, like the plastic safety seal, the cap or lid, etc.
Purple kraut are usually available all year long, so there is no need to buy a lot since you can always restock your cabinet or pantry on your next grocery day.
When buying purple kraut, always check the expiration date or best before date to make sure you are not buying an expired item. It is ok to buy a jar of purple kraut that is close to its best before date since it is easy to finish a jar or bottle of purple kraut, but if you are planning to store these for longer, best to buy those that wont expire in the next few months.
Purple Kraut Production & Farming in Texas
There are small, local businesses in Texas that make and sell purple kraut, like Austin Cultured in Austin, Texas. Real Foods Farm & Market, in Wimberley, Texas, makes and sells purple sauerkraut.
Pesticides, Additives, and Chemicals
Commercial pickling and canning uses preservatives. Below are some of the preservatives that could have been used in making commercially-produced purple kraut.
- Sodium benzoate is added to improve the shelf life of the purple kraut.
- Alum is used to make the texture of the pickled vegetables crispy. This food additive is approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration.
- Sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite are used to help preserve the pickled vegetables inside the glass bottle.
- Sodium chloride is used for preservation and to improve the taste of the purple kraut.
- Citric acid is used to boost the acidity or the sour flavor of the purple kraut.
Geography
Even before the German sauerkraut was made, food historians believe that the Chinese were already preserving cabbages the same way as sauerkraut is made.
In the Netherlands, the local counterpart of sauerkraut is known locally as zuurkool. Sauerkraut has a French counterpart, known locally as choucroute, which is used to make the Alsatian meal known as choucroute garnie which means “dressed sauerkraut”.
How do you say fermented cabbage in different languages? Here are some words that usually pertain to sauerkraut or fermented cabbage:
- Lakër turshi (Albania)
- Kələm turşusu (Azerbaijan)
- Lahana turşusu (Turkey)
- Kвашаная капуста (Belarus)
- Kysané zelí (Czech)
- Rauginti kopūstai (Lithuania)
- Kвашеная капуста (Russia)
- Kвашена капуста, кисла капуста, or kisla kapusta (Ukraine)
- Kисело зеле (Bulgaria)
- Hapukapsas (Estonia)
- Hapankaali (Finland)
- Savanyúkáposzta (Hungary)
- Skābēti kāposti (Latvia)
- Kapusta kiszona (Poland)
- Varză murată (Romania)
- Rасол / кисела зелка (Macedonia)
- Kyslá kapusta (Slovakia)
- Kislo zelje (Slovenia)
- Chuchrut (Chile)
Packaging
Purple kraut for sale usually comes in glass jars with sealable lids. The label indicates the brand name or the name of the manufacturer, as well as the ingredients, nutritional information, best before or expiration date, and storage instructions. Size varies, as well as the design of the jar. The jar is usually transparent, allowing you to see the purple kraut inside the jar.
Enjoying Purple Kraut
Purple kraut is served as a side dish. Purple kraut is great to have with meats, like roast pork or sausages. Purple kraut is also great with steamed potatoes. Purple kraut is flavorful and appetizing. However, it is advisable to keep consumption of purple kraut at a minimum because this food may cause flatulence. Another problem is the oftentimes high sodium content of purple kraut, which poses health problems if you eat in excess.
Stephanie Thurow, in a 2017 book entitled Can It & Ferment It, noted that purple kraut “livens up every plate.”
Storage
Store purple kraut in an airtight container. Keep purple kraut in cold storage because this kind of food doesn’t keep well in a hot and humid environment.
Cooking
You can use purple kraut to make salads and soups, like the Russian soup called shchi, the Polish kwasnica, and the Slovakian kapustnica. You can make the Chilean hotdog sandwich called completos using purple kraut as one of the ingredients. You can also use it to make pierogi too, a kind of dumpling originating from Poland (use purple kraut as a filling). Another Polish food, bigos, which is known as a hunter’s stew, can also be made using purple kraut.
Nutritional Benefits
Purple kraut contains copper, fiber, folate, iron, manganese, protein, vitamin B, vitamin C, and vitamin K1, and potassium.
Purple kraut improves digestion and promotes the growth of beneficial probiotics in the stomach. Eating purple kraut helps boost the immune system too. If you are looking for food to help you lose weight, consider adding purple kraut to your diet. Eating purple kraut can also help keep the brain and heart healthy, the bones strong, and the body protected from the threat of cancer.
