In a quickly forgotten context just the other day at Facebook, I made the comment to someone that “beer is good food.”
Somewhere in the deep recesses of my brain-wave labyrinth I knew the Dead Kennedys recorded a song in 1985 called “Soup Is Good Food,” the title of which will make sense to certain more chronologically advanced readers as a Campbell’s advertisment from the late 1970s.
We’re sorry, but you’re no longer needed
Or wanted or even cared about here
Machines can do a better job than you
And this is what you get for asking questions
However, I was not familiar with The Assmen, an “abrasive old school punk band” from northeastern Ohio, whose song “Beer Is Good Food” can be found in the 1999 album Enema Nation. It’s really quite good.
To summarize: Both soup and beer are good food, preferably ingested together, hence my determination to inflict this recipe on my readers.
I call it “Eastern European Sauerkraut Soup,” and if you’re one of those inexplicably squeamish sorts who refrain from kraut, please return immediately to your Dupe Island Beanie Baby Brand Stout collection, coax one gently from the lockbox, make sure to get a photograph to attest to the moment, and pair it with chicken fingers.
Meanwhile, my sauerkraut soup represents all-purpose former East Bloc country cooking that would fit like a glove in Gdansk, Gmünd or Gyöngyös.
(That’s Poland, Austria and Hungary.)
The recipe is intended to be easy, with most of the ingredients store-bought and precooked, with the bulk of time spent cutting potatoes. If you make your own stock or kraut, that’s great, although it isn’t necessary. Soak the beans overnight and avoid cans? Also fine, as is varying the type of mushrooms and sausages.
Simple ingredients seem to work best. You’re preparing this to be served in a worker’s cafeteria, not a trendy bistro, and the recipe is intended as an approximation.
As for the seasonings, I’ve yet to see two recipes that agree on which should be used and how to use them, so feel free to experiment. I’m not always a huge fan of black pepper, but this soup benefits hugely from it, and using simple Hungarian sweet paprika balances the...Read more
