Sauerkraut mit Speck

Name: Sauerkraut mit Speck
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: German
Ingredients: Sauerkraut; Lean cooked ham; Onion; Apples; Bay leaf; Caraway seeds; Black pepper; Olive oil; Salt; Paprika

Sauerkraut mit Speck, plated as one serving.

138 kcal a serving, against 166 for the traditional version. That is 28 kcal off, or 17%, with 11.3g of protein. Serves 6. 1 hour.

What the traditional version is

Sauerkraut braised with a hefty chunk of smoked pork belly or thick-cut bacon, cooked with onions, juniper berries, bay leaves and sometimes caraway. The fat from the meat slowly renders into the kraut, making everything soft, salty and rich. Served as a side or sometimes a light lunch alongside rye bread or potatoes.

What changed, and what each change costs

300g of back bacon for 250g of reduced-fat cooked ham

Bacon is the first thing you'd taste in the original, but it also does most of the damage. Swapping it for lean ham trims a pile of fat and keeps enough pork flavour to make it more than just cabbage.

What it costs you. You lose all that rendered smoky fat melting its way through the kraut. The dish is less sticky, less rich, and the smoky edge is basically history. There's a workaround below, but it's not fooling anyone who grew up on the proper stuff.

20g of olive oil down to 5g, add smoked paprika

Cutting most of the oil out stops the ham sticking and gives a little slip to the onions, but doesn't drown the cabbage. Smoked paprika steps in to give you some of that smoke without extra pork fat.

What it costs you. No amount of paprika is going to make you forget bacon, but it helps.

What goes in it

The ingredients, without the quantities. The weights are what the figures below are computed from, and they are in the book.

Sauerkraut
Lean cooked ham
Onion
Apples
Bay leaf
Caraway seeds
Black pepper
Olive oil
Salt
Paprika

How it starts

Drain the sauerkraut and give it a quick rinse.
Cut the lean ham into small cubes.
Add the sauerkraut, grated apple, bay leaves, caraway, black pepper, paprika and salt.

The rest of the method, and every weight, is in Authentic-ish German.

The numbers

Per serving	Traditional	Lightened
Calories	166	138
Protein	11.9g	11.3g
Fat	7.2g	3.7g
Saturated fat	1.8g	1g
Carbohydrate	15.8g	16.8g
Protein per 100 kcal	7.2g	8.2g

Every figure is computed from the recipe's own weighed ingredient list against public food composition databases. The appendix in Authentic-ish German prints the exact database row used for each ingredient, so any number here can be checked. How every number is computed sets out the method.

The method is in the book

You don't get the sticky mouthfeel of proper bacon fat, and no one's going to be fooled by smoked paprika. But it's still satisfying and fills you up. The lean ham delivers enough savoury notes to keep it interesting, and the kraut stays the star. Not as good as the real thing, but good enough to get the job done on a cold day.

The quantities and the method for this dish are in Authentic-ish German, along with 54 more. Buy the paperback