Girl Clown Dancing
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact

Sauerkraut Balls

6/21/2019

17 Comments

 
Picture
I finally got around to making sauerkraut balls.
 
For those who don't know about this appetizer, welcome to my world. 
 
Not being aware of this snack was a surprise because I’m a committed home cook and foodie.  But, I’m also a native Californian, and since these treats are most popular in Ohio, it made sense that I hadn’t heard of them.    
 
However, the Buckeye-educated Hubster has rhapsodized about sauerkraut balls for years.
 
They were terrific, he said, with a beer or a Pepsi.  He also spoke of Boomer, a pet Bassett hound from years before.  Boomer frequently ran away but was easy to retrieve—since he was always busy scarfing down sauerkraut balls at a nearby tavern where the dish was a happy hour staple.  Also, my spouse remembered a certain Mr. and Mrs. Duncan, two of his parents’ best friends.  Mr. Duncan loved sauerkraut balls so much that when he and his wife came for dinner, he always made a complete meal out of them, even forsaking grilled steak or fried chicken.   
 
Here was my picture of a sauerkraut ball.
 
It was hard and icy, a wadded ball of old cabbage that looked exactly like a delicious coconut macaroon. I’d take a bite and there was the reveal—a sauerkraut ball was going to taste like the sourest pickled cabbage imaginable, held together with white glue.  
 
In other words, here was a dish I was never going to have the time to make. 
 
But my spouse never gave up. 
 
A few months ago, he printed out a recipe with a photo, and presented it to me while I was in my office.  Okay.  It didn’t look too labor intensive, and what do you know: the instructions said it made more than two dozen balls, but only called for one can of sauerkraut.  And, it featured bread crumbs, sausage, cream cheese and chopped onion, ingredients I could definitely get behind.  Also, he said that while the directions called for deep frying, his mother baked them, which meant less time in the kitchen. 
 
I was game, although I quickly discovered that the recipe wasn’t simple.    
 
For one thing, I couldn’t just drain the sauerkraut and dump it in my big yellow Pyrex bowl. Nope, I had to squeeze the stuff completely dry, using three different dish towels to do so. Then, I had to snip it all into small pieces.
 
However, I was determined to cross the finish line.  
 
After prepping the kraut, I mixed it with those other yummy ingredients, along with milk and eggs and mustard and parsley.  It resembled uncooked meatloaf, another dish that the Hubster loves.  The difference—besides the sauerkraut, of course—is that the concoction needed to chill for an hour.   When that time was up, I divided the mix into small meatball size balls and dipped each one in flour.  This part took the longest to do.  Right about then, my spouse suddenly remembered that in Ohio, sauerkraut balls are often made assembly-line style.
 
Once the balls started cooking, though, I knew everything was right with the world.
 
They puffed up a bit, and smelled divine.  Also, since the recipe instructed that they be consumed hot out of the oven, how could I not comply?
 
Sauerkraut balls are astonishingly amazing.
 
Best of all, and a revelation to me, the sauerkraut didn’t overpower the meatball.  It simply gave the snack a nice bite.  In fact, if you’ve never had one, you might find it difficult to identify the recipe’s title .     
 
I’m absolutely up for making sauerkraut balls again.
 
But there’s another Midwest recipe that the Hubster wants me to do first.  
 
It’s a cherry cola-chocolate-mayonnaise-sauerkraut cake.  
17 Comments
Patti
6/21/2019 10:00:58 pm

I love sauerkraut! Recipe please! ( I don't need that cake recipe, ewwwww!)

Reply
Hilary A Grant
6/21/2019 10:12:17 pm

Here you go! But make sure you get some help from Lloyd. I'd split up the chilled mix in half and give half to Lloyd to shape into balls, and you can do the other half. Same when you dip them in flour. It will go much faster! :) https://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/sauerkraut-balls-13700

Reply
Bev link
6/21/2019 10:05:15 pm

Not only have I never had a sauerkraut ball but I had never heard of them until I read this blog. I think that Larry and I lived in very different ethnic areas, albeit geographically closed to each other. I never heard of the cake you mention either. All my ethnic foods were Jewish or Italian.

Reply
Hilary A Grant
6/21/2019 10:06:59 pm

Larry mentioned that this snack was probably influenced by the Polish population in the area. Glad to know that I'm not the only one who had never heard of them! After I made them, I was surprised to find a LOT of other sauerkraut ball recipes. I guess they're a "thing" -- just not in the areas we're from!

Reply
Larry Grant
6/22/2019 08:01:30 am

So my mom was Eastern European, her parents emigrated from Prussia. Anything to do with sauerkraut or turnips was right up her alley. The next township north of where I grew up was predominantly Polish and just south of where I went to college was an area called German Village. Sauerkraut balls were part of the culture. I really like them a lot. Hilary, yours were amazing. Even for breakfast with an egg.

Reply
Hilary A Grant
6/22/2019 10:19:00 am

Another example of "putting an egg on it!" Or in this case, putting an egg next to it. :) xo

Reply
Kerri
6/22/2019 10:24:56 am

Adorable blog, and my mouth is watering! I can't wait to try, and my 22 yr. old just announced to me she just tried Sauerkraut for the first time and loves it. Maybe I can talk her into making the balls for me. Your husband is so lucky.... you are a sweetheart to make them for him, and you are a GREAT cook, I happen to know!

Reply
Hilary A Grant
6/22/2019 04:08:05 pm

Well, keep in mind that it took nearly 15 years for me to finally make them, HAI It's really a fun project to make them together. Make sure you have the bread crumbs handy--it was extra work for me there as well, because I made them the day of. Would have been easier if they had already been on hand. :)

Reply
Hilary A Grant
6/22/2019 04:09:26 pm

I meant... HA !

leslie spoon
6/23/2019 07:37:16 pm

I like the story about Boomer !! The sauerkraut balls sound good but I will pass on the cake

Reply
Hilary A Grant
6/23/2019 08:29:05 pm

Yeah, Boomer and Hank are probably relatives somewhere down the line! Larry SWEARS that the cake is amazing. He was right about the sauerkraut balls, so, I'm going to take the chance and make it in the near future. :)

Reply
Susan J.
6/24/2019 04:47:48 pm

I've never even had sauerkraut, much less a sauerkraut ball. My great-great grandmother Anna was "Pennsylvania Dutch" (from Ohio!), and probably made them. If I could get someone to make me a vegetarian version, I might try them!

Reply
Hilary A Grant
6/24/2019 06:08:49 pm

Ask and you will receive!

Scroll a bit more than halfway down this link and you'll find a vegetarian version. :) https://www.craftbeering.com/sauerkraut-balls/

Reply
Kevin Fagan link
6/26/2019 12:22:17 am

I would normally think anything deep-fried is yummy, but I’ll have to take your expertise on faith about sauerkraut balls. They sound awful. But if you say they’re good I’ll stay open minded 😊

Reply
Hilary A Grant
6/26/2019 07:23:34 pm

If you're ever on assignment in Ohio, you'll just have to try one! Or, better yet, come up to Oregon and I'll make a plate. : )

Reply
andrea peck
6/29/2019 04:24:14 pm

"ingredients I could definitely get behind"---that is hilarious. I've never heard of these, but you make them sound so worth trying.

Reply
Hilary A Grant
6/29/2019 06:26:52 pm

There are a few recipes online, but here's the one Hubster handed me in the office. The rest, as they say, is history. :)
https://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/sauerkraut-balls-13700

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Hilary Roberts Grant

    Journalist, editor, filmmaker, foodie--and a clown! 
    ​

    Categories

    All
    Activism
    Blogaversaries
    Doing It Right
    Food
    Holidays
    Living Life
    Miscellany
    My Girl
    People
    Reading
    Remembering
    Taking Care
    Traveling

    Archives

    December 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.