Wednesday, July 25, 2018

the kraut

My boss is insisting on bringing a load of sauerkraut for the luncheon on Friday. He proclaims himself a traditionalist when it comes to the eating of sausages, by which he really means that he cleaves to the Teutonic way of eating them: with mustard and sauerkraut, and little else—especially, Jesus, no fucking ketchup. I told the boss that the meats I had gotten for the chili dogs were Johnsonville "Beddar Cheddar" cheese franks—exactly the wrong kind of frank for a Germanic purist. So this evening, I went up the street to the local "meatateria" (its Korean name is Seolseong Mokjang 설성목장, which I guess means something like "fertile farm"), a butcher shop that also sells a variety of John Cook products (along with pizza and other items). I was in luck: the store had honest-to-goodness Bratwurst—the white kind, which I like better than the brown/tan kind. I also espied a package of long, thin, German-style Frankfurter, so I grabbed a pack of those... and then I saw the kielbasa. It wasn't just a tiny, shrunken-dick sausage: it was an entire loop of fairly thick meat, which is quite unusual to find on the peninsula. Of course, I grabbed a pack off the rack.

This means more grillin' for yours truly tonight, but it shouldn't take too long. Oh, yeah: it occurs to me that I have an extra bottle of beer in my fridge (I bought beer for the chili-making). What I might do, then, is grill the sausages on my stovetop, then braise everything in a shallow pool of beer (sort of a reverse beer instead of a reverse sear). Ach, ja.



4 comments:

  1. 설성 sounds like a place name, and in this case, 목장 is probably a ranch (although I suppose "farm" covers that as well).

    Please let me know how the kielbasa turns out. I'm not sure if I've ever seen the genuine article here.

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  2. Big Ho, what is the deal with sausages or hot dogs in a liquid-filled glass jar? I have seen them in Emart and maybe Costco. Unless I am buying soup, I don't want to buy meat stored in liquid.

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  3. Charles,

    I may have oversold the kielbasa. It's large, but nowhere near as big as the 4-inch-wide, elephant-raping kielbasas sold at local groceries in the States. The one I bought today is about 1.5" wide, sold as a long (maybe 15"?) horseshoe of sausage in an airtight, molded plastic wrap. I'm about to cook it up, though, in preparation for Friday, so I might have more to say. By the way: grilling/searing followed by braising in beer? Definitely the way to go. I used a humble Corona (wrong region of the world for the meats' flavor profile, I know), and the smell in my place right now is magnificent.

    Brian,

    I'm similarly perplexed, even after having eaten several bottles' worth of that meat. I buy it when I'm feeling super-lazy because it comes out of the bottle absolutely ready to eat. The meat is so soft, so infused with liquid, that you can practically spread it on a cracker. It's completely safe and sterile, despite being animal flesh stored in liquid (I can see why you might find it gross and/or unsafe); this website, which is more of an ad than a neutral exposition, talks about the process of making these bottled sausages.

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