Mulgikapsad

Estonia's sauerkraut braised with pearl barley and pork, cooked slowly for hours until the barley has swollen into the cabbage and the whole pot turns golden

Origin: Mulgimaa, southern Estonia

From the journey of Cabbage.

Mulgikapsad comes from Mulgimaa in southern Estonia, a district that grew unusually wealthy on flax in the nineteenth century and whose food carries its name across the country. Sauerkraut is braised for hours with pork and pearl barley until the barley swells, the sourness of the cabbage mellows, and the whole thing turns thick and golden. The three components are the Estonian larder in miniature. Cabbage fermented in autumn to last the winter; barley, which ripens in a short northern season where wheat struggles; and pork, the animal a smallholding could keep and salt. Nothing in the dish is out of season, because nothing in it has a season. It is Christmas food above all, served alongside blood sausage, verivorst, and roast pork, and it is one of the few Estonian dishes that has stayed firmly in the national repertoire rather than being displaced. The long cooking is not optional: an hour is not enough, and the dish is judged on whether the barley has genuinely melted into the cabbage.

Ingredients

Base

  • 800 g sauerkraut, drained but not rinsed
  • 150 g pearl barley

Meat

  • 600 g pork belly or shoulder, cut into 4 cm pieces

Aromatics

  • 2 onions, chopped

Liquid

  • 900 ml water or pork stock

Seasoning

  • 2 tsp caraway seeds
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 1 tsp salt, to taste
  • 0.5 tsp black pepper

Fat

  • 2 tbsp lard or oil

Method

  1. Brown the pork hard in the lard in a heavy casserole, in batches, and lift it out.
  2. Soften the onions in the same fat for eight minutes.
  3. Return the pork, add the sauerkraut, barley, caraway, sugar, pepper, and the water or stock.
  4. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook very gently for two hours, stirring every half hour and topping up with water if it looks dry.
  5. Uncover for the last twenty minutes so the liquid reduces and the mixture thickens.
  6. Taste and adjust the salt and the sugar. Sauerkraut varies enormously and the balance is set at the end.
  7. Serve hot with boiled potatoes and, at Christmas, with blood sausage and roast pork.

Notes

Pearl barley, not pot barley or flakes. It needs to swell and hold its shape without disintegrating. Good sauerkraut matters. Jarred kraut from a Baltic or German shop is far better than the tinned sort. For a lighter pot use smoked pork ribs, which is common, and reduce the cooking time by half an hour.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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