Peppercorn Pork Chops with Bacon Sauerkraut

Today we are going to look at an old-school style pork chop dish that is based upon a variety of similar recipes I have seen in cookbooks like Dominion's "Its Mainly Because of the Meat" from 1969. I have taken the best parts of some of these recipes and jazzed them up a bit technique and ingredient wise.

What you get is a great, classic combination of flavours and pork chops that are tender and delicious.

To begin, in a large saucepan cook around six pieces of bacon until done and set aside.

In the same pan use the left over bacon fat (draining some off first if necessary) to saute one large chopped onion seasoned with salt and pepper to taste. Do this over medium-high heat for around 5 minutes. Set the onion aside. 

Season your pork chops with salt and pepper to taste. We made 6 chops which were bone-in. Again in the same pan brown your pork chops in batches for about 2 minutes a side over medium-high heat and set aside when done. If necessary add a little olive or vegetable oil for the browning.

Remove the pan from the heat but do not clean. When the pan has cooled place the now cooked bacon across the bottom of the pan. Cover the bacon with a layer of sauerkraut. The sauerkraut should cover the entire pan. I used a whole bottle. Season the sauerkraut with two teaspoons of mustard powder, 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper (or more to taste) and then approximately 30 peppercorns evenly distributed throughout.

Place your browned chops evenly on top of the bed of sauerkraut.

Now cover the chops with the sauteed onion.

Pour 2 cups of chicken broth and one cup of a dry white wine into the pan. Bring the liquid to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer, covered, for one hour.

Serve the chops with the onion and bacon sauerkraut atop or on the side. The dish also goes well with either sour cream or Dijon mustard (or both) on the side. I like to have it with noodles as well.

This is a terrific meal, especially this time of year.

 Enjoy.

See also: Diner Style Breaded Pork Chops in Gravy

See also: Slow Cooker Beer and Sauerkraut Sausages

See also: Frenched Pork Rack Roast with Montreal Steak Spice.

The Farmhouse Cookbook w. Raised Doughnuts, Puzzle Cake, Beef Stroganoff & more -- Vintage Cookbook TBT

Vintage Cookbook: The Farmhouse Cookbook, Claire Moon

Publication Details: Ideals Publishing, 1978

Ideals Magazine was an inspirational and religious magazine that started publication in the 1940's and that was especially known for its Christmas and Easter issues. The magazine aimed for a folksy charm and centered around family stories, poems, illustrations, traditional tales and the like. While the magazine ceased full publication several years ago, they still publish those two holiday issues which are available through larger bookstores and sites like Amazon.


Back in their heyday Ideals would also publish special issues and magazine formatted cookbooks of various kinds. In fact, they published a lot of cookbooks! I have seen sites where 70 or more titles are listed.

These cookbooks are often worth tracking down for their large numbers of themed recipes as well as their reflection of North American cooking in the eras in which they were published. The cookbooks run the gambit from bread to cookie to budget to gourmet to meat and on and on. Some, such as the one we are looking at today, have sections for all of these and are centred around what one supposes must be an "ideal, in this case the "Farmhouse".

As with many cookbooks from the 1970s, The Farmhouse Cookbook swings frequently between the classic and the campy, including in its full page photography. Here the photography seeks to emphasize the farmhouse theme.

There are pages and pages of recipes broken down by type (Salads, Mains, Desserts, etc.). Most often there are 4-6 recipes to a page! These are all over the map in terms of their appeal to a 2017 palate. Classics like Beef Stroganoff, Sauerbraten or Potato Pancakes never really go out of style while others like Cheese Savory Canapes and Celebration Salad likely are too dated for all but the most adventurous to attempt.

Then are are those like the Sauerkraut Casserole that sound kind of "out there" at first, but on closer inspection have interesting flavour combinations. Whether these combinations are of interest to you or not, of course, is another matter.

Here we are going to look at only a small number of the cookbook's recipes focusing on those that had accompanying photographs. To see the rest, alas, you will have to track a copy down!

The recipes either immediately proceed or follow their picture.

(Click on images to enlarge)

(Above the Red Cabbage recipe is pictured as accompanying a pork roast)

See also: Eastern Vegetarian Cooking w. Lime Pickle, Dashi, Millet & more -- Vintage Cookbook TBT

See also: Mary Poppins in the Kitchen w. Dundee Cake, Welsh Rarebit, Yorkshire Pudding & more! -- Vintage Cookbook TBT

Vintage Cookbook TBT List

The Reuben Inferno Sandwich -- A new take on a classic

Today we are going to do a new spin on a sandwich classic. It pays homage to the Reuben sandwich -- which is a smoked meat sandwich with Swiss cheese, sauerkraut and Russian dressing on dark rye -- while taking it in a fiery new direction!

I call it the Reuben Inferno.


To make the Reuben Inferno, you start by picking up some fresh rye bread at a local deli or bakery. Good rye is important! Either dark or light rye are fine as long as it is good rye.

Top one slice of your rye with a layer of Pastrami, followed by a layer of Montreal Smoked Meat, followed finally by a layer of Genoa or Mexican style spicy salami.

Top your meat slices with two slices of Swiss cheese.

Take your sandwich and place it open face in your oven with the oven set to broil and the oven rack placed at the highest level possible. Put the slice of rye with no topping yet in to broil as well.

Broil the sandwich, watching pretty closely, until the cheese has melted and is golden brown to your liking. This generally only takes 2-4 minutes maximum. Don't burn it!

Once the cheese is broiled, take the sandwich out and top with a nice layer of sauerkraut.

Finally, top with your homemade Reuben Inferno sauce.

You make the Reuben Inferno sauce by blending together thoroughly the following:

4 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon chili sauce
1/2 a large pickle sliced up in small cubes
1-2 teaspoons (depending on how fiery you want it) of a habanero style hot sauce (I used El Yucateco Chile Habanero Sauce, but any similar style of hot sauce will do)

These proportions should make enough sauce for 2-3 sandwiches.

Top the sauerkraut liberally with the sauce, top with the other bread slice and serve!

This is a delicious, spicy sandwich. Enjoy with an ice cold beer and an extra full sour pickle on the side!

See also: Dark Ale Slow Cooker Pork Shoulder with Sauerkraut

See also: The Sausage Hero -- Reinventing "Chunky Wiener Hero" Sandwiches -- Vintage Cookbook #TBT

Dark Ale Slow Cooker Pork Shoulder with Sauerkraut

You can make a lot of great dishes with beer and sauerkraut!

Previously we took a look at a slow cooker sausage dish that used these two fine ingredients, and today we are going to look at a way to slow cook pork shoulder with them both that is delicious and simplicity itself.

It has the added bonus that pork shoulder is generally quite inexpensive and can be used to feed a large number of people on a small budget!

First, you want to line the bottom of your slow cooker with a jar of your favourite sauerkraut Once you have spread it out evenly sprinkle 1 tablespoon of brown sugar over it and place 4-5 whole cloves in the sauerkraut spread out as evenly as possible.

Then pour one full can (433-500 ml.) of a dark ale or beer into the sauerkraut. I used a can of Dab Dark Beer. Finally add a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce.

Place a 3-5 pound pork shoulder on top of the sauerkraut mixture. One side of a shoulder roast will generally have a fat layer and you want to place the roast fat side up. Do not remove the fat layer!

Season the top of the roast liberally evenly with black pepper and paprika. Then as well with 1 tablespoon mustard powder, 1 teaspoon of garlic powder, 1 teaspoon of Vegeta seasoning (if you have it...otherwise just leave out) and sea salt to taste.

Cover your slow cooker and cook on LOW for 8 hours.

When done remove the roast to a platter, let sit for 10 minutes and slice to taste (I like pieces not too thick). Ladle some of the juices from the slow cooker over the roast and then serve with the sauerkraut (removing the cloves).

The pork and sauerkraut are really flavourful and go especially well with a side of egg noodles tossed with salt, better and some parsley, or with mashed potatoes.

Enjoy.

See also: Slow Cooker Beer and Sauerkraut Sausages

See also: "Green Bay Packer" Wisconsin Beer Brats with Sauerkraut & Mixed Vegetables

The Sausage Hero -- Reinventing "Chunky Wiener Hero" Sandwiches -- Vintage Cookbook #TBT

The Nokomis Hospital Auxiliary Cook Book is one of that subspecies of once very prevalent fundraising community cookbooks -- a number of which we have looked at over the months here at The Left Chapter and the earnestness and reflection of time and place of which I really love.

This one was put together, as is the norm, by submissions from the community and was to raise money for a hospital in Nokomis, Saskatchewan. It was published in 1980.

It has lots of recipes worth a look and the whole cookbook is very charming. As is always the case with cookbooks of this type the recipes vary greatly in quality. But today I wanted to reinvent one that was, to be honest, not one that I would have ever made in its original form!

This is a recipe for "Chunky Wiener Heroes". It was conceived as a triple-decker sandwich using hot dogs and, among other things, a mustard-margarine mixture!

While this recipe is very dated, the idea of a triple-decker sausage (as opposed to hot dog) sandwich with cheese and a sauce did appeal me. I decided to reinvent the recipe while keeping these aspects.

Our Sausage Hero Sandwich starts with sausage that has already been cooked. I would suggest using Hot Italian Style (which I did) or a German Bratwurst Style sausage.

You can prepare the sausage anyway you want, but for reasons that will become clear, I would suggest making them as I did in a previous Left Chapter recipe, Slow Cooker Beer and Sauerkraut Sausages.

For the sandwich bread we are going to replace the French Bread (which would have been very hard to cut in three as the original recipe suggests anyway!) with three toasted slices of rye bread. Make sure to toast the bread as otherwise the bread will become soggy (and the toasting replaces the oven portion of the original).

In place of the (awful) mustard-margarine blend, we will use instead a blend of hot mustard and mayonnaise. You want one part hot mustard for each two parts mayo stirred thoroughly to make this sauce. For the mustard you can use Coleman's or one of any number of European ones. I used a Polish style one I bought at a local deli.

Coat the first piece of bread with the sauce and then place the cooked sausage on top cut in half lengthwise. On my sandwich I managed to fit three slices of sausage.

On top of this layer place another slice of rye. Top this slice with Swiss Cheese and cover the cheese with a thick layer of sauerkraut. You can use fresh deli bought sauerkraut, sauerkraut from a jar or, if you made the recipe I linked to above, the incredibly flavorful kraut you get from slow cooking it with beer, seasonings and the sausages themselves!

Top with another slice of the toasted rye, slice in half, and serve with ice cold beer!

It is an absolutely delicious sandwich. Enjoy.


See also: The Oliver: Reinventing a 50's Colossal Salami Sandwich -- Vintage Cookbook TBT

See also: The Ninkasi: The Ultimate Game/Party Day Submarine Sandwich