The Philosophy of Food, Issue #002: Apple Sauerkraut and Bratwursts (New Recipe)

So, I spent about a month of my summer in 2009 in Europe.  While I was there I spent a day in Cologne, Germany and had a glorious dish called a "meat platter."

Pictured: the manliest dish your eyes will ever taste.

Now, included with this glorious dish was something I had never tried before (at least not knowingly): sauerkraut. As a child I was extremely picky about what I ate and somehow in my extreme pickiness I never tried this glorious side-dish.  Fast forward to a couple weeks ago when I see a two pound bag of the stuff sitting next to the sausages at my local supermarket.  Without thinking, I snatched it up.  I say without thinking, because I had absolutely no idea what to do with the stuff.  After Google-ing around for recipe ideas, I came up with this:

The Ingredients
-4 bratwursts
-Roughly 2/3 pounds sauerkraut.  I used 1/3 of a two pound bag. . .
-3 pieces of maple bacon, cooked and crumbled
-1/2 yellow onion, chopped
-2 cloves of garlic, diced
-1 tsp caraway seeds
-1 cup Oliver Winery hard apple cider
-1 cup chicken stock

The Process
I'm not going to lie.  My methodology for this dish isn't that complicated: toss everything in a saucepan, cover, and cook until the juices go down enough for the dish to not be too soupy. 

Here's how it looked once it started cooking.

And, here it is at the point where I took it off the heat and started to chow down.

The Results

And here's how it looked on my plate.

If you want something really spicy, this isn't the dish for you.  I tend to put creole seasoning in just about everything I make, so for me this was a bit of a breath of fresh air.  Most of the taste experience of this dish seems to come from the sauerkraut and the apple cider.  The recipes I looked at for guidance in constructing this dish all called for actual whole apples.  The whole thing tastes a little bit sweet and a little bit salty, with the bratwursts making a mostly textural contribution.  The dish isn't bland, but it's also not jump out of your pants exciting either.

Now, there are a few things I would do differently next time.  First off, I'd cook the bacon longer.  Until it's a little bit black and crispy.  As it is, it's not contributing very much to the taste or texture of the dish.  I also might use more, but I'd try a couple other things out first.  Namely, I'd use less sauerkraut.  One of the issues formulating this recipe was that other recipes call for sauerkraut by weight rather than by volume, which makes it difficult to measure out if your package has more than the recipe calls for.  So. . . maybe cut down to 1/3 or 1/2 pound of sauerkraut.  I'd also cut down the amount of chicken stock and apple cider to 1/2 cup each.  I meant to only use 3/4 cup of each, but realized to late that I was using the 1/3 cup measuring cup not the 1/4 cup measuring cup.  My last suggestion has less to do with the recipe itself and more on how to serve it.  This dish desperately needs a starch to accompany it.  Mashed potatoes should do, or maybe some fresh rye bread.