Choucroute Garnie

Choucroute garnie is sauerkraut slow-simmered in white wine and piled with an assortment of pork and sausages. It's Alsace's border-country platter, and it's honest to say upfront that it shares its core idea — pickled cabbage simmered with pork and sausage — with the German side of the Rhine; Alsace has passed between French and German rule more than once across its history, and the dish reflects that shared culinary ground rather than belonging cleanly to one side of the border.

What it actually is

Sauerkraut simmers for a long stretch in a dry Alsatian white wine — often a Riesling — along with juniper berries, bay leaf and often a little goose or pork fat, softening its sharp edge without erasing it entirely. Alongside it, a mix of pork cuts and sausage varieties cooks through: a piece of smoked pork, sometimes a ham knuckle, and a few types of sausage such as Strasbourg-style frankfurters, are the common core. Boiled potato joins everything on the plate as the starch.

The dish is a platter built from separately cooked components landing together, not a single stew cooked as one — the sauerkraut carries the sausage and pork's flavour by simmering alongside them, but each part still holds its own texture on the plate.

How it's served

• On one large plate or platter, the sauerkraut as a bed with the meats and sausages arranged on top.
• With boiled potato and often mustard, on the side.
• Hot, as a substantial main, traditionally paired with the same white wine used in the cooking.

Writing it on a menu

• Note sulphites from the wine used in the simmer.
• List which meats and sausages are included, since the exact combination varies by kitchen and some guests will have a preference.
• Say if a lighter or vegetarian version exists, since the traditional platter is meat-heavy across the board.
• Mention the dish's Alsatian, Franco-German border heritage if a guest asks why it resembles a German sauerkraut-and-sausage plate — it's the same regional tradition, not a coincidence.