|| 7 February 2021

Substitutions = Improvements. Sometimes

Of course your chances of having a recipe turning out well is far more likely if you have all the ingredients. But sometimes the substitution for one of the ingredients that you do not happen to have on hand can actual produce an improvement in taste. You like the dish better with the substitution.

That is what happened last evening when I made my version of Choucroute Garni. I did not have any dry white wine. Once previously I had tried substituting apple cider for the wine. The cider made the dish taste too sweet for me. But I remembered in an email discussion of Choucroute Garni with Ann Leslie in NY that she mentioned that she sometimes added an apple to the dish.

I did have some tart apples on hand. I peeled and cored one apple and cut it into 8 pieces and scattered them among the sauerkraut and sausages and such. After the baking, when I tasted the choucroute, I loved the flavor that apple gave to the dish. Actually I liked the taste better than when I made choucroute with white wine.

Sometimes substitutions made out of necessity produce a taste that pleases you more than the regular ingredient.

Back in late 2016 I posted two Nouvelles about Choucroute Garni.

Anne’s first experiments cooking Choucroute Garni

Ann Leslie in NY’s version of Choucroute Garni

be chic, stay slim — Anne Barone