Happy New Year!
Happy New Year to all!
Anyone out there with the traditional hangover? It puzzled me, however, when I checked Google’s top searches for today, to see “hangover remedies” only ranked at number 80. Far earlier came Rose Bowl information, mummers parades, stores open New Years Day, and a curious desire to cook cabbage. There were several versions of recipe searches for that particular vegetable, including one for sauerkraut.
That gave me an idea: could it be that cabbage and/or sauerkraut is itself a hangover remedy? Aha! It turns out that my supposition was correct:
Casey reckons “I know only a few people who will try this hangover remedy but those who do it swear by it, sauerkraut. It makes some sense – the acid/nadh balance and the nutritional value – but from first hand experience it works rediculously well. I’ve seen it work in the most extreme cases.” If you can’t bring yourself to eat the actually chunky bits, try sauerkraut juice (out of the sauerkraut bottle) mixed with tomato juice, or a good helping of Sauerkraut Hangover Soup (recipe below). Actually while doing a bit of poking around checking out the vailidity of this claim, it appears that eating raw cabbage has been used right through history for preventing as well as curing hangovers, so Casey could well be onto something here.
Google, ain’t it wonderful? And here’s the recipe, for those so inclined. Hangover or no, it sounds pretty tasty:
Sauerkraut Hangover Soup
* 3 slices bacon
* 1 small onion chopped
* 1 teaspoon paprika
* 4 cups water
* 1 ham hock
* 1 green pepper seeded, deribbed, and sliced
* 1 tomato sliced
* 16 ounces sauerkraut
* 1 tablespoon flour
* 1 cup sour cream, plus sour cream for accompaniment
* 1/2 pound spicy smoked sausage thinly sliced
In a Dutch oven over medium-high heat, brown bacon until fat is rendered. Remove bacon with a slotted utensil and reserve for another use. Add onion to bacon drippings and saute until translucent (about 5 minutes). Add paprika, the water, ham hock, pepper, and tomato. Cover, bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until meat is tender (about 1 1/2 hours).
Drain sauerkraut and turn into a colander. Briefly under cold water and drain again. sauerkraut to Dutch oven and simmer 20 minutes; do not overcook.
Remove ham hockfrom pot; pull meat from bones and return meat to pot. In a small bowl stir together flour and the 1 cup sour cream. Add to soup mixture along with sausage. Reheat to serving temperature, stirring; do not boil.
To serve, ladle into soup bowls and serve immediately. Pass a bowl of sour cream.
Happy New Year, Neo, good soup starter – just substitute split peas for the kraut. Or black beans. Mmmm, good, even if you can’t cure a hangover.
Politics, punditry, jello molds, and recipes…. such a diverse menu. Neoneocon is like a box of chocolates – you never know quite what you’ll get. But it’s all worth reading.
For some strange reason I have always loved cabbage and sauerkraut. Never heard of it as a hangover cure, however. Sounds delicious though. Will definitely be adding this to the family recipe book.
Actually, the cabbage thing is a (generally regional) New Year’s day superstition- on New Year’s, you have to eat either cabbabe, or collards or other greens- they’re supposed to represent money and invite prosperity for the new year. Black-eyed peas and collards with pork were extra lucky to my deep South family- collards for “green money”, pork as a symbol of prosperity, and I have no idea how the black-eyed peas got involved, but there they are.
Dear Lab,
In NOLA (New Orleans) the cabbage was for money, the black-eyed peas for luck, and the fat because you caint cook vegetables in de sout without a bit of fat.
Oh! Right. The hangover recipe. Boil water in a saucepan and throw in a bunch of garlic cloves and a sliced or chopped jalapeno or habanero pepper. Pour in some vinegar (wine, white, malt) and simmer 5 min. Throw in a raw egg and chivvy around with a fork or chopsticks. Down the hatch. Tastes like hot & sour soup and works every time. Good for colds, too.
My sure-fire hangover remedy: only drink good stuff. Nobody ever got hung over on Moet-Chandon or premier cru Bordeaux.
Bunch of racists ! 🙂
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/01/01/aides-democrats-have-plan-if-burris-shows-up/
ok. ‘nuf with the identity politics. just thought I’d point out the significance of the only african american senator being blocked from entering the Senate was by Democrats…