The Smell That Brings Me Back
Or How To Make German Style Cabbage Rolls
Nothing says Christmas like the smell of hot Sauerkraut. Well, in my family at least. It wasn’t Christmas until you had at least 4 “pigs in a blanket”, or German style cabbage rolls.
The smell of them cooking on my grandma’s stove would hit you before they even opened the door. She would have at least 4 stock pots full of these mouth watering balls of meat and cabbage stewing on her stove.
We were a big family and we all loved them. Plus she had enough made to send home with each family. How long this took her to make, I have no idea. Days probably because they aren’t that easy to make.
But that smell, oh the smell. It is something that is ingrained into my brain all these years later. Sauerkraut isn’t a good smell to most people. I mean the name means “sour cabbage” in German. It’s pickled cabbage. People who don’t like Sauerkraut will say it stinks like rotten farts.
Well, they are wrong. It smells like heaven.
As a teen, I loved cooking for my family. My mom gladly handed over the meal preparations to me. She’d give me a blank…
