Pork and Sauerkraut is a traditional dish eaten on New Year’s to bring good luck for the year ahead.
If you’re looking to start your year off right, with some extra luck and plenty of tasty food, you’ve got to try this Pork and Sauerkraut recipe. You’re just a couple hours away from an amazing pork loin roast cooked with sauerkraut and apples. (And if you want to speed things up, you’ll want this Instant Pot Pork and Sauerkraut recipe.)
New Year’s Good Luck Foods
Pork and Sauerkraut is a dish based on traditional Polish and German cuisine. It’s a tasty mix of salty, sour, and sweet flavors that has become a New Year’s tradition in parts of America.
It’s not clear to me why, but it’s believed that eating pork and sauerkraut on new years day will bring good luck and good fortune in the upcoming year. Who doesn’t want some extra luck for the year ahead? Sounds good to me!
Read about this dish and other good luck foods for the New Years, like collard greens and black eyed peas if you’re in the Southern US.
How To Make Pork And Sauerkraut
To make this one pot roast, you mix sauerkraut, chopped onions, granny smith apples and caraway seeds (optional) together. The apples might sound odd to you here, mixed with sauerkraut as they are, but they offer a burst of sour sweetness that really works with the pork. You know, in the way that some people like having applesauce with pork chops. It’s like that. The caraway, if you love it like I do, is always a great pairing with cabbage. Don’t leave it out unless you really don’t like it.
So, you mix those ingredients together and then put them into a roasting pan. Push the mixture towards the edges of the pan so that not much is on the middle bottom. Then put a nice pork loin in that bare middle of the pan. The roast should be fat side up so that the fat melts down into the meat as it cooks.
Roast it at 300°F until the internal temperature on an instant read thermometer is at least 145°F, 24-27 minutes per pound. That is the minimum temperature recommended by the National Pork Board. If you like your pork roast to be more well done, roast it for longer.
Once the roast is cooked through, mix a bit of brown sugar in with the sauerkraut. This is the last bit of sweetness. Adding it at the end prevents the sugars from scorching during roasting.
How To Serve
Slice the roast and serve it with the sauerkraut alongside. Some fluffy white rice or mashed potatoes are great with this too.
I hope that your year ahead is full of luck, peace, and joy. Happy New Year!
Podcast Episode: Making Pork And Sauerkraut
Listen to learn how to make this recipe, along with some great tips from Christine, by clicking the play button below:
Listen to more Recipe of the Day episodes here.
PrintPork and Sauerkraut Recipe
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 90 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Category: Entrée
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: German
DESCRIPTION
Pork and Sauerkraut is a traditional dish eaten on New Year’s to bring good luck for the year ahead.
Ingredients
- 3 lb. pork loin
- 2 granny smith apples, peeled and sliced in 1/4-in. slices
- 1 small onion, sliced
- 16 oz. sauerkraut, not drained or rinsed
- 1 tsp. caraway seeds (optional)
- 3/4 tsp. garlic powder, divided
- 1/8 + 1/4 teaspoons black pepper, divided
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 2 Tbsp. packed brown sugar
Instructions
- Take the pork loin out of the refrigerator. Preheat the oven to 300°F.
- In a large bowl, combine the apples, onion, caraway seeds (if using), sauerkraut, 1/4 teaspoon of the garlic powder, and 1/8 teaspoon of black pepper.
- Transfer the sauerkraut mixture to a medium roasting pan, leaving behind any juices that accumulated at the bottom of the bowl. Push the mixture to the edges of the pan, leaving the bottom middle of the pan empty.
- Sprinkle the roast all over with the salt and with 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder and 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper. Place roast fat-side-up in the cleared middle of the roasting pan.
- Roast until an instant read thermometer reads 145°F, 24-27 minutes per pound. Remove roasting pan from oven. Stir the sauerkraut mixture around a bit. Let everything rest for 15 minutes.
- Increase oven heat to 450°F. Put roasting pan back into oven and roast for 10 minutes.
- Remove from oven. Transfer pork to a cutting board. Stir brown sugar into sauerkraut. Slice pork. Serve pork with sauerkraut.
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This post originally appeared in December 2018 and was revised and republished in December 2023.