The Perpetual Feast

When I smoked the pork tenderloins a few days ago, I left one tenderloin out to use in a Bavarian-style main dish. Bavarian food is more filling and hearty than delicate. Pork is probably the single most important food in Bavaria, with potatoes running a close second. This is food for an early fall day when the air is crisp in the morning, and by dinner you want something a bit substantial.

I originally planned to cook the smoked tenderloin in beer and sauerkraut, hearkening back to the days when I was young, poor, and had never hear of fat grams – and cooked large, cheap fatty pork steaks in sauerkraut and beer for dinner, served with mashed potatoes. But I had already marinated the pork tenderloin in beer and herbs before smoking it, and I didn’t want beer flavor overwhelming the dish, since the pork had a nice flavor of its own. This experiment came out even better than I expected it to. I served it with plan boiled potatoes.

Smoked Pork Tenderloin with Sauerkraut and Apples

1 one pound smoked pork tenderloin
3 cups of good quality sauerkraut, drained
4 medium apples, peeled, cored, quartered, and sliced thinly (I used Gala apples, but any firm apple would do.)
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed

Preheat oven to 350 F. In a medium bowl, mix sauerkraut, apples, and brown sugar together. Place 1/2 of sauerkraut mixture in a casserole that is long enough to hold the pork tenderloin. Place pork tenderloin on top of the sauerkraut mixture and cover with the remaining sauerkraut. Cover casserole and bake for 1 hour. Remove from oven, Slice pork tenderloin cross wise and serve over sauerkraut mixture. This makes 4 four ounce servings at about 4 grams of fat/serving.

The sauerkraut I used was an old-fashioned sauerkraut that was less tangy than most deli sauerkraut – almost a little sweet. I think that regular sauerkraut would work as well.