{"id":868,"date":"2015-05-19T16:31:16","date_gmt":"2015-05-19T21:31:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pcandres.com\/?p=545"},"modified":"2015-11-06T13:54:41","modified_gmt":"2015-11-06T19:54:41","slug":"free-association-ain%e2%80%99t-free-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/?p=868","title":{"rendered":"Free Association Ain\u2019t Free: Beer, Brats &amp; Cabbage Soup"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0;float:none\"><iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fthesoupblog.com%2F%3Fp%3D868&amp;layout=button_count&amp;show_faces=true&amp;action=like&amp;font=arial&amp;colorscheme=light&amp;width=450&amp;height=30\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowTransparency=\"true\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width: 450px; height: 30px;\"><\/iframe><\/div><div id=\"attachment_548\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/pcandres.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/Cabbage-flow-chart1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-548\" class=\"wp-image-548 size-medium\" title=\"Cabbage flow chart\" src=\"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/Cabbage-flow-chart1-300x243.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"243\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/Cabbage-flow-chart1-300x243.jpg 300w, https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/Cabbage-flow-chart1.jpg 646w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-548\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sigmund Freud Meet Corporate America; Corporate America: Sigmund Freud<\/p><\/div>\n<p>I saw a cabbage in the store today.<\/p>\n<p>Sorry if that sounds like a bad Emily Dickinson parody.\u00a0 That\u2019s just how this week\u2019s soup got started. I began with a head of red cabbage and proceeded to free associate.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t the most direct route to a wonderful entr\u00e9e, but <em>c\u2019est la vie<\/em>.\u00a0 Actually <em>das ist Leben <\/em>would be more accurate.<\/p>\n<p>Moving on.<\/p>\n<p>Cabbage. Rabbits eat them.\u00a0 Rabbits are cute and cuddly.\u00a0 Rabbits have big brown eyes.\u00a0 Rabbits are delicious? No, that doesn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n<p>Americans won\u2019t eat rabbits.\u00a0 Laurie Ochoa, the food editor at the <em>Los Angeles Times<\/em> called it the \u201cBambi effect.\u201d We can\u2019t eat something that cute.\u00a0 Chickens, pigs, cows, no problem.\u00a0 But Thumper?\u00a0 Uh-uh.<\/p>\n<p>I tried again.\u00a0 Cabbage.\u00a0 Sauerkraut.\u00a0 Susie serves it with caraway seeds. It\u2019s fabulous.\u00a0 Much better.<\/p>\n<p>I chopped up a whole head of cabbage.\u00a0 Added it to the stock.\u00a0 Put in seasonings and two tablespoons of caraway seeds and simmered for half an hour.<\/p>\n<p>Well, it looked good on paper.\u00a0 Sadly, when you simmer caraway seeds in stock, the seeds lose that fresh rye bread taste they\u2019re so famous for and fall into a lingering bitterness.\u00a0 And while I can relate, I\u2019m not about to serve it to my friends and family.<\/p>\n<p>Take three.<\/p>\n<p>Cabbage. German food. Bratwurst. Beer. Mustard. Summertime.\u00a0 Yeah, that\u2019s the one. I hoped.<\/p>\n<p>Not so sure of myself anymore, I got heads of green and red cabbage and shredded both of them in my cuisinart.\u00a0 Since my wife\u2019s a huge slaw advocate, I figured I\u2019d kill two birds with one stone and reduce waste too.\u00a0 Throwing out a whole pot of soup definitely had me counting my pennies.<\/p>\n<p>Next I roasted several bratwurst in the oven (Yes, I should have used the grill but since the grill is outside, it\u2019s makes multitasking a bit difficult.), sliced them up, put them and the green cabbage in some stock, added mustard and a cup of German style lager.<\/p>\n<p>I went with the green cabbage because it has a more summery flavor to me.\u00a0 That and I was still clinging to the possibilities of sauerkraut. The lager was just a whim.\u00a0 As I poured it in, the strong yeasty smell of it made me think I should have used a darker beer, but the fresh taste of the lager complemented the cabbage perfectly and brightened up the soup considerably.<\/p>\n<p>The result was incredibly good. The fat from the bratwurst lent a wonderful richness to the soup\u2019s broth, giving it a consistency like liquid velvet.\u00a0 Easily the Soup Blog\u2019s best broth to date.<\/p>\n<p>We ate it out on the patio and the girls all loved it, the eldest, the one who hates bratwurst, even had seconds.\u00a0 It was a perfect lead-in to their first drive-in movie experience.\u00a0 Unfortunately that experience wasn\u2019t so perfect.\u00a0 Something about having to go to the bathroom and setting off the car alarm\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Take four.<\/p>\n<p><em>FYI:\u00a0 To make terrific best bloody marys (maries?), use aquavit, a caraway flavored spirit, instead of vodka.\u00a0 It tastes like a New York deli. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Beer, Brats &amp; Cabbage Soup<br \/>\n<\/strong>(serves 6-8)<br \/>\n4 bratwurst<br \/>\n4 cups green cabbage, shredded<br \/>\n6 cups stock<br \/>\n1 t mustard (I used Dijon)<br \/>\n1 cup good beer (I used a German-style lager)<br \/>\nSalt &amp; pepper to taste<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Roast four bratwurst in the oven at 350\u00b0 (do I have to say Fahrenheit?) for 30-40 minutes, remove from the oven and slice.<\/li>\n<li>Shred a head of cabbage in a food processor (use the grater blade), save the extra cabbage for coleslaw.<\/li>\n<li>Add cabbage, brats, mustard, beer, and seasoning to stock.\u00a0 Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer for 30 minutes or longer.<\/li>\n<li>That\u2019s all.<\/li>\n<li>We served this soup with grilled chicken and coleslaw (naturally) out on the patio.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><em>Image Credit: An MBA\u2019s impression of free association, with an emphasis on the bottom line.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Soup Blog draws a line from Asia last week to Germany this week, an axis not seen for many a decade.\u00a0 Unlike then, these results are <em>wunderbar<\/em>. \u00a0Give it a try and let me know how it works out for you.\u00a0 <em>Ich werde lesen <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">und<\/span> antworten.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I saw a cabbage in the store today. Sorry if that sounds like a bad Emily Dickinson parody.\u00a0 That\u2019s just how this week\u2019s soup got started. I began with a head of red cabbage and proceeded to free associate.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t the most direct route to a wonderful entr\u00e9e, but c\u2019est la vie.\u00a0 Actually das [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[113,74,126,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beef","category-cabbage","category-no-dairy-products","category-pork"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=868"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2208,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868\/revisions\/2208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}