Question for Delmonico

[Oregon Bill]

Del, mon frere, do have any information on when sauerkraut appears in North America? Friends on another forum are wondering about whether it would have been commonly encountered in 18th-century Colonial America. I would think yes, especially in areas settled by Moravians and "Pennsylvania Dutch."

[Delmonico]

It came in with the German, the Dutch and the French settlers.   Maybe even the English, remember it was used as a way to preserve food, not just because they liked the way it tasted.

[Mogorilla]

I can toss my $0.02, my family came to Illinois from Wurtenburg circa 1850 (both sides) and settled in the central part of the state.   My grandmother was born 1888 and learned to make kraut from her mother.  Kraut and cabbage as a whole was big in the family food prep.   Grandma said you could tell where a person came from by how they fixed their cabbage rolls.  Wurtenburg being south east, grandma used tomatoes and caraway seeds in her cabbage rolls, further north you went, people used kraut to cook the rolls. 

I am pretty sure the Hessian soldiers employed by the Brits had kraut, so I am guessing it was present from the 18th century.

[Delmonico]

A quick look at my handy worn old Collegiate dictionary says it became a work in American English about 1617, so that pretty well conferms it in my book.

[Oregon Bill]

Thankee, gents.

[Scattered Thumbs]

Besides being a preserve sauerkraut was used as a source of ascorbic acid in the Royal Navy to prevent scurvy. That in the days of Captain Cook.