Pork, Saurkraut, Mashed Potatoes and...Dumplings???
By anniepa
@anniepa (27955)
United States
December 28, 2007 3:22pm CST
How many of you here have the following on New Year's Day? I know pork and saurkraut is a universal meal, at least here in the U.S. but I also grew up having dumplings with it. However, when I got married my husband had never heard of having dumplings with pork and saurkraut and I was SHOCKED! Eventually I converted his entire family so now they have dumplings with their traditional New Years meals as well. My question is, is this just a regional custom or is it something passed down in some families, or what? It seems most of the people in my hometown have them but, as I said, my husband is originally from the next town to the north of us and his family had never heard of it. So, do you have dumplings with your pork and 'kraut or is there something else you have to go along with your New Year's dinner? We also usually have lima beans; that's my mom's favorite and she passed it down to me. Happy New Year, no matter what you eat to start the year off!
Annie
5 people like this
13 responses
@Rozie37 (15499)
• Turkmenistan
29 Dec 07
I am with your husband, I have never heard of such a thing. I don't really know what Saurkraut is. My roommate says it is a pickle type thing. I do not really care much for dumplings or mash potatoes. I like some kinds of pork though. I guess I am not as American as I thought I was.
2 people like this
@anniepa (27955)
• United States
5 Jan 08
I don't think it's that you're not as American as you thought, rather I'M not...lol! I've gotten quite a few comments about this being a German dish, which I know sauerkraut is German but I thought the menu I posted about was a common New Year's dinner all over the country...guess not, huh? Also, to me saurkraut and pickled cabbage are two totally different dishes. I'm not sure how sauerkraut is made but it is cabbage and it's "stomped" somehow. Hopefully that doesn't mean some stranger's bare feet were in the sauerkraut I bought from the grocery store...lol.
Annie
@carmelanirel (20942)
• United States
28 Dec 07
I started a similar discussion about the first meal of the New years hoping to get new ideas.. So it's an American tradition? I thought it was a German one.
I myself never remember my Mother making pork and sauerkraut, but my sister said she did and she said this the first New Year I got married. I really don't like pork and on the verge of hating sauerkraut, but make it because my husband wants it and says it brings good luck or something. Well, I don't believe in luck and if I did, then I wouldn't have it very good since I don't really like this dish...
Dumplings sound good, add a little chicken to it and have my own New Years dish..:p
@carmelanirel (20942)
• United States
6 Jan 08
Thanks for the BR, I hope you had a Great New Years day..:)
@deebomb (15304)
• United States
30 Dec 07
I come from the west and not everyone had the meal you suggest for New Years. We never had a spacific food for New Years day. we would all get to gether tough to watch the Rose Parad and always had something dofferent. I now live in Sout Carolina and the meal for New years Day does have Black eyed peas and collard greens or mustard greens. They are supposed to gring luck and financial gain for the coming year. The peas stand for coins, the greens symbolize paper money. This tradition goes back to the civil war when General Sherman went though the sout destorying all the crops. he didn't think that the black eyed peas were a food but only fit for cattle so he left these fields standing and the many in the south survived on these foods. The frist few times I ate blackeyed peas they tasted burnt to me. I have since come to like them. I still don't care for the mustard greens and only like the collard greens when fixed just right.
1 person likes this
@Kowgirl (3490)
• United States
29 Dec 07
We always had black-eyed peas for good luck...
I don't know where that came from but I have
friends from Virginia that would have a fit if
you didn't have them for New Years dinner. So
I know that it is not only from my home states
of Alabama and Georgia but further north as well.
Some people here in Florida will be eating
Gator tail and swamp cabbage along with the black-eyed peas.
No matter what your meal, be thankful for it and
have a Very Happy New Year.
1 person likes this
@theprogamer (10534)
• United States
28 Dec 07
Actually I'd love to do something like that, but the family is too rooted in "tradition" and ANYTHING different is shot down immediately. I have been getting a couple of potshots in with recent years thanks to my being asked to help cook (help with meal) for these events on occasion. I may just go outright when it comes to different meals for the next family event.
1 person likes this
@chrislotz (8137)
• Canada
2 Jan 08
I have eaten pork and saurkraut together but never with mashed potatoes or dumplings. I usually eat mine with rye bread. I will have to give it a try with dumplings but it doesn't sound to appitizing over mashed potatoes, to me. We don't eat it as any tradition. We eat chili as a tradition. I made a big pot of chili yesterday and had my son and daughter-in-law and my hubby's two girls over for supper and we played pool and then cards. I make chili every year for new years because it is easy and doesn't take a lot of time so I get to spend time with the kids and not have to spend all my time cooking. Also after eating so much the whole christmas season it's nice to have something simple.Happy new years to you too, my friend.
1 person likes this
@SpitFire179 (2536)
• Canada
29 Dec 07
out here in Canada the usual meal is turkey with mashed potatoes, mixed veggies or salad, cranberry sause, stuffing, other trimmings like that, oh and gravy.
many people also include a ham into their meal, and sometiems instead they have a ham, sometimes duck, all depending on the family and their preferences, but usually it's a bird and a ham or a bird or a ham.
1 person likes this
@neenasatine (2841)
• Philippines
12 Jan 08
we usually prepare pork dishes, dumplings and pasta for the new year plus desserts... happy holidays
* although my greetings are late already *
@nmhschic2004 (1238)
• United States
29 Dec 07
We always have pork and sauerkraut. We sometimes have mashed potatoes. I have never heard of having dumplings though.
1 person likes this
@dreamy1 (3811)
• United States
28 Dec 07
I've never heard of this dish as popular as a New Year's dish either. I'm was born in the north but my family is from the south (US) and our traditional New Year's day dinner includes black eyed peas and collard greens. These foods mean luck and prosperity (wealth)for the coming year.
1 person likes this
@moneyandgc (3428)
• United States
29 Dec 07
We never really grew up with a customary meal where I grew up. When we moved to the south everyone had cabbage and beans, I think Lima. Something about "health and weath" for the new year.
@janisspaggiari59 (656)
• United States
29 Dec 07
We never have a special New Years dinner but that meal sounds real good to me.
