Local staple sauerkraut dubbed a 'miracle food'
By Bob Petrie

Go ahead, pile it alongside your country-style spare ribs, have a bigger helping with those pork hocks, and if you choose to defile your Sheboygan bratwurst with sauerkraut, the more the better.Wisconsin's favorite cooked cabbage staple is enjoying a rebirth as a healthy food. Extract from kimchi sauerkraut has been effective in fighting fatal avian flu in infected chickens, according to a South Korean study getting lots of media attention in recent weeks. And other scientific studies have shown that eating several servings of sauerkraut a week can help prevent some forms of cancer. Rotten old cabbage will kill everything," said Jeff Colby, 48, of Cleveland, who stopped Friday at Miesfeld's Triangle Market outside of Sheboygan. Sauerkraut manufacturers are riding a healthy wave of new popularity for the old standby, known in many areas as a garnish for hot dogs, brats and a side dish for many pork entrees. A one-cup serving of sauerkraut provides a good amount of the daily value of vitamins C and K, and is high in antioxidants. "It's starting to come back (and) be seen again as the 'superfood' it really is," said Chris Smith, vice president for marketing for the Fremont Company, makers of Frank's Quality Kraut. Sales of sauerkraut are going up as reports of the bird flu study continue to spread around the country, Smith said. Both kimchi and traditional sauerkraut are high in lactic acid bacteria, seen in the Korean study as a possible reason for success against avian flu. Health officials worldwide worry that if the fatal virus mutates to one that can be passed from human to human, a pandemic could result. It has a long history of having a medicinal effect," said Smith, whose company is in its centennial year of making Frank's kraut. In Minneapolis, after a TV station aired the story about how 11 of 13 chickens in Korea started recovering from the dreaded flu after being fed the kimchi extract, Smith said sales of the Frank's brand in 54 Twin Cities' stores jumped dramatically. "It was a 77 percent increase in sales just out of nowhere," Smith said Friday from his office in Fremont, Ohio. Ryan Downs, co-owner of Great Lakes Kraut Co. in Bear Creek, a village of 400 people near Clintonville, says he's happy for the sales boost, but cautions against making too much of the bird flu study. "I do think there's some validity to this (but) I'm not going to shout it to the rooftops because I don't want people to have false hopes," Downs said in a phone interview Friday. "But I can tell you this, it's not going to hurt you to eat sauerkraut, it's only going to help you." His company will produce 175,000 tons of canned, jar and bagged kraut this year at its three plants, in Bear Creek, Shiocton, and Shortsville, N.Y., with Downs saying the last of the autumn harvest arrived Friday afternoon. A food store chain called this week to see if Great Lakes Kraut Co. "could race a truck" down to the Appleton area to keep its shelves stocked, after the publicity from the avian flu-sauerkraut study. "Our sales have been strong, not explosive, but this thing is just starting to get legs, too, the last 48 hours," Downs said. In Sheboygan, Chuck Miesfeld, president of Miesfeld's, says the kraut fervor has yet to catch on here. The store sells two-pound refrigerated bags of Krrrrisp Kraut, made by Great Lakes. "It sells good," Miesfeld said, "(but) I haven't seen sales pick up since this (story) broke." Most people in the Sheboygan area serve sauerkraut with spare ribs and pork hocks, but "brats and sauerkraut aren't as prevalent as it is 60 miles to the north and south of here," he said. Some prefer making and canning their own kraut, in large crocks where the smashed-up cabbage sits in a cool, dark place for about 20 days to ferment until it's ready. "We eat it because we like it," said Lorraine Wunsch, 70, of Haven, who just canned 15 quarts using 35 pounds of cabbage. "The bought-en stuff is too sour, too acidy. We like it homemade." Beverly Bayless, 69, a sauerkraut lover from Palos Heights, Ill., who was shopping at Miesfeld's, says she's encouraged by the new health reports. "I'm sure we'll stock up," she said.