Sauerkraut

Although it may seem as if you’re having—as my husband said when he walked in on me with my arms elbow-deep in a mass of pale-green shreds—“a difficult immigrant experience,” squeezing cabbage and salt together to make sauerkraut is fun. It’s one of the most satisfying things you can do in the kitchen, and it always amazes me how these two cheap ingredients turn into something so delicious.

My dad, who as a kid worked in a Polish butcher shop in Gary, Indiana, and so has a de