Like Jo Jo's and Devil Strips

February 26, 2024 2:16 PM

Suaerkraut balls are a hometown favorite here in Akron, so much that we even named our baseball team after them (well, for only one day), and have our own local sauerkraut ball factory. Of course you can make your own, but they're just not as good.

Hat tip to folks in the MN sushi thread for suggesting this delicious FPP.

posted by slogger (22 comments total)

And I legit teared up when that Eater story got to the closing of Larry's Main Entrance. Not that it was a tearjerker, but because the sauerkraut balls were that good. That place was legendary.
posted by slogger at 2:17 PM on February 26

I have never heard of a sauerkraut ball before today. I might have to try them, although apparently if I make my own they won't be as good.
posted by hippybear at 2:19 PM on February 26 [3 favorites]

I have family from Akron, and as a child visited there yearly from central Pa., have seen the Goodyear blimp and hangar, the soap box derby, cuyahoga falls and so forth, but have never heard of these, a thing I would devour in a heartbeat. The family's got some splainin' to do if they've been hiding this all these years.
posted by OHenryPacey at 2:22 PM on February 26 [3 favorites]

Holy smokes, I need to figure out how to swing a business trip through Akron. Those look like some prime Midwestern eatin'.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 2:25 PM on February 26 [1 favorite]

Also, the two recipes in articles in this post are WILDLY different! The ratio of sauerkraut to meat, the seasoning list... one recipe includes cream cheese!

I'm really interested in trying this out, but the wide variance between the recipes has me wondering what actually is the approach to making these.
posted by hippybear at 2:50 PM on February 26 [2 favorites]

Not actually sauerkraut-ball-related, but shout-out to another late, lamented Ohio institution—Larry’s Bar, Grill, & Seminar.
posted by cupcakeninja at 3:53 PM on February 26

My sister made these once and they were crazy delicious. She said it was such a pain she'll never do it again. However as a NE Ohioan I have several sources of where to buy them. Warm them up in the toaster oven, enjoy with a little hot or yellow mustard for dipping, and *chef's kiss".
posted by Kangaroo at 3:53 PM on February 26 [2 favorites]

Okay, I need to channel my mom here for a second and say “that’s funny, I didn’t know sauerkraut had balls.”

I’ll see myself out now.
posted by ActionPopulated at 4:04 PM on February 26 [4 favorites]

Was a student at Kent State during the 70s. Akron was the closest "Big" city. I will always remember the big fancy downtown hotel had a ballroom called the rubber room...Lots of rubber barrons in Akron in days past.
posted by Czjewel at 4:11 PM on February 26 [2 favorites]

She said it was such a pain she'll never do it again.

Both recipes, despite being basically incongruent aside from using ground pork and sauerkraut, mention making the balls and freezing for later use. i suspect this is a thing you make a zillion of on a Saturday and then dole out for weeks/months later.

Still wondering about the complete mismatch of spices between the two recipes, and the mysterious cream cheese.
posted by hippybear at 4:41 PM on February 26 [1 favorite]

I brought them into the MN Sushi thread; thanks for making the FPP, slogger. I get them in the many German restaurants and craft breweries in Columbus, Ohio, when I visit family, and I suspect you'll find them in Cincinnati, as well, they're a terrific addition to German cuisine. All the ones I've had use cream cheese, which holds them together nicely. Otherwise, there seems to be a lot of variation that I'd guess is regional.

If you visit Maine, look for Morse's sauerkraut, at Morse's in Waldoboro, and at some groceries on an intermittent basis. It's fresh, homemade-style sauerkraut, nothing unusual added, and is the best kraut ever. I need to visit soon, because Morse's sometimes has Lebanon bologna, a salty, dark, Pennsylvania Dutch sliced meat that is delicious, try it in a sandwich with fresh sauerkraut and sharp mustard.

I'm ridiculous hungry and craving Midwestern delicacies, though I've been eating meatball sliders all evening.

ActionPopulated, the jokes are de rigeur when having sauerkraut balls, Midwesterners and dad jokes are deeply connected.
posted by theora55 at 5:03 PM on February 26 [1 favorite]

Huh. My spouse is from Alliance, which is just outside of Akron, and has spoken at length about the utter lack of points of interest of his hometown compared to my hometown of New Orleans, and yet I don't believe they've ever gone on about these things.
posted by egypturnash at 5:58 PM on February 26 [1 favorite]

I love minor-league baseball merch. I will probably buy a sauerkraut balls fitted hat.
posted by monkeymike at 6:28 PM on February 26 [1 favorite]

They do indeed have Sauerkraut Balls caps for sale!

I'm saving my minor league baseball merch dollars for El Paso Chihuahuas at some point.
posted by hippybear at 6:31 PM on February 26

Was a student at Kent State during the 70s. Akron was the closest "Big" city. I will always remember the big fancy downtown hotel had a ballroom called the rubber room...Lots of rubber barrons in Akron in days past.
posted by Czjewel

Oh man, I think you’re referring to the Portage Hotel at the corner of Market and Main. Apparently the ballroom had murals or rubber workers and rubber factories fashioned in rubber from the factories themselves. I heard about it years ago and have mentally bookmarked it for further research. Maybe another FPP…
posted by slogger at 9:24 PM on February 26 [1 favorite]

Not enough meat and sauerkraut dishes out there nowadays. It's a really good combination that marinates the meat while it cooks. I usually do a sauerkraut pie recipe with carroway and juniper berries.
posted by groda at 1:53 AM on February 27 [2 favorites]

Some even say they bring luck in the New Year

This is absolutely A Thing, and probably the only reason anyone I know would make them at home - gotta have sauerkraut balls on New Year's Eve or as part of New Year's Day dinner (depending on family tradition.)

Also multiple folks have sworn to me that eating a sauerkraut ball right before bed will give you crazy possibly prophetic dreams. Hasn't happened to me yet, but who knows?

Grumble grumble grumble:

Food historians and enthusiasts generally agree that the sauerkraut ball has its roots in Akron. (I daresay residents of Cincinnati and Shaker Heights would disabuse me of this claim.)

Why would the tony planned-as-emphatically-non-ethnic Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights have any claim to sauerkraut balls? Sure, there was a restaurant named Gruber's known for its sauerkraut balls recipe but Gruber's actually spent most of its life deep in the actual city of Cleveland, on the near west side or downtown. (Cincy is more plausible, there was a huge German immigrant community there.)

Holiday dinners where an overserved uncle debates the finer points of international politics while brandishing his Great Lakes Christmas Ale

Lawn, mine, off it, you kids. Yeah, Xmas Ale is a "tradition", but for those of us who can remember a time before Great Lakes Brewing even started up (1988) or before Xmas Ale was made (1992) having it appear in an article about a food that probably originated in the 20's or 30's is, well . . .
posted by soundguy99 at 6:19 AM on February 27 [3 favorites]

Okay, so I've had one response in this thread that says every version of sauerkraut balls they've had have included cream cheese.

I'm quite interested in making these, but I'd like some more Akron-esque people to chime in with recipe angles I need to think about.
posted by hippybear at 8:55 PM on February 27

That Gruber's recipe looks amazing, but I don't know what a "food chopper" is. I note it doesn't use cream cheese.

My mother is from Columbus and my father from Coshocton County, so I do have some Ohio connections, however tenuous.
posted by hippybear at 9:07 PM on February 27

hippybear: I'll take a look at the frozen bag of store-bought sauerkraut balls I have at home to see if there is cream cheese in them. I'm not 100% sure about the ones I had yesterday for lunch from On Tap. Larry's definitely had it. I'm not sure I'd consider it a required ingredient. I'll get my sister's take when I talk to her tomorrow.

I think things to focus on would be the ratio of kraut to meat to cream cheese. If not using cream cheese, then some other binder like in the Gruber's recipe. Also, meat choice is very important here. I personally prefer ham, but corned beef is a very, very close second. I'm not one for balls with bratwurst or other sausage, but I certainly wouldn't turn up my nose at a baker's dozen of them. And finally, as usual, stay away from canned sauerkraut; go with jarred or bagged, the higher quality the better, but make sure to finely chop it first.

Damn, now I'll probably try to make some this weekend.
posted by slogger at 2:17 PM on February 28

I appreciate your input, slogger! I might make some this weekend, also. They sound quite appealing. I appreciate the recommendations about meat, as I might have gone for wurst of some sort out of instinct.
posted by hippybear at 2:44 PM on February 28

So I went trawling for recipes today, outside of this post, and basically 80% of the recipes include cream cheese, and the ones that don't are generally labeled as "German sauerkraut balls".

Most of the recipes involve using a sausage meant, sometimes corned beef is mentioned, ham is basically never mentioned.

I haven't cross-referenced recipes that have owned beef with cream cheese... that might be interesting.

Anyway, it seems like the standard recipe involves uncooked sausage and sauerkraut and cream cheese as the binding agent, at least for the Ohio-based recipes.

I'm going to research this more. I might make some tomorrow or Sunday if I'm confident with what I've found.
posted by hippybear at 5:59 PM on March 2