Country Style Pork Spare Ribs and Sauerkraut

Made these ribs the other day, my only change was to add extra sauerkraut and a little sliced onion, and loved them. I also wanted to make Steve’srecipe so made sure to have leftover. WOW is that good! Thanks to both of you! Will be making again for sure!

Mom always made this recipe except quartered russet potatoes on bottom of pan. Dad’s favorite was potatoes on bottom, sauerkraut on top and ribs coated on top. With bbq sauce. I never cared for bbq sauce but loved the flavor of potatoes covered with sauerkraut. Could eat a whole plate of them. Thanks for reminding me of this dish. Will make this again on a regular basis.

Very delicious recipe thank you for the delicious idea! I made this using baby back ribs but also added sliced onion and cooked it on stovetop in my stainless Dutch oven for about 2.75 hours then added thick slices of russet potatoes for a complete one pot meal and it was delicious! It reminded me of my girlhood friends mother, who was German American, and she often made this and left it on the stove for my friend (&me) to eat after school. I was trying to replicate her recipe for her savory ribs, kraut and potatoes and let me tell you, your recipe with my addition of onion & potatoes was like eating Gloria’s mothers cooking from her pot! I’m 65 years old now but the other day when I cooked this recipe I was 15 again! She didn’t add apples or brown sugar to her recipe either and I have searched for many years to get a similar recipe as hers. I don’t cook as much as I used to as I’m alone and living with bone cancer and esophageal cancer so I try to eat and cook as naturally as I can when I have the energy. I know my family would love this dish as well. The sourkraut turns into the most delicious and savory taste! I would love to see more of your wonderful recipes and ideas! I didn’t cook an entire rack, just about half of the rack and I had leftovers that I will reheat and enjoy it for dinner tonight. Thank you for sharing your recipe and bless you & your family!

I just have to comment that sauerkraut was a pregnancy craving for me too. But only with my son not with an of my 3 girls! Weird! Will be trying the recipe tonight.

Hi Heather!

Definitely no hate mail here. I was just buzzing recipes and came across this one. I’ve eaten this for as long as I can remember (close to 50 years) and I still make it for my family. Sometimes I kick it up a pinch and add caraway to the pot. Also, for anyone not too fond of the sourness, a grated potato or two added to the kraut at prep time will mellow it slightly and the starch thickens the juices a wee bit. I serve this with bread dumplings, potato dumplings or the pufly baking powder drop biscuuts. Thank you for making me kraut hungry! Yum!

My Hungarian mother in law makes a dish similar to this one which was always one of my favorites, but I didn’t really know that pork and sauerkraut was a thing. I grew up around a lot of Italian food, so nothing remotely like this ever made the menu. Having made it at home, my wife said ‘ did you make my mom’s pork and sauerkraut’? Apparently she too thought her mom was the only one who made it! Great recipe. I added a 1/2 tsp of juniper berries, and used whole peppercorns (like my MIL). Great result. I used the kraut and the juice. The only thing I’ll change is to use more sauerkraut (love the stuff) and maybe dice the pork before cooking, taking off any large bits of fat. When MIL makes this we typically eat it with a crusty loaf, but I can see southern style biscuits also being awesome. If you haven’t tried it with a good loaf of bread, butter optional, (bakery rye is nice) – try it ) Many Thanks for the recipe!

Mom made this when I was growing up. She made hers in a cast iron skillet and the sour kraut would get a little brown and carmalized from the pork drippings.She put her ribs on top of the kraut and maybe flipped it around in the skillet after cooking awhile. Not sure if it was in oven or top of stove though. Very plain but so deliscious and flavorful. Just ribs , kraut and pepper too.

I grew up in Pennsylvania where pork and sauerkraut is a tradition on New Year’s Day. Despite living here most of my life I never tried it before last year when I decided I’d give it a go. I followed a recipe, in the crock pot, with apples and brown sugar and it was just ok, not very good, so I almost thought one and done, don’t have to do that again. I found your recipe and thought OK, I can give a try one more time, and oh my, it is SO DELICIOUS! We all loved it! Such a simple recipe, the pork just fell apart and the flavors all blended beautifully. I’ve been happily eating leftovers for a week! Thank you!

Same here! Mom made this and so do I. I always add a big onion chopped up too. We eat it with mustard on the side for dipping meat in if you want. Do you know what gives it that great flavor? I’ll tell you but you might not like me afterwards. It’s the GREASE! Yep! All that flavorful fat! LOVE IT! I’m making my grocery list and this is going on it. Yes homemade biscuits with it too thank you for sharing!

Nice, can’t comment on the flavor yet because I have not made it yet. But so many recipes add brown sugar, sweet white wine and other off the wall ingredients. Been looking for something like my Mom made! We had these fairly regular in the winter in the 60s and 70s. We raised a lot of hogs so pork dishes were common at our house. One of my faves was sauerkraut and anything! LOL Mom stuffed ducks with it and we even had hot dogs and kraut cooked casserole style. Will be cooking this but I know my Mom never put sugar or wine in her’s and this is one of few I have found that isn’t ruined. My wife made the kraut ribs and wine, it smelled great but my first bite barely stayed down. Trying yours this week.

Hello Heather,
I just made C. S. ribs and sauerkraut last week but used brown sugar, as my mother did. Done properly they are, and were, delicious – as always. One just has to be judicious when applying the brown sugar. However, I’m following your recipe next week and expect it will be delicious as well My wife loves sauerkraut and we use it frequently., but she loves it without any amendments added, so she should love this approach. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Thank you for sharing this recipe I have always made them in the crockpot but I find sometimes the crockpot tends to dry things out so I cook my roast in my Dutch oven on low and was so happy to see these done in a Dutch oven going to try it tonight can’t wait I’ll let you know how it turns out thanks again for sharing I also don’t like to add all those ingredients I think it takes away from the kraut and pork flavor.

My family had an almost identical recipe in our family. We are Dutch so that might explain the difference between the recipes. Mom had a special cast iron pan that was flat on the bottom and came up on the sides 2.5 inches with a glass lid to make it in.

I always add sliced apples and rye seeds to this recipe. I loved how the pork tasted searing it. I never tried that before. Will be making this often. Thank you

I’m nearing 70, and I’ve craved this recipe from my childhood all these years! My mom passed early so I never got the recipe. This looks fabulous, and I can’t wait to peruse all yoour recipes. I’ve been having a problem finding anything in the meat section that is labled as Country-Style ribs. In the old days I used to make country style BBQ ribs. I don’t even know if they were beef or pork. They were long and meaty, no bones. Now everything is called short ribs and sparefibs and nothing looks like what we grew up with.
Mom made your recipe here, I don’t remember a dutch oven and I’ve never used one, but it sounds like the ticket! Also, her ribs had long bones—more bone than meat, but was finger-licking good! I’m
SO gladI’ve found your site!!

My Mom made this when I was young ! She made it with her homemade sweet & sour kraut with bacon ,also added potatoes and barley to it . Served us a big bowl with fresh polish rye bread and butter ! Yummo !

This is basically just like my family has made it for who knows how many generations. I’ve not tried searing the ribs but I will try that. We always have mashed potatoes and you’ll probably hate this part, but for the last hour we cut up some hotdogs into thirds and let them cook away in the juices… yum! I think my mother and grandmother added the hot dogs to get the kids to like the sauerkraut and it worked!