colder’n kraut adjective phrase
2009 Benfield Mt Born 130 = It’s very, very cold outside. The kraut referenced here is made by fermenting cabbage in a churn. It was called “kraut,” short for sauerkraut. It was canned, kept, and served cold. This expression was used almost exclusively to weather.
—Dictionary of Southern Appalachian English
It’s certainly colder’n kraut this morning in Brasstown. Yesterday was cold too! The only snow I’ve seen is a few flurries.
In the days before canning jars and crocks folks made kraut in barrels and dished it out as it was needed.
Matt’s father, Papaw Tony, told me when he was a boy his mother made kraut in a crock and once it had finished working she canned it in jars. To feed her large family she did this several times during the summer leaving the last run of kraut in the crock. They would eat it first.
Barrels and crocks were often stored under the house or in a lean-to on a side of the house. The kraut left in them throughout the winter was indeed cold when it was dished out to eat.
Last night’s video: Breakfast by the Woodstove.
Tipper
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I was given a couple of heads of cabbage around Thanksgiving. I had been wanting to try your recipe for kraut. I did and it is so good. My mom use to make it in a crock. I told her how good your recipe is and she had to try it too. Tonight for dinner I used your recipe for pizza crust to make dinner. I will be making my own from now on. It was delicious. What pizza sauce do you use, or do you make your own?
Deborah, that is wonderful!! I’m so glad you like them both 🙂 I use a brand called Classico
Hi Tipper,
We had the three heated dog beds plugged in last night for the dogs. They sleep in the blg we use as a library and art room. They really enjoyed it in that we didn’t see them all day today. When we did see them they came crawling out their dog door very slowly to get their pats and treats.
My family made kraut. It was always kept in a crock as it was working in the cellar or in Grandma’s spring house. After it was sour enough, daily tasting proved that, it was canned in pint jars. We had it with pinto beans, cornbread, butter, onions, and a big glass of milk. Sometimes we would get a jar out of the cellar and eat it as a snack. I really love it. I don’t make kraut now but I still love getting a jar and eating it with my pintos, cornbread, milk, butter, and onions. Now, that is good eatin’.
Kathy Patterson .
my grandma kept all her canned kraut in her root cellar under ground dug back into the bank of a hill it was like a cave stayed 1 temp year round
We are warming up today in my part of WV. It’s gonna be up in the 30’s. I don’t hear anyone say colder than kraut here. We mostly say it’s blue cold. Hubby and I do love to eat kraut though…even though I have never made it. One of my sisters is supposed to come for a visit tomorrow if the weather stays calm. I love love the snow, but this weekend I hope and pray it holds off a bit so she can travel safely across the mountains to visit our mama…and me.
Yes, “cold at kraut” was quite common when I was growing up. The cole/cold dilemma I described previously was part of what I thought about in school after I had finished the test and had to wait forever for the rest of the class to finish.
It was 15º at Dusty’s house, he said. I waited until it was 24º here before I got up.
Morning everyone. Speaking of kraut. I have 2 jars fermenting in the pantry. Your recipe Tipper. Day 6 today and smelling good. Strange my mom and her sisters never made kraut. I can understand my mom not wanting the work. They did make sun pickles. I liked to look at the slice of sourdough sitting on top. To this day I can’t stand my sandwich when the bread gets wet from food. I did love the pickles. As for snow. We had one day after Christmas I think. Not much though. I’ve been telling my son I don’t need any this winter. 3 years in the California mountains was enough to last me. Well yesterday I was really home sick. I guess the mountains stay with you. Now I would like at least one day of snow. The weather station says there’s a chance on the 22nd and 27th. Here in NE Arkansas we get a few days of snow in winter, December mostly. Maybe nothing this year. Hope you are all well. Hugs to Granny. Anna from Arkansas.
Good morning Tipper, Matt and Acorns. It was 12F last night and at 11Am it is 20F. Yesterday it was never over 18F but it started at 5F. We won’t talk about wind chill. T Praise GOD for my dream of the super cold last week of December and the month of January. I also Praise him for the underpinning of our trailer. We are so blessed by our Heavenly Father. I have always said “colder’n’kraut”, yep it’s one word. Mama and Little Granny (her Mama) always said it. I keep everyone here and up Wilson Hollow in my prayers. I’m always thinking and praying for Granny Wilson for GOD to comfort her, to give her strength and rest. I love y’all.
46 in Central California but is so foggy this morning I can’t see the house across the street. It will hopefully burn off later this morning and we’ll have a sunny rest of the day.
My dad had very descriptive terms for how cold it was but I won’t share them! He was a Minnesota boy who lived there until WW2 brought him to California.
Call your County Extension Office and ask about the cold-hardiest cabbages (ones that can stay in the ground during the winter, although you MAY have to cover them on the coldest nights). If you need to cover the cabbages to avoid “freezer burn” on the leaves, then it literally IS “colder than kraut.”
I ate lots of sauerkraut growing up…wouldnt’ eat the pigs feet boiled with it..only on a pork chop..I was a fussy kid and it got me in trouble more than once. I still love kraut and have made my own from your recipe 🙂
In Victoria, B.C. Canada it was 38 Celsius, feels like 36 – OR: 3 Fahrenheit, feels like -2 when I got up.
It’s colder than kraut this morning in my neck of the woods. I hope everyone will stay warm.
I have always thought that the cold in reference to kraut had to do with the fact that cabbage, being in the mustard family, was a “cole” crop. So kraut, being made from cabbage, was also a cole creation.
I am disappointed that the Dictionary of Southern Appalachian English says the a kraut was made in a churn. That implies that you would make your kraut in the same vessel that you made your buttermilk in. That, at least in my community, simply not true. We purposely didn’t use the churn jar used to make butter and buttermilk to make kraut. The bacteria we wanted in our cultured milk was different from that found in kraut. I knew of people who Cloroxed their milk churn before and after making kraut but that is sketchy, in my opinion.
A “churn” is a crock but a crock is not necessarily a churn.
Does anybody even care?
It was 22 when my husband got up a little after 7. It was supposed to go down to the upper teens. Tomorrow we are supposed to have rain and a snow flurry or two on Sunday. We’re in the Richmond, Virginia suburbs.
Max Velocity, the YouTube weatherman, said some areas that seldom ever see snow might be in for a treat this weekend. He circled western NC. The cold as kraut temperature will not be good for playing in the snow for most of us, but I’m betting it won’t stop Tipper.
I haven’t developed a taste for kraut.
As always praying for Granny.
Here in east TN, it’s 14 degrees. A good frost on the ground. Supposed to get snow overnight. If it’s gonna be cold, I’d just as well like some snow. Seems like it’s worth it. But just the cold, no thank you. Good day for making chili and corn bread.
It’s up to 26 degrees in Georgia. Too cold for me and unless it snows I’m ready for Spring!
I really enjoyed watching you and Matt having breakfast by the wood stove. You inspired me to try Postum and I love it, especially the cocoa blend.
Stay warm and have a blessed day
That ice at the creek looks mighty cold to me. Praying for Granny!!!
Mommy told me ( born 1907) they had “ice houses” built on the creek to keep milk, butter, eggs, kraut, etc. She said in winter, they’d cut and gather big chunks of ice and put in there and it would last about all summer long. (The water runs cold outa these hills year ‘round.) Mommy made big crocks of kraut and canned it. It was a stinky kitchen when she did it so no one had to tell you she was at it again…lol. She was mighty particular in the turning of it and how and who did it… she wore a net or head covering every time she was in a kitchen…a hair made her sick. Anyway I say colder than kraut and it dang sure is this morning. I’m liking this move cause so far it’s just a dusting of snow and I have not needed my parka…if this is it, I will take it for winter! Keep in mind I just moved 70 miles… Stay warm yall. I’d say now’s good hog harvesting weather…( like I know what I’m talking about-I just heard it some where and it sounds country so I threw it in.) I’m talking smack yall… put your boots on.
It was 19 degrees when I got up this morning here in south central VA. Rime was on everything. We have had no snow or ice recently, just cold. The sun is out this morning which is what I like. It makes my outlook on life so much better.
As far as kraut, my daddy made kraut in a crock in our utility room when I was growing up. After it was made, Mama canned most of it. Personally, it never was my favorite food, but I ate some of it when placed on the table. I’ve never heard of ‘colder n kraut.’
Well, Randy, I had never heard of an armstrong heater. You learned me something. So, I asked Miz Sharon this morning if – after we have had our forecast run of lows in the 20’s and teens – she would be ready to say that was enough winter. She didn’t have to think about it to say, “Yes!” Me I just want winter to be winter then give way for spring to be spring and not be so mixed up I can’t tell. I’ll say what we have now is winter but if not it will do ’till we get some.
Ron, I don’t want to offend anyone by this, I heard a man say he liked the bigger size women-they will shade you in the summer time and keep you warm in the winter! It could be turned around and a woman say that about me! A warning- be mighty careful with anything Randy learns you!
26° this morning in Central Florida we’re only an hour north of Tampa
Thank you! 18° in Laurens, SC this morning! . Happy Friday.
Sandra, I live in southern Greenville County near Princeton, by country standards, that makes us next door neighbors!
Yes it does. anytime I go to Hwy 25, I pass through Princeton. 😉 I go to Pelzer periodically to Bargain Foods and the Flea Market occasionally.
It sure was and is “cold as kraut” yesterday and today. As I write this it is getting warmer from the 13 it wad this morning. This is the temps we had in NH during the winter. While living in Northwood I had the opportunity to watch one of my neighbors had a pig and steer butchered for meat for his family. Amazing! I learned a lot. My neighbor gave me some belly fat to make salt pork for my baked beans and seasoning for veggies. We had a huge crock in our cellar so that’s where I put the fat and some salt. Will be praying for Granny. Have a blessed day.
I’m in sunny Daytona Beach Shores, Fl at a convention. My phone says it’s 36 degrees with a feels like of 31. The windows are so covered in moisture it’s hard to see out even with the sun shining on the window. I don’t think I’ll be walking the beach anytime soon.
8 o’clock and 17 degrees here with a feel like temperature of 11 degrees in southern Greenville county, SC. I am in desperate need of an armstrong heater- a lady to hold me in her arms and keep me warm!
Randy, that’s a kneeslapper!! Mr. Norman’s was good too 🙂 though perhaps considered culturally insensitive by some standards today!
my daddy used to tell a joke, he would say,do you know what kraut is made out of in Germany? People would look very strange, and say no, thinking about it, like what else would they be making it out of, and daddy would say, (Cabbage!!), not many people really thought it was funny, but my daddy, he really thought it was funny, God bless you and have a great day
Norman, a few days ago I read this in an email from the Hoss company located in southern Ga I think. Cauliflower is nothing but a cabbage with a college education!
That’s my kind of joke!
15 degrees here when I rolled of bed this AM. The local forecast indicates the same for Sunday night. When people complain about the cold I tell them it’s not really cold unless you can see your spit freeze before it hits the ground.
When I rolled out of bed,
I hit my head!
When I looked at the thermometer,
it said 222.
I shoulda put the sides up before I went to sleep! Reckon?
26 degrees here in north Alabama
What Richard said!
It’s colder than kraut here this morning. My wood pile gets too small too fast on these mornings. I had never heard that one, but can connect with the phrase origin.
Hi, Richard. where are you in North Alabama? I’m in New Hope in Madison County and it’s 26 here, too. Way too cold to deal with if we’re not going to have snow! lol!
I have never hear “cold as kraut” except here. My grandma from the Ozarks used to can kraut. After her second husband died (she married much-older men both times), she didn’t have a home of her own. She would spend a few months at a time with each of her 4 children. When she stated with us, she lived in a little travel trailer my father had fixed up. It always smelled of sauerkraut and tea. She fermented the cabbage in stoneware crocks and would set a brick on top to keep them from bubbling open. I was always fascinated to see the process.
Baby it’s cold outside! Yes Ma’am it’s cold this morning. It’s 19 here in North Georgia. Our furnace went out, so thank goodness for our electric heaters this morning. Stay warm by the wood stove.
The last couple of days and nights have been cold here too and about 3 or 4 more cold nights are predicted in the forecast. If the weather forecast is correct our chance of snow Sunday is kindly slim to none, a better chance in lower SC and even the coast. I think the local channel that predicted this sometimes gets carried away at the slightest chance of snow. I don’t know about cold kraut, but I can say the brass monkey is singing high tenor this morning and I held it in as long as I could before crawling out from under these warm kivers and going to the bathroom!
My family never made homemade kraut, Daddy is the only one that would eat it. He would usually buy a grocery can of kraut, put a couple of weenies in it and eat it when we had hot dogs. My mother would sometimes mix up milk, sugar, and either vanilla or lemon flavoring for me and my sister and set it outside to freeze for a treat when we were kids on the very cold days. Tipper, I have not watched the video but my grandmother would usually cook her and granddaddy’s breakfast during the winter on a small two eye/lid small wood/coal stove. She would fry the biscuit dough in a cast iron griddle frying pan.
16° today, I think it’s the coldest day this year ,in my area, stay warm and God bless you very much