Your swiller. Your cook. Your curmudgeon. Your Sauerkraut Yankee.
What is a Sauerkraut Yankee?
The term originated as an insult by Confederate soldiers in the American Civil War toward the Pennsylvania Dutchmen fighting in the Union army, and in time after the war became a general nickname for the Pennsylvania Dutch as a whole. It reflected their German ethnicity and linguistic and cultural “otherness” in the mostly-true stereotype as sauerkraut-eaters surrounded by an English-speaking society.
Who is this Sauerkraut Yankee?
My name is Adam, I’m originally from Pennsylvania, and I’ve been living near the charming town of Freising in Upper Bavaria, Germany for a number of years now. It seemed like a clever name. But I really do like sauerkraut.
Why is he a Sauerkraut Yankee?
Because I’m of German extraction, born and raised among the hills of southeast and central Pennsylvania! While the explicit “Pennsylvania Dutch” aspect of my heritage was something largely unrealized to me until within the last few years, it’s something I’ve been diving into lately. I very much enjoy finding connections between my homeland and my adopted homeland of Germany.
What is this Sauerkraut Yankee doing with a website?
Isn’t that the million-dollar question? While this wasn’t intended as a food blog, I do eat and cook a lot and have strong opinions about food both by itself and as a means of conveying identity and culture. I’ll probably get into that in more detail. I also like to travel, read, sing, drink, brew, and many other things. This is as much of an adventure for me as it is for you.
the sauerkraut yankee 