Foreign Notices, — Germany. 



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a small quantity of salad oil ; he then gets into the barrel, and treads it 

 down with his wooden shoes, till it is well mixed and compact. He next 

 takes another layer of cabbage, and puts salt and pepper on it as before, 

 and treads it again, and so goes on till the barrel is filled. A board is then 

 placed on it, and upon the board some very heavy weights are put; and it 

 remains so ten or fifteen days, when it partially ferments, and a great deal 

 of water swims on the surface : it is then put into the cellar for use. The 

 men who prepare sauerkraut are Tyrolese, and carry their machine, which 

 has not been invented more than ten or twelve years, on their backs, from 

 house to house. 



In the annexed sketch {Jig. 125.), « is the cutting-tray, b the box into 

 which the cabbages are put, c the scoop, d the tub into which the shreds 

 fall. I am, &c. — W. B.S. Aix-la-Chapelle, Nov. 5. 1827. 



125 



To the preceding account from your young correspondent, I add a few 

 general observations. Few things in the domestic economy of the Germans 

 strike an English resident more, than the preparation, far exceeding that 

 in his own country, which they make for the winter consumption of vege- 

 tables. Sauerkraut is a kind of food, of which every family stores up, in pro- 

 portion to its size, one or more large casks ; and, at this time of the year 

 (October and November), the market-places are crowded with huge white 

 pyramids of cabbages (all heart) for sale ; and, in every court and yard into 

 which an accidental peep is obtained, is seen the bustle of preparing them 

 for use, and the baskets of shredded cabbage, which in that state resemble 

 mountains of green-tinged froth, or syllabub. Kidneybeans are another 

 vegetable of which, at an earlier period of the year, the Germans store up 

 large quantities for winter consumption ; a circumstance which accounts 

 for the number of acres of this plant, which at first excite the traveller's 

 surprise, cultivated in the open fields, in the neighbourhood even of towns 

 not very large. Of the quantity of kidneybeans thus stored in inns and 

 large families, an idea may be formed from the following fact : — During two 

 days that we spent, in the latter end of August, at the Trierische Hof, the 

 principal hotel at Coblentz, from eight to ten women were constantly em- 

 ployed in the yard (as they probably had been before our arrival, and 

 continued to be after our departure,) in trimming and slicing [the pods of] 

 kidneybeans, of which, besides a large basketful next to each, there stood 

 another in the midst of the circle that would have filled a good-sized cart. 

 The beans thus prepared are plunged into hot water for a few minutes, then 

 drained, and closely packed with salt in jars or barrels. 



In a similar manner are stored, in October, considerable quantities of the 

 leaf-stalks, and dried ribs of the leaves of young; turnips (after the thin part 



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