Chef Klaus
Badische Dinnele
The Baden flatbread that keeps its bread body: sour cream, onion, and Speck on a yeast dough baked hard and hot until the edges blister.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Badisches Schäufele mit Sauerkraut
Created by
Baden's cured and smoked pork shoulder is not a crackling roast. Keep it below a boil, let the fat soften slowly, and the knife will do almost no work.
Main Dishes
German
Christmas
Special Occasion
Make Ahead
35 min
Active Time
2 hr 45 min cook•3 hr 20 min total
Yield6 servings
Badisches Schäufele belongs to Baden, especially the winter table and the Christmas table, where the larder does the cooking before you do. The pork shoulder is mild-cured and beechwood-smoked, then cooked gently with sauerkraut sharpened by white wine. This is the southwest speaking, close enough to Alsace to taste the border.
The regions disagree before the pot is even warm. In Franconia, Schäufele means fresh pork shoulder roasted with rind until the crackling is crisp. In Baden, the shoulder is cured and smoked, and you treat it like the preserved meat it is. Im Norden anders, im Süden anders, and here even the south argues with itself.
The rule is simple: never boil the Schäufele hard. A cured shoulder has already been changed by salt and smoke, so a rolling boil tightens the meat and drives salt into the broth too fast. Keep it at a bare tremble, covered, and the collagen softens while the smoke stays clean. Runter mit der Temperatur.
The sauerkraut is not a sour heap beside the meat. Rinse only if it is brutally sharp, then cook it with onion, apple, juniper, bay, and dry white wine until it tastes bright but round. Weggeworfen wird nichts, the cooking liquor from the pork goes into the kraut, not down the drain. Serve Brägele, Baden fried potatoes, alongside. Schön ist, was schmeckt.
Schäufele takes its name from the shoulder blade, whose flat bone looks like a small shovel, a Schäufelchen. In Baden, especially in the Black Forest and Upper Rhine kitchen, the cured and smoked version became a winter and Christmas dish because salting and smoking turned pork slaughter into food that would last through the cold months. Franconian Schäufele developed in the other direction as a fresh pork shoulder roast with rind and crackling, which is why ordering the same word in Baden and Franconia can bring two very different plates.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
mild-cured, beechwood-smoked pork shoulder Schäufele
Quantity
1.8kg
preferably bone-in
onion for pork liquor
Quantity
1
halved
carrot
Quantity
1
chopped
leek
Quantity
1
washed and chopped
bay leaves
Quantity
2
juniper berries
Quantity
8
lightly crushed
black peppercorns
Quantity
1 teaspoon
neutral oil or lard
Quantity
1 tablespoon
onions for sauerkraut
Quantity
2
finely sliced
tart apple
Quantity
1
grated
sauerkraut
Quantity
1kg
drained
dry Baden white wine, such as Gutedel or Riesling
Quantity
250ml
pork cooking liquor
Quantity
250ml
plus more as needed
caraway seeds
Quantity
1 teaspoon
sugar (optional)
Quantity
1 teaspoon
waxy potatoes
Quantity
800g
boiled the day before and chilled
clarified butter or lard
Quantity
2 tablespoons
salt and black pepper
Quantity
to taste
German mustard (optional)
Quantity
to serve
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| mild-cured, beechwood-smoked pork shoulder Schäufelepreferably bone-in | 1.8kg |
| onion for pork liquorhalved | 1 |
| carrotchopped | 1 |
| leekwashed and chopped | 1 |
| bay leaves | 2 |
| juniper berrieslightly crushed | 8 |
| black peppercorns | 1 teaspoon |
| neutral oil or lard | 1 tablespoon |
| onions for sauerkrautfinely sliced | 2 |
| tart applegrated | 1 |
| sauerkrautdrained | 1kg |
| dry Baden white wine, such as Gutedel or Riesling | 250ml |
| pork cooking liquorplus more as needed | 250ml |
| caraway seeds | 1 teaspoon |
| sugar (optional) | 1 teaspoon |
| waxy potatoesboiled the day before and chilled | 800g |
| clarified butter or lard | 2 tablespoons |
| salt and black pepper | to taste |
| German mustard (optional) | to serve |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy lidded pot large enough for the pork shoulder
- •Wide braising pan for sauerkraut
- •Large frying pan for Brägele
- •Instant-read thermometer, optional but useful
Instructions
- 1
Start the pork
Put the Schäufele in a heavy pot with the halved onion, carrot, leek, bay, juniper, and peppercorns. Cover with cold water by two fingers, then bring it up slowly until the surface only trembles. Cold water draws salt and smoke into the liquor gently; a hot start grabs the outside before the shoulder has warmed through.
Ask the butcher for a mild-cured smoked shoulder, not a raw fresh shoulder. Franconian roasting meat will not give you the Baden dish. - 2
Keep it gentle
Cover the pot and cook the pork at a bare simmer for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, until a skewer slides in with little resistance. Do not let it boil. Hard boiling tightens cured pork and makes the outside dry before the connective tissue has softened. Das braucht seine Zeit.
- 3
Build the kraut
While the pork cooks, warm the oil or lard in a wide pot and cook the sliced onions until soft and pale gold. Add the grated apple and let it collapse, because apple rounds the acidity without making the kraut taste sweet. Add the drained sauerkraut, wine, caraway, and a ladle of pork liquor once you have it.
- 4
Braise the sauerkraut
Cover the sauerkraut and braise it gently for 45 to 60 minutes, adding more pork liquor if it dries out. The kraut should be juicy, not swimming, and sharp enough to cut the smoked pork. Taste before salting, because the pork liquor brings salt with it. Würzen, Fett, Salz zum Schluss.
- 5
Fry the Brägele
Slice the cold boiled potatoes into thick coins. Fry them in clarified butter or lard over medium-high heat until browned on both sides, turning only when a crust has formed. Cold potatoes hold together in the pan; warm boiled potatoes break and smear, and then you have mash with ambitions.
- 6
Slice and serve
Lift the Schäufele from the liquor and rest it 10 minutes so the juices settle back into the meat. Pull out the bone if there is one, then slice thickly across the grain. Spoon sauerkraut onto a warm platter, lay the pork over it, and serve the Brägele and mustard alongside. Save the remaining liquor for bean soup or lentils. Weggeworfen wird nichts.
Chef Tips
- •If the sauerkraut is aggressively sour, rinse it briefly and squeeze it dry. Don't wash all the life out of it; the acid is there to cut the smoked pork.
- •Bone-in Schäufele gives the best liquor. The bone and trim put body into the pot, and that liquor is what makes the kraut taste like it belongs with the meat.
- •Use waxy potatoes for Brägele and cook them the day before. Chilled potato slices brown cleanly and keep their shape in the pan.
- •A dry Baden Gutedel or Riesling belongs in the kraut and in the glass. Sweet wine makes the dish dull.
Advance Preparation
- •Boil the potatoes the day before and chill them overnight; that firm starch is what lets Brägele brown instead of fall apart.
- •The Schäufele can be cooked one day ahead and cooled in its liquor. Rewarm it gently in the same liquor, never at a boil, so the cured meat stays juicy.
- •Sauerkraut improves after a night in the refrigerator. Reheat it with a splash of pork liquor and taste again for salt at the end.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 610g)
Calories
750 calories
Total Fat
40 g
Saturated Fat
15 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
22 g
Cholesterol
165 mg
Sodium
3800 mg
Total Carbohydrates
44 g
Dietary Fiber
9 g
Sugars
10 g
Protein
52 g
Where cooking meets culture.
Culinary guides, cultural storytelling, and the editorial depth that makes cooking meaningful.
Discover Culinary ExplorerMore from Baden Borderlands & the Brotzeit Plate
Browse the full collection
Chef Klaus
Bibeleskäs (Bibbeliskäs)
Baden's Vesper spread is nothing more than quark, cream, onion, and chives, but the whole dish depends on controlling the whey so the bowl stays spoonable beside hot potatoes.
Chef Klaus
Badischer Sauerbraten
Not the sweet Rhenish pot roast: Baden keeps Sauerbraten sharper, with dry red wine, more vinegar, garlic, juniper, and a slow braise that asks for four honest days first.
Chef Klaus
Badischer Wurstsalat
Baden's sharp, no-mayonnaise Vesper salad lives by the cut and the rest: fine Lyoner strips drinking vinegar and mustard before the oil softens the whole bowl.