Chef Klaus
Allgäuer Krautkrapfen
The Allgäu pan dish that makes a meal from noodle dough, winter kraut, onion, and fat: brown the cut sides first, then cook gently so the rolls hold.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Schlachtplatte (Kesselfleisch)
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The slaughter-day plate is not delicate food. It is pork belly, shoulder, blood sausage, liver sausage, and sauerkraut, all held together by one quiet rule: never let the kettle boil hard.
Main Dishes
German
Comfort Food
Make Ahead
Special Occasion
35 min
Active Time
2 hr 15 min cook•2 hr 50 min total
Yield6 servings
Schlachtplatte is the slaughter-day table, strongest in the south and southwest, in Baden, the Pfalz, Franconia, Swabia, and across the Alpine edge. It belongs to the cold months, when a pig was killed, divided, cured, smoked, boiled, stuffed, and eaten before anything spoiled. Weggeworfen wird nichts, nothing gets thrown away. Belly, shoulder, cheek, rind, blood, liver, broth, all of it has a job.
Every region has its own temper. In Franconia and Bavaria you hear Kesselfleisch, kettle meat, with belly and shoulder lifted straight from the simmering pot. In Saxony and Thuringia, Wellfleisch says much the same thing. In the Pfalz, the plate leans hard on sauerkraut, liver sausage, blood sausage, potatoes, mustard, and often a sharp spoon of horseradish. Im Norden anders, im Süden anders. This is not one national plate, and Das ist kein Bierzelt.
The technique is simple and strict: the kettle must tremble, not boil. Hard boiling squeezes the pork tight, bursts the sausages, clouds the broth, and turns good rind rubbery. Gentle heat melts the collagen, warms the sausages through, and leaves you with a clear pork broth worth saving. Nicht aus dem Glas. The cooking liquor is your seasoning, your soup tomorrow, and the reason the kraut tastes like more than cabbage.
Set it down with boiled potatoes, sharp mustard, fresh horseradish, and bread with a real crust. It is regional food, unfussy food, and exact food. Das braucht seine Zeit.
Schlachtplatte comes from the winter slaughter tradition, when farm households killed a pig in the cold season and processed it at once into fresh meat, sausages, smoked cuts, lard, blood pudding, and broth. In many southern and central German regions, the fresh boiling meat was served the same day as Kesselfleisch or Wellfleisch, while the broth became Metzelsuppe, a slaughter soup shared with helpers and neighbours. The dish records a practical household economy: blood and liver went into sausages, rind and bones strengthened the kettle, and sauerkraut from the autumn crock made the fresh pork last on the table.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
fresh pork belly with rind
Quantity
1kg
cut into 6 thick pieces
pork shoulder or neck
Quantity
800g
cut into 6 thick pieces
smoked pork hock or smoked pork ribs (optional)
Quantity
1 hock or 400g ribs
onions
Quantity
2
halved, for the kettle
carrots
Quantity
2
roughly chopped
leek
Quantity
1 small
cleaned and cut into chunks
celeriac wedge or celery stalks
Quantity
1 small wedge or 2 stalks
chopped
bay leaves
Quantity
2
juniper berries
Quantity
8
lightly crushed
black peppercorns
Quantity
1 teaspoon
caraway seeds
Quantity
1 teaspoon
salt
Quantity
2 teaspoons, plus more to finish
sauerkraut
Quantity
1.2kg
drained but not rinsed
apple
Quantity
1
grated
onion
Quantity
1
finely sliced, for the sauerkraut
lard
Quantity
2 tablespoons
pork cooking broth
Quantity
250ml
from the kettle
fresh blood sausages
Quantity
6
fresh liver sausages
Quantity
6
waxy potatoes
Quantity
1.2kg
peeled
German mustard
Quantity
to serve
fresh horseradish
Quantity
to serve
grated
dark rye bread
Quantity
to serve
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| fresh pork belly with rindcut into 6 thick pieces | 1kg |
| pork shoulder or neckcut into 6 thick pieces | 800g |
| smoked pork hock or smoked pork ribs (optional) | 1 hock or 400g ribs |
| onionshalved, for the kettle | 2 |
| carrotsroughly chopped | 2 |
| leekcleaned and cut into chunks | 1 small |
| celeriac wedge or celery stalkschopped | 1 small wedge or 2 stalks |
| bay leaves | 2 |
| juniper berrieslightly crushed | 8 |
| black peppercorns | 1 teaspoon |
| caraway seeds | 1 teaspoon |
| salt | 2 teaspoons, plus more to finish |
| sauerkrautdrained but not rinsed | 1.2kg |
| applegrated | 1 |
| onionfinely sliced, for the sauerkraut | 1 |
| lard | 2 tablespoons |
| pork cooking brothfrom the kettle | 250ml |
| fresh blood sausages | 6 |
| fresh liver sausages | 6 |
| waxy potatoespeeled | 1.2kg |
| German mustard | to serve |
| fresh horseradishgrated | to serve |
| dark rye bread | to serve |
Equipment Needed
- •Large heavy stockpot, 8 to 10 litres
- •Wide lidded pot for sauerkraut
- •Skimmer or shallow ladle
- •Instant-read thermometer, useful for the sausages
Instructions
- 1
Start the kettle
Put the pork belly, shoulder, smoked hock if using, onions, carrots, leek, celeriac, bay, juniper, peppercorns, caraway, and salt into a wide pot. Cover with cold water by 3cm and bring it up slowly, because a slow climb draws flavour into the broth and keeps the meat from tightening before the fat has time to soften.
Use rind-on belly. The rind gives body to the broth and texture to the plate; trimmed belly tastes flatter and leaves the kettle poorer. - 2
Keep it gentle
As soon as the pot reaches a bare simmer, turn it down until the surface only trembles. Skim the grey foam in the first 20 minutes, not for prettiness, but because the broth will be used again and a clean broth seasons the sauerkraut better. Cook gently for 1 hour 45 minutes to 2 hours, until a fork slides through the belly rind and the shoulder yields without falling apart.
- 3
Cook the kraut
While the pork cooks, soften the sliced onion in lard in a separate pot until it turns pale gold. Add the sauerkraut and grated apple, then ladle in 250ml of the pork broth once the kettle has been cooking for at least an hour. The apple rounds the acid, the pork broth carries fat and salt into the cabbage, and rinsing the kraut would wash away the reason you put it up in the first place. Cover and simmer 35 to 45 minutes.
- 4
Boil the potatoes
Cook the peeled potatoes in salted water until a knife goes through cleanly, then drain them and let them stand uncovered for a few minutes. Dry potatoes take the pork juices and mustard better; wet potatoes make a puddle and teach you nothing.
- 5
Warm the sausages
Lift the cooked pork pieces to a warm dish and strain enough broth back into the pot to cover the sausages. Slide in the blood sausages and liver sausages and keep the broth below a simmer, 75 to 80C if you use a thermometer, for 15 to 20 minutes. Do not boil them. Blood sausage bursts when bullied, and liver sausage goes grainy when the fat is driven out.
- 6
Taste and serve
Taste the sauerkraut and correct it with salt only at the end, because the pork broth reduces and the sausage will bring its own seasoning to the plate. Slice the belly and shoulder thickly, mound the kraut on a large platter, and lay the Kesselfleisch, blood sausage, and liver sausage over it. Serve with potatoes, mustard, grated horseradish, rye bread, and a jug of the hot broth for anyone who knows what is good. Würzen, Fett, Salz zum Schluss.
Chef Tips
- •Order fresh blood sausage and liver sausage from a butcher, and tell them you are warming them in broth. Fully smoked or firm slicing sausages belong to another plate; fresh sausages need gentle heat and respect.
- •Do not rinse the sauerkraut unless it is aggressively salty. Drain it, taste it, and keep its acid. The pork is rich, and the cabbage is there to cut through it, not to sit politely in the corner.
- •Save every drop of the cooking broth. Strain it, chill it, lift off the fat if you want, and use it for lentil soup, potato soup, or another pot of kraut. Weggeworfen wird nichts.
- •Fresh horseradish matters here. Jarred horseradish is dull and sweet by comparison, and this plate needs the clean bite against belly, liver, and blood sausage. Nicht aus dem Glas.
- •If you cannot get blood sausage, make the plate with belly, shoulder, liver sausage, and a smoked hock. Say what it is. Don't pretend the blood part happened.
Advance Preparation
- •Cook the pork up to one day ahead, cool it in its strained broth, and refrigerate it. Reheat it gently in the broth so the meat warms through without drying out.
- •The sauerkraut can be cooked one day ahead and reheated with a ladle of pork broth. It tastes better after a night, because the fat, acid, and apple settle into one another.
- •Warm the blood and liver sausages only before serving. Cook them ahead and they split, dry, or turn grainy, and then the butcher did his work for nothing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 820g)
Calories
1595 calories
Total Fat
110 g
Saturated Fat
39 g
Trans Fat
1 g
Unsaturated Fat
62 g
Cholesterol
325 mg
Sodium
4240 mg
Total Carbohydrates
78 g
Dietary Fiber
13 g
Sugars
14 g
Protein
78 g
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