Category: recipes

New Year’s Pork Chops & Sauerkraut

Rose1 Comment

By now I think long-time readers are aware that my goal here at Forþ-weard is to support other Fyrnsidera in establishing their modern praxis. To me, a big part of that exploring the holy tides and what modern adaptations and traditions for them could look like. Today, I want to talk about the New Year.

Some Anglo-Saxon heathens will tell you that the new spiritual year begins on Modraniht. Some actually move their celebration of Modraniht to our modern New Year’s Eve to sync up their spiritual new year with the calendar one.1 Personally, I consider the time between Modraniht and New Year’s Eve as a liminal time that doesn’t truly belong to either year, a time aside from the day to day. This is my unverified personal gnosis (UPG) and your mileage may vary. As such, I spread out a lot of my “new years” traditions throughout that period. One such tradition is actually a family tradition I’ve decided to continue: eating pork chops with sauerkraut on New Year’s Day for good luck and prosperity.2

The fact that I continue this tradition is a point of amusement in and of itself. You see, when I was growing up it was often a joke in my family that they would have to disown me over my distaste for sauerkraut. After all, what self-respecting American of strong German ethnic background doesn’t like sauerkraut? Well, me apparently, although I have found a way to prepare it to make my family’s New Year’s Day tradition an enjoyable one for myself.

So, here I am sharing for you my version of New Year’s Pork Chops & Sauerkraut for the one day of the year I actually eat sauerkraut by choice.

Ingredients

1 24oz jar German-style sauerkraut3
4 bone-in pork chops
Salt & pepper to taste
1 medium onion, sliced
1 tsp onion powder
2 bay leaves4
1/2 cup dark brown sugar5
1 tablespoon butter

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350F
  2. Salt and pepper the pork chops. You can also sprinkle some onion powder on them if you’d like.
  3. Brown the pork chops in butter in a pan large enough to lay them out in a single layer.
  4. Remove pork chops and add the onions. Cook until the onions are just translucent.
  5. Add sauerkraut, onion powder, and brown sugar. Combine well and add bay leaves.
  6. Place the pork chops back over the mixture and transfer to oven.
  7. Bake for 15 minutes or until pork chops are cooked through

You can be as magical, or as mundane about this whole affair as you would like. Enjoy! If you happen to make this, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

  1. Byron over at Mine Wyrtruman has a blog post entitled “Beginning the New Year with Mothers Night” that discusses the dating of mother’s night and the Fyrnsidu new year in much greater detail. ↩︎
  2. I have absolutely no idea what the history behind this tradition is or why my family does it, they just always have for as long as I’ve been alive. ↩︎
  3. I use the one from Aldi ↩︎
  4. I started adding these for just a little extra magical prosperity kick, but I also find they add a little something something to the flavor. ↩︎
  5. Light brows sugar works fine, I just think dark gives a nicer color. ↩︎
A spice jar of incense and a black stone mortar and pestle.

Nine Herb Charm Incense

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Disclaimer: I AM NOT AN EXPERT. Do not touch, consume, burn, or otherwise mess with any plant you are unfamiliar with. Consult an actual herbalist or your doctor. For all the gods’ sakes, please exercise caution and common sense when working with herbs. Always burn incense in a well-ventilated space away from pets.

One of the rather frustrating things about reconstructing Anglo-Saxon paganism is the lack of written sources. What sources we do have were written in the centuries after conversion and tend to provide only tantalizing hints about what might have been. One such piece of writing is the “Nine Herb Charm,” a medical text that describes the use of a combination of, you guessed it, nine plants in a salve along with a lengthy verbal component.1

Were these nine plants the most sacred plants in Anglo-Saxon paganism? We don’t know. Heck, we’re not even 100% sure what some of them actually are. But, the Nine Herb Charm provides all sorts of interesting glimpses into the Anglo-Saxon pagan mind. For example, it mentions “the seven worlds,” informing us just a little about the Anglo-Saxon sense of cosmology.

Since the Nine Herbs are described—at length—to drive out poison and illness, I thought it would make perfect sense to adapt them into an incense recipe for cleansing during formal rituals.

Nine Herb Charm Incense

  • 1 part dried Mugwort
  • 1 part dried Plantain leaves
  • 1 part dried Bittercress
  • 1 part dried Betony
  • 1 part dried Chamomile flowers
  • 1 part dried Stinging Nettle
  • 1 part Applewood shavings
  • 1 part dried Parsley
  • 1 part Fennel seeds

I ordered everything except the parsley and applewood from an herb shop on Etsy. The parsley came from my pantry, and I shaved bits off a piece of the applewood my husband keeps around for his smoker. From there, I measured everything with a teaspoon into my mortar and gave it all a good smash to break up the big bits. This yielded me about half a spice jar of incense.

Guesses & Substitutions

Scholars aren’t entirely sure about the identity of some of the plants. Attorlaðe, for example, is unknown but thought by many to be woody betony.2 I did see someone claim that this plant was black nightshade, which I would not recommend. Cockspur grass is another common interpretation. I chose betony.

The next questionable interpretation is for “lamb’s cress.” Some people take it to mean watercress, while others say hairy bittercress or Cardamine hirsuta.3 I opted to use Cardamine bulbosa, a close relative to hair bittercress that is native to North America.4

My next swap is the applewood shavings. In the charm, they seem to be using a mash made of crabapples. I suppose I could have gotten my hands on some crabapples and dried their skin or something, but I think using a bit of applewood actually makes more sense for incense, especially given that the wood was intended for a smoker anyway.

And finally, there is the parsley. Some scholars believe that fille in the charm refers to chervil or a similar plant.5 Chervil is related to parsley,6 which is much more readily available in my local grocery store. Patti Wiggington uses thyme in her Nine Herb Charm salve.7

Don’t forget a good chant

I also wrote a little galdor to go with it because why not? The original charm had a verbal component, after all.

Nine herbs sacred burn and smoke
Remember all which past you smote
Drive out illness, malice, and pain
Clear this space of the profane.

Conclusion

Is this an exact replica of what was used in Anglo-Saxon times? Definitely not. But do I think it will make the right connections and enhance my praxis? Absolutely.

Let me know in the comments if you have a different Nine Herbs blend that you favor. I’d love to know!

  1. Read a translation here https://www.mimisbrunnr.info/nigon-wyrta-galdor ↩︎
  2. I went with betony, which is listed here: https://heorot.dk/woden-9herbs.html. However, you can find a couple of alternative suggested plants here https://www.herbalhistory.org/home/the-nine-herbs-charm-plants-poisons-and-poetry/ ↩︎
  3. https://www.mimisbrunnr.info/nigon-wyrta-galdor#wyrts ↩︎
  4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardamine_bulbosa ↩︎
  5. https://www.mimisbrunnr.info/nigon-wyrta-galdor#wyrts ↩︎
  6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chervil ↩︎
  7. https://www.pattiwigington.com/saturday-spellwork-the-9-herbs-charm/ ↩︎

Sorry if I got a little lazy on the footnotes this time, y’all.