Do you ever have a moment when a particular smell, taste, or sound triggers a long forgotten memory? Perhaps you are at a restaurant and with one bite of your meal you are suddenly transported via palatable time machine to another time in your life.

This happens to me quite often, especially when I am on one of my weekend road trips and happen to stop at a small diner for dinner.

There are several menu items that seem to switch on the slide projector of memories in my head but none more so than a good sausage and cabbage soup. Us Germans refer to it as Kohl Eintopft.

I remember eating this soup as a child in a brown speckled stoneware bowl with a thick, oven warm slice of homemade German potato bread.

Kohl Eintopft

1/2lb of a good smokey bacon

1 ring of farmer’s sausage cut into 1/2″ thick rounds

1 large onion diced

1 Tablespoon minced garlic

6 stalks of celery with the leaves diced

1/4 cup fresh parsley minced

6 carrots peeled and chopped

4 potatoes peeled and chopped

1/2 head of cabbage shredded finely

2 quarts low sodium or homemade chicken broth

2 quarts of good stewed tomatoes

1 cup V8 juice

Salt and pepper to taste

Brown the bacon in a large skillet until crisp. Remove bacon from drippings and drain on paper towels. Leave 2 Tablespoons of drippings in the pan. Add onion, garlic, and celery to the drippings and saute until tender.

In a large pot combine the remaining ingredients and onion mixture. Add additional V8 juice and broth if there doesn’t seem to be enough liquid. Simmer on medium heat until the vegetables are tender.

In a skillet brown the farmers sausage on both sides. Add sausage to the soup and simmer a few minutes longer.

Serve garnished with dill and crumbled bacon.