[cgannett]

Also because salt itself was much more valuable back then you wouldn't have as much or even any salt in your fresh food so you use the "preserved in an intolerable amount of salt" food products with the unsalted food products to get a quite tolerable middle ground at consumption time. Mash potatoes and pickle bits mmm

[ben_w]

Without the potatoes, they hadn't arrived from the Americas by this point.

[IAmBroom]

Clearly, they meant rutabegas, turnips, and cabbages.

[jimbokun]

> Mash potatoes and pickle bits mmm

And thus potatoes and sauerkraut was born.

[ddoeth]

While sauerkraut fermentation uses salt, the main technique preserving the cabbage is the fermentation and sauerkraut is thus not super salty (about 1% of the weight is salt)