I made this last night, and it was awesome. I figured I would share:
2-2.5 lbs-approx of pork shoulder or bone-in country ribs.
1 package of sauerkraut (I forget what the actual size is, one of those "pouches" it tends to come in)
2 granny smith apples, cored, cut into chunks
Salt and pepper
1 box/package of spaetzle (unless you want to make your own from scratch.)
For sauce:
2TBSP bacon fat (or butter)
2TBSP flour
A small amount of sugar (to taste)
Really simple here - Turn crockpot on low. Pour the sauerkraut into the crockpot. Put the lump of pork, raw, right on top. Salt and pepper it as you see fit. Cover with the apple chunks. Do not add any liquid to this. Ignore it for 8-10 hours.
Once dinner time comes around get the bones out using tongs and discard them.
Use a baster to extract the (now somewhat substantial) amount of liquid in the crockpot and put that into a Pyrex cup.
Cook the spaetzle as directed.
While that is cooking heat the bacon fat (or butter) in a stainless pan until melted. Add flour and whisk to make a thick roux. Let it darken a bit. Once the roux is looking a bit cooked, pour in the extracted cooking liquid a bit at a time and whisk to keep it from lumping up. Allow this to start reducing. Once it is starting to look somewhat like a gravy, give it a taste. It will be VERY sour (hey it is juice from sauerkraut and apples, of course it's sour right?). Adjust the flavor with the sugar, just a little at a time. I ended up with just over a TBSP of "raw" sugar to balance the flavors. The sauce should just *barely* have a hint of apple flavor, but not be actually sweet.
Divide up the pork onto dinner plates (it's going to entirely fall apart), and the spaetzle. Put the sauerkraut and apples on the side. Cover the pork and spaetzle with the sauce.