Simple Sauerkraut
Equipment
- 1-2 quart jars (wide-mouthed) with lids
- 1-2 small jelly jars (1/2-1 pint) -OR- fermentation weights
- large bowl
- sharp knife
- scale
- grater (optional)
Ingredients
Instructions
Nutshell Version
- Slice/shred the cabbage (and other vegetables, if using).
- Add salt, and massage together until the cabbage releases its juices.
- Pack it firmly into jars, weight it down to keep it below the fluid level, cap it, and leave it to ferment for 1-4 weeks.
Step-by-step (for cabbage-only kraut):
- Remove the outer leaves of the cabbage, reserving one or two that are fairly clean. (You'll need one per jar, and how many jars you need will depend on the size of your cabbage.) You can discard the rest.
- Weigh your bowl. Then slice the remainder of the cabbage thinly, except for the core, piling the strips into the bowl as you go. (Discard the core.)
- Sprinkle salt onto the cabbage, 1-1/2 - 2 teaspoons per pound of cabbage. If you don't have a scale, you'll have to guess. Most of the cabbages I've gotten are around 2-1/2 pounds. Mix the salt in thoroughly with your hands, then leave the bowl to sit for about half an hour or so. (You can skip straight to step 4 if you prefer, but it's much more of a workout that way!)
- After about half an hour, the cabbage should be noticeably softened. Use your hands to massage the salt into the cabbage and continue mixing it, until it feels uniformly softened, and pulling the cabbage to one side of the bowl reveals a puddle of liquid in the bottom of the bowl.
- Pack the cabbage into a jar or jars. If you have about 1-3/4 pounds of cabbage or less, you can probably fit it into a single quart jar. More, and you'll want to divide it among two jars. Be sure to alternate the jars with handfuls of kraut, or you'll end up with all the liquid in just one jar! Any liquid remaining in the bowl should be poured into the jar(s), as well. With a fist, pack the cabbage down as firmly as possible, pushing it below the liquid. Fold up one of the cabbage leaves you reserved and place it atop the cabbage in a jar to help keep small pieces from floating, and press again to push it under the liquid. Repeat for any additional jars. (This getting & keeping the food below the liquid is the hardest part. If you don't have whole cabbage leaves for this, it's not the end of the world, but it's a little trickier to prevent floating bits.)
- Insert a small jelly jar into the top of the larger jar as a weight, then screw on the lid for the outer jar. (If your small jars don't fit, you might have to improvise.) Or, if you have fermentation weights, use those in place of the small jars -- they're easier. Label the jars so you know when you prepared them! Set them aside, preferably in a fairly cool, dark place. (I put mine in a cabinet. And I put them on a plate in case they overflow.)
- Over the first few days, check the jars occasionally to see if you need to "burp" them (momentarily loosen the lids to led out excess carbon dioxide). Apart from that, you can leave them alone while they ferment. You'll want to let them sit for at least a week to ten days. This is not an ideal fermentation time, but it makes a mild sauerkraut for newbies. At this point, you can taste a forkful at roughly one-week intervals (then replace the weights and lids), until it reaches the level of fermentation you prefer, up to about a month. When you're happy with it, move it to the refrigerator.
Using Other Vegetables
- If you want to add other vegetables to your sauerkraut, you can do that, as long as you stick with cabbage for the bulk. For instance, a few carrots to a head of cabbage. If you do this, prepare the vegetables (trim/peel, if necessary, and shred or grate), and add them to your bowl at the beginning. Then add the cabbage and continue with the recipe. When adding salt, you'll count the total weight of all the vegetables to determine how much salt to add.
Notes
Ingredient & Supply Notes:
Unrefined salt (like RealSalt or Himalayan pink salt) is preferred; non-iodized is required. Either green or red cabbage may be used, although green is, in my experience, easier to work with. The simplest sauerkraut is merely cabbage and salt; to change it up a bit, you can add a small proportion of other firm vegetables, minced or grated, to the mix.
All containers and utensils used must be non-reactive: glass, ceramic, wood, or stainless steel (or plastic, but I don't recommend that). Do not use aluminum or cast iron, due to the acidity of fermented foods.
There isn't really any fancy equipment needed, but I've found glass fermentation weights to be well worth the moderate expense. The only "hard" part of fermentation is keeping the food below the liquid and, while there are a lot of different improvised ways to do that, weights make it much less of a hassle. When buying weights, keep in mind you have to be able to grip them with your fingers while they're wet, so a (non-round) handle is helpful.