Sauerkraut

[Torry]

I'm looking to turn my cabbage patch into sauerkraut. I've always heard a foolproof way to not have the cabbage spoil is to pack and ferment directly into canning jars. My folks always had the worst luck with using crocks, but I think I could apply homebrew techniques to keep things cleaner. Any thoughts?

[Andrew]

the main thing is to keep all the cabbage submerged under the brine.

[Bonnie]

I always make my kraut in a glass pitcher so there's less surface space at the top to keep submerged. The whole thing needs to be able to breath a little, so you don't want to screw a lid on top. You need some kind of weight on top, like a canning jar full of water, or a big can of tomatoes in a plastic bag (the brine will eat the can)--then just check it every couple of days and give a push on the weight to keep the cabbage under water.

[peggy robinson]

You could also use whey in your brine and as already stated it is most important to keep everything submerged. We just bought a crock from Goldmine and will be harvesting the first sauerkraut in a couple days. I'll let you know how it goes. My next batch I am going to put horseradish leaves on top.

[Megan]

Has anyone made kraut with bok choi? I am getting a ton of it in my CSA, and I don't think I can eat that much more of it straight. Most of the bok choi recipes I'm seeing are for kimchi, and I don't know how likely I am to get through that. I am thinking about bok choi + horseradish root + whey + fermented garlic as these are things that are kicking around my fridge. Do you think the bok choi flavor will hold up against that other stuff?

[Trell Johnson]

Megan: Why not try, at the worst you will have gained valuable experiance and compost... I can see no reason why this technique cannot apply to any dense leafed vegetable.

I go to the dollar store, get a food grade plastic cutting board, and cut it to the shape of the crock, and weight it down with a rock in a plastic bag... :)

[Megan]

Thanks, Trell! That's exactly what I figured that very day. I made it a little too salty, but it will definitely be eaten.

I'm not sure what the protocol is here re: posting web links, but I did blog about it if anyone wants to know how it turned out, and I wrote about how I get by without a crock (similar to Bonnie's technique, but with brine instead of a can), etc. If anyone wants to check it out, it's countrygirlbrooklyn on wordpress.

[Herbwifemama]

That's how I make it. Of course, I only make it a quart at a time, which lasts us a while. But I chop the cabbage, add salt and whey, pound the daylights out of it, and stuff it into a canning jar til the juice covers it. Let it sit out for a few days, and put it in the fridge. Never had a bad batch. I also add caraway seeds to mine.

[Cornelia]

A simple instructive video on making your own sauerkraut.

[Annie B]

Thanks for the video! I've been reading around online and in some books, plus asking dear old Mom about how to make sauerkraut. I appreciated him explaining the ratio of salt-to-kraut, which for whatever reason I wasn't easily finding other places. I finally went ahead and made it a few minutes ago and it seems to have gone pretty well. I will try to remember to report back in a week or two if my kraut is becoming sauerkraut-y.

[Cornelia]

Good luck Annie! Congratulations on taking the kraut leap. I've been a bit less exact with my salt amounts and have been pretty happy with the results. I just salt enough for it to be noticeable, but not overwhelming. I also add garlic to the cabbage - makes a good stinky kraut! :)

Annie B said:

Thanks for the video! I've been reading around online and in some books, plus asking dear old Mom about how to make sauerkraut. I appreciated him explaining the ratio of salt-to-kraut, which for whatever reason I wasn't easily finding other places. I finally went ahead and made it a few minutes ago and it seems to have gone pretty well. I will try to remember to report back in a week or two if my kraut is becoming sauerkraut-y.