A Way to Make Sauerkraut
A few folks asked how I make sauerkraut. It’s not that difficult. Here are some items you need, and some pointers about how to combine salt and cabbage to ferment into something tasty for winter.
What you need:
glass, ceramic, or food grade plastic vessel
means of shredding cabbage (knife and cutting board; kraut plane)
towels and rags for clean up
weight and object to hold kraut beneath liquid (a round piece of wood or food grade plastic and a rock work well, or a purpose made weight, as below)
cover for fermenting vessel (bucket lid, plastic bag and rubber band, or a ceramic lid)
measuring spoon
kraut tamper (a length of 2x4 works fine)
cabbage
salt
and sometimes some extra brine.
Wash the vessels and tamper in hot soapy water, rinse, and let dry.
Making sauerkraut is a fermentation process. It is not putting vegetables into vinegar. When we make wine or beer or bread, we rely on yeast to ferment the fruit and grain into
…wine to gladden the human heart,
oil to make the face shine,
and bread to strengthen the human heart.
Ps. 104:15, NRSV
(With respect to alcohol, gladdens the heart sometimes, and in moderation…)
The fermentation yields, among other things, alcohol and carbon dioxide. There are various other compounds produced by fermentation, such as the things we smell and taste.
The fermentation in kraut-making uses salt to prepare an environment where certain bacteria consume sugars and other stuff in fruit and veg, producing lactic acid. This acid preserves the vegetable for our eating purposes, (and limits the kind of decomposition we don’t want.)
Sour pickles are whole cucumbers fermented this way in salt brine. Some people make kraut that way. I make it by combining salt and finely shredded cabbage. The salt and some physical tamping express the cabbage juice that ferments and becomes the pickling bath.
So you need salt. (Not iodized. Use kosher salt, pickling salt, or sea salt.) I use about 1.5 to 2 tablespoons of salt for a 3-4 pound cabbage.
And you’ll want some cabbage.
I grew these in my good garden soil, without pesticides, from certified organic and biodynamic seed, variety name “Filderkraut.” The birds picked the few cabbage worms that appeared.
But it doesn’t hurt to have someone inspect the cabbage, and then clean them up.
Once you have your work area well ordered, start to shred the cabbage. Try to shred the cabbage to 1/8” or less. You can use a sauerkraut cutter, or ‘plane’. I used a knife here, as my kraut cutter was damaged in a move, and I still haven’t rebuilt it. The smoothing plane just didn’t cut it.
Begin to make a layer, an inch or so, and sprinkle some salt. The amount with each layer does not need to be precise, it will balance out. Use the tamper to bruise the cabbage and pack it down. The cabbage will shift, and not stay solidly packed. As you add layers and tamp them, it will condense and firm. You will notice the juice expressed from the cabbage. This is the brine, under which the cabbage is submerged.
Leave room for your weight. Here I have a purpose made set of ceramic weights. I used to use a piece of plywood and a heavy rock. But I’m getting fancy. Anyway, you might use a round piece of wood or plastic, and something small but heavy enough to hold the kraut under the brine. And you need to leave room, as the cabbage will continue to epxress liquid for some hours after you pack it. If you don’t leave sufficient room, the brine will over flow your vessel.
Cover this with a crock lid, or with a piece of clean plastic and a rubber band.
Place the jar, bucket or crock in a cool, darker area of the house, where the temperature will be in the 50’s Fahrenheit. I’ve made various krauts and salt-soured veg at higher temps, so if the best place is your kitchen counter, that’s fine. But basement temps are best.
Check the kraut each day. How does it look? How does it smell? You will notice a change within a couple of days from salt-cabbage smell to a sweeter-sulfur-winy smell. Try to open your sense of smell tolerance and enjoyment during the first several days.
As the kraut ‘works,’ clean away any foam that forms with a clean spoon. If the smell goes ‘rotten egg’ or smells plain bad, the batch is off. I’d advise you put in the compost pile.
But a good batch will smell fermenty. Smell some fresh sauerkraut if you need a guide. You can taste some as it ferments as well, sampling with a clean fork.
I let mine work and rest for 4-6 weeks. I then store the whole container in the refrigerator, and put it in small jars and bags to give to people or freeze. Some people store their barrel down cellar in the winter. I don’t can it, but hot-water bath canning works for sauerkraut.
This batch is working in my workshop now. I’ll add pictures in process, and the final product.
And then we’ll get to the part some of you mainly care for…eating it!
A Long-Lost Sauerkraut Prayer
O God, We thank you for gardens and the fruit of good ground. Though we make so much waste and weariness of the good soil you cause to be beneath our feet, we humbly ask that our hands, healed and aided by grace, might cooperate with beneficent microbial kingdoms, and salt that has not lost its savor, to sour these green plants to be lasting and tasty nourishment for this winter; and that our life sustained might offer you praise each day, and in fruit that lasts. We ask this in the name of the Holy Trinity, One God. Amen.