How to Make Sauerkraut – Harvest to Table

Sauerkraut

Sauerkraut is pickled white cabbage.

Table of Contents

How you can Make Sauerkraut in a Stone Crock

Finely sliced cabbage is located in a stone crock, a hardwood keg, or barrel and layered with salt. For the reason that layers are built up, they are pounded down with a wooden mallet. Then the layers are coated with a clean material, a board, and a heavy stone.

The combination is set aside in a fab place to ferment. In a few days, brine, tiny bubbles, and a layer of scum will rise above the material. The brine and scum are removed each couple of days until the bubbles no longer appear. Then the kraut is made.

Sauerkraut jar
Sauerkraut crock and wooden pounder

How you can Make Sauerkraut in a Huge Canning Jar

  1. Have at hand an overly clean wide-mouth canning jar.
  2. Decrease a head of cabbage into quarters, then wedges, and then crosscut in thin ribbons.  ribbons.
  3. Place the cabbage to a large bowl and sprinkle with salt. With very clean fingers, art work the salt into the cabbage thru massaging and squeezing it. The cabbage will grow to be limp and coleslaw like after 5 to 10 minutes. Add a flavoring similar to caraway seed for those who occur to love.
  4. Pack the cabbage into the canning jar. Tamp down the cabbage with a spatula. Add any liquid introduced during the cabbage into the jar. Place a large cabbage leaf over the top of the sliced cabbage.
  5. Place a smaller jar or glass into the mouth of the canning jar atop the cabbage. Weigh down the jar smaller jar with marbles. The cabbage must be submerged underneath the liquid inside the higher jar.
  6. Cover the mouth of the larger jar with a material and secure it with a rubber band. Air can flow into the jar thru dust and insects can also be excluded.
  7. Over the next 24 hours, press down on the cabbage with the smaller jar. The cabbage will free up additional liquid protective the very best of the cabbage. If the cabbage is not coated with liquid, add very frivolously salted water to cover the cabbage.
  8. Let the cabbage ferment for 3 to 10 days. Ferment the cabbage out of direct sunlight in a fab room, about 65°F to 75°F. Check the cabbage two occasions a day to ensure it does no longer flow up above the liquid.
  9. Do not be alarmed for those who occur to seed bubbles or foam on top of the liquid right through fermentation. For those who see mould, remove it instantly. Do not eat moldy cabbage or sauerkraut.
  10. Get started tasting the sauerkraut after 3 days. When the way is in your liking remove the smaller jar and weight and place a screw-top cap on the higher jar or sauerkraut.
  11. Sauerkraut will keep for 8 weeks refrigerated. Discard if smells bad.

About Sauerkraut

  • Sauerkraut is claimed to have originated somewhere in historical Mongolia or China were nomadic horsemen learned to stay cabbage in brine so that they would have a able meal on their far-flung journeys.
  • The Mongols and the Huns offered their pickled cabbage to Europe inside the fourth century. There it evolved into sauerkraut in Germany and Alsace. Sauerkraut method sour cabbage in German. There is a an an identical dish in Manchuria and China in recent times. It’s referred to as suan cai this means that that sour vegetable.

Sauerkraut

Instructions

  1. Remove ragged or difficult leaves from the white cabbage head.
  2. Shred the cabbage very good. Use a shredder or an old school “kraut board.”
  3. Weigh the cabbage. You’ll be able to use 2 teaspoons of pickling salt for each pound of cabbage.
  4. Place a layer of salt inside the container: a sauerkraut crock, stone crock, or hardwood keg.
  5. Place 2 or 3 layers of shredded cabbage over the salt.
  6. Place a 2nd layer of salt over the cabbage.
  7. Continue layering until you could be 4 or 5 inches from the very best of the container.
  8. Pound the mix gently with a wooden mallet.
  9. Best with a layer of salt.
  10. Place a clean hardwood board or a plate over the top of the cabbage and weigh it down with a rock or other weights.
  11. Tie a clean muslin material or layers of cheesecloth over the top of the container.
  12. Store in a fab place (45 to 60°F) to ferment.
  13. In a few days, a brine, tiny bubbles, and scum will appear above the board or plate.
  14. Skim the brine and scum away each couple of days until the tiny bubbles on longer appear. This may increasingly take a month.
  15. When the bubbles no longer appear, your sauerkraut is made.
  16. Sauerkraut may also be spiced as you are making it with juniper berries, peppercorns, bay leaves, caraway seeds, dill, or allspice.

Notes

STORING SAUERKRAUT:

You’ll be able to no longer freeze sauerkraut. So it is best to store it in vacuum-top canning jars.

  1. Fill each vacuum-top canning jar with juice and kraut to within a component inch of the very best.
  2. Wipe the sealing edge. Dip the metal disk lid in boiling water, place on top, and screw the metal band tight.
  3. Place the canning jars on a rack in a deep kettle and cover with scorching water.
  4. Put the lid on the kettle and bring to a gradual boil for 35 minutes.
  5. Remove the jars from the water and set on a drying rack or wooden counter and cool for 12 to 24 hours.

SERVING SAUERKRAUT:

  • Serve steamed sauerkraut with pork, sausages, ham, turkey, boiled dinners, duck, or any meat.
  • Serve sauerkraut raw as a relish or condiment with meat dishes, bratwurst, or scorching canine.
  • Serve sauerkraut as a salad: dress with oil and onions; combine with a vinaigrette sauce, mayonnaise, or Thousand Island dressing to taste.
  • Serve cooked sauerkraut with potato noodles.

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