Last week when I started the sauerkraut, I told someone I’d do a post “tomorrow” and that’s been over a week ago. Sorry for my tardiness!
I had two heads of cabbage and intended to use them both. I can actually put three heads in this fermenting box. But, I do not have my kraut cutter here and the only knife I have is a small paring knife so after the first head of cabbage was shredded with that tiny little knife, I said . . that looks like enough cabbage for today. I’m going to make cabbage rolls tomorrow with the other head of cabbage.
I will tell you how I do it but please Google “How to make sauerkraut” and you will get lots of info. It is so simple. Please . . do this for me: If you want to make sauerkraut, before this week is up, do it! Stop thinking about it and just do it. Start with one head of cabbage. Start with a Mason jar if you don’t have a fermenting box or crock.
Here’s how I do it:
- Wash and shred the cabbage. Save the outer leaves.
- Weigh the shredded cabbage. I only have a small kitchen scale with me so I weigh it in batches then add it all together.
- Calculate the amount of salt needed. I use 2% salt. Some use up to 3%. If my shredded cabbage weighs 22 oz, then it’s 22 x .02 = .44 oz. This is why I use grams. I my cabbage weighs 60 grams, then it’s 600 x .02 = 12 grams.
- I use either Kosher salt or canning salt. I don’t know if that matters but I always have both so that’s what I use.
- Add the salt to the shredded cabbage in a large bowl and massage with your hands or pound with a cabbage pounder (or a rubber mallet – anything. I’ve sometimes used a glass jar in a plastic bowl) until the cabbage has released enough liquid to cover the cabbage.
- Sometimes storebought cabbage is a bit dry and you have to add some salty liquid. Make a 2% brine. Weigh the water as you did the cabbage and add 2% salt.
- If using something besides a fermenting box, weight the cabbage so it stays beneath the liquid. Here’s where you use the leaves. Cover the cabbage with the leaves, then put something on top. In the past, I’ve used whatever I could find that would work.
- You will probably want a vapor lock of some kind. See photos below.
- Leave the cabbage on the counter for 1 – 4 weeks or however long it takes for it to get to your desired stage of sour!
You want carbon dioxide to be able to escape but you do not want air to get into your fermenting vessel.
The fermenting box has this little top that you squeeze down. All the air in the container is forced out through the little hole in the top, and the liquid will come out the little hole. That way the air bubbles can escape but air cannot get in. Place the lid on it and let it ferment and turn that cabbage into yummy kraut.
If you’re using the Mason jar method of fermenting, these lids are the vapor lock fermenting lids I prefer. There are some that are less expensive but then you have to drill into a Mason jar lid. Make sure you have a wide mouth Mason jar before ordering these because Mason jars are not easy to find these days.
Also, if you’re going to do much kraut making, you might want to order some fermenting weights. My weights are older. The ones in the link look a little different and they look way easier to get out of the jar than mine are.
Make sure that the cabbage stays covered in liquid!
Be sure that whatever lids and weights you order, you’re getting them for wide mouth jars. Some of those things are, or were at one time, available for both wide mouth and regular. It’s all so much easier in a wide mouth jar.
Depending on the temp in my kitchen, I usually start tasting the kraut after about two weeks.
That’s about all there is to it. It sounds like a lot of trouble and scary but it isn’t and it’s quick and it’s so worth it.
Linda Enneking says
I have never made kraut, but I remember my mother doing it when I was young. She used a big crock,large enough to hold at least three gallons. The cabbage was fresh from our garden so there was no need to add brine. She covered the top with a plate weighted with something heavy, I think a fruit jar filled with water, then covered the whole thing with a dish towel. No fancy equipment was needed.
Judy Laquidara says
I have a big crock and they’re ideal. Mine has a “lip” around it in which I pour water and that forms the vapor lock. I loved hearing it “belch”. It’s just too big for me to handle though. I always know the cabbage isn’t fresh when I have to add brine and it makes me happy when the cabbage releases enough of its own liquid.
Nelle Coursey says
I have never made this because we don’t eat it a lot. What I do is buy the “little” cans at the store. I fry 1 strip of bacon, crumble it, cook the link sausage in the bacon grease. Then I shred about 1/2 of a red delicious apple and add the kraut and the apple to the crumbled bacon and sausage. Cook it until the apple takes in some of the flavor. My Chech neighbor and Chef Tell told me how to do this. I miss Chef Tell!! LOL But even if you don’t care for Kraut, this makes it have a sweet taste in with the sour. I love it!
Judy Laquidara says
Oh, goodness, Nelle. Canned sauerkraut tastes nothing like homemade – so different that it’s hard to even believe it’s really the same stuff but that recipe sounds really good. I will try that.
Twyla Starr says
Homemade is so much better. My mother did hers in jars and shredded the cabbage small. Oh my word!!so good.
Tee says
My best homemade kraut was when I made it while I was living in an old farm house. I put it in a 5 gallon bucket and topped it with a garbage bag filled with water, which is what gave it the air lock. My old neighbor had given me the cabbage cutter and even his old bat that he used to beat it. He told me how to do it. I shoved it under the sink, which didn’t have a cabinet, it was a farm sink that was hooked to the wall. It stunk so badly! I let it sit and after a few days the smell mellowed out. I had no idea really what I was doing, probably took less care of it then that I do when I make it now and that sauerkraut ended up being the best I have ever made. I have never achieved the taste again. I suspect it was from all the bacteria that landed in it from that old farm house while I was chopping or beating it. Perhaps it was from cooks from the past having a hand in it.
Karen says
Have you tried making kimchi?
I can recommend making it.
I’m going to make sauerkraut this weekend.
Thanks for the suggestion.
Pamela says
I bought this box after reading a post of your about sauerkraut. Over the summer I got a beautiful, huge head of cabbage. I don’t know what I did wrong, but I ended up throwing my sauerkraut away. It tasted like it had gotten spoiled. One thing I did, that I think may have been wrong, is I added tap water to it when it seemed like it was getting too dry. Our water has chlorine in it. I may get brave and try it again, but with a small head of cabbage.
Judy Laquidara says
That shouldn’t have mattered that much. I used community water with chlorine when we lived in MO before and the batch I’m making now I used city water. Did you add salt water or just plain water?