Posted by Sue Landsman on May.07, 2010

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Most people have experienced sauerkraut in the store-bought jar–pale, stringy, and limp. It’s great in a Reuben, but it’s just not tempting enough to eat on its own, or is it? If you make you own sauerkraut, you’ll discover that it can actually be crisp, colorful, and more than deserving of taking center stage itself.

Sauerkraut is pickled cabbage, made through a process of lacto-fermentation that’s easily done on a countertop. It’s an extremely healthy food, containing vitamin C, lactobacillus (which is the common bacteria found in “probiotics”), and anti-cancer compounds called isothiocyanates.

Step 1: Prep the Cabbage

To make sauerkraut, chop the cabbage to the thickness you desire. Remove the tough outer leaves and any other portions that you don’t want to use. You can use both red and green cabbage. If you include at least some purple cabbage, you will get a wonderful purplish pink color to your sauerkraut. For more color, you can add some beet greens or other thinly sliced vegetables. Sprinkle sea salt over the cabbage, about a tablespoon per head of cabbage, or two tablespoons per three pounds. It’s the salt that will create the brine in which the cabbage will ferment.

Step 2: Brining

In order to brine the cabbage, you will need a crock or a tall canister. The cabbage needs to be completely submerged in the brine solution in order to ferment successfully. If you have any uncovered cabbage exposed to the air, it will just rot and produce a bad odor as well as taste.

Once the cabbage has been thoroughly tossed in the salt, let it sit to wilt for a few minutes then put it in the crock and press it with a wooden spoon. You want to compress the cabbage so that the salt has the most contact with the cabbage. Find a “lid” for your container — you want something that will fit just inside the crock and press all of the cabbage down. Weigh the lid down with something heavy like a clean rock or a jar full of water. Some people use a plastic bag filled with water, as the bag takes the shape of the inside of the container and prevents any growth of yeast or mold originating from the circulating air.

Step 3: Start Fermenting

Set your crock on the counter and check it every few hours as the salt pulls the water out of the cabbage. Within a day there should be enough water to completely cover the cabbage and your lid. If you need to add brine you can create it by adding one tablespoon of salt to a cup of water. As the cabbage ferments, it produces different kinds of bacteria, culminating in a population of various lactobacillus species.

You should leave your crock open to the air, but covered with a dish towel so that dust and other airborne particles don’t get into your creation. Keep an eye on the water level. Depending on the time of year and how dry your air is, you may need to add more brine. Considering how much work you’ve probably put into shredding the cabbage, you don’t want to let your batch go bad due to inattention.

Step 4: Enjoy

When your sauerkraut is done is up to you. You can try eating it after four or five days. After that, the taste will continue to change as the fermentation process continues. Many people find about two weeks to be the optimum flavor, but this is subjective. Complete fermentation takes five to six weeks. When you’ve decided the sauerkraut is to your liking, you can remove it to the refrigerator, or just leave it under the brine and continue eating it as you wish. It’s usually easier to transfer it to a container in the freezer so that you can start a new batch with your crock.

If you want to spice up your sauerkraut, you can experiment with seasonings such as mustard seeds and garlic, or hot peppers and onions.

For more recipes or additional information on fermentation and pickling your own foods, check the following resources:

Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods By Sandor Ellix Katz
The Joy of Pickling: 200 Flavor-packed Recipes for all Kinds of Produce from Garden or Market By Linda Ziedrich

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Posted under Cooking Healthy, Food, Nutrition & Recipes.