Sauerkraut

I've been making sauerkraut for years and do up a batch every couple of weeks.  It seems so easy peasy now but I remember the first few times I did it. I was terrified that I was going to poison myself!  Have no fear: as long as you pack the cabbage tightly and it's covered by brine, all will be well.  Your gut and your pocketbook will thank you!

Sauerkraut

Ingredients

1 head green cabbage 

sea salt

Instructions

1.  Depending on the size of your cabbage, have a couple of mason jars clean and ready to go.   Usually, I can get about 1.5 pounds of cabbage into one regular sized jar.

2. Wash the outside of the cabbage.  Take off and set aside the main outer leaves.  These can be used as part of the weight system; to keep the sauerkraut under the brine.   

3. Slice the cabbage.  It doesn't need to be small.  If you prefer crunchier sauerkraut, keep it bigger.  

4. Place the cabbage in a large bowl and sprinkle with salt.  The formula for determining the needed amount of salt is for every 1 pound of cabbage, you'll need 1.5 teaspoons of salt.  So for a medium cabbage head of 3 pounds, you'll need 4.5 teaspoons of salt.  

5. You can start massaging the cabbage with your hands or pounding it right away if you are pressed for time.  I typically leave mine for 45 minutes to 1 hour and let the salt do it's thing for a while.  Letting it sit means less massaging or pounding later.

6. Massage or pound until the cabbage becomes watery and limp. This usually takes 5-10 minutes. 

7. Tightly pack the cabbage into your mason jar pressing the cabbage down every once in a while so that the brine makes it way to the top.

8. If you saved the outer leaves, top the cabbage with that and then add a weight.  You can use a clean stoneware weight, stones or marbles.  I purchased a mason fermentation set that includes a weight and a valve which I use all the time.  I'd highly recommend you do the same if you plan on making sauerkraut often.

9. Seal the mason jar with a regular canning lid or a fermentation valve.  If you don't have a valve, you will have to "burp" your sauerkraut once a day.  (Burping just means opening up the lid and allowing some of the gases to escape.  If you don't do this, your sauerkraut will likely explode!) With the valve, you don't have to do any of this as the valve will take care of it.

10. When the sauerkraut is fermenting you should see bubbles coming up through the cabbage and eventually foam on top.  These are good signs which mean that fermentation is happening.

11. There are no hard rules about how long to ferment your sauerkraut.  I usually do somewhere between 5-10 days but I've been known to let it go longer.  

12. If mold develops on the top, you can skim it off and eat the unaffected portion below.

13. Store the sauerkraut in the fridge.  It will keep indefinitely.  

Tip:

• You can flavour your sauerkraut by mixing in fresh dill, garlic, caraway seeds, sliced hot peppers, etc. Add the desired flavouring to the bowl of pounded cabbage right before you pack it.  My absolute favourite is fresh dill.

• Make sure you only use sea salt.  Iodized salt tends to inhibit the beneficial bacteria.