As a kid, I loved the sauerkraut my aunt made.  Once I was an adult and out on my own, I didn’t like sauerkraut that I bought from the store.  Recently, I ‘discovered’ fermented vegetables and made my own hot sauce.  So, I decided to try making my own sauerkraut.

I checked out a few a books on fermenting vegetables and came across this: ”Wild Fermentation” by Sandor Katz.  I learned of this book from the subreddit Fermentation.  From what I read on the subreddit, I expected a hippy-dippy, “Diet for a Small Planet” kind of book. I was wrong.  This is IN YOUR FACE, punk fermentation in all its DIY glory.  I love this book!  I will never make most of the recipes in this book, but I am happy to read what Sandor Katz writes about them.  This guy is obsessed with fermentation – he ferments everything.  This book covers fermenting dairy, grains, making your own wine and beer, and finally, even making sauerkraut.

I decided to make a red cabbage kraut.  My recipe is actually based on one in Fermented Vegetables by Kristin Shockley, rather than Katz’s book.  That’s because I decided to use red cabbage before I found his book.  I’ll also use onions and apple in the kraut because I like apples and onions with my red cabbage. I’ll put it into two pint jars.

 

I sliced half the cabbage thinly and then sprinkled on a teaspoon of sea salt and tossed it well.  Then, I rubbed the cabbage between my fingers and squeezed it.  The goal is to massage the salt into the cabbage so that it will release the liquid in it.  Sauerkraut typically doesn’t use a separate brine – instead the brine comes from the cabbage. After a few minutes, it already starts to look shiny and wet.  At this point, I taste the cabbage.  You should be able to taste the salt, but it shouldn’t be salty. I worked it for about five more minutes and then set it aside to rest (and develop more brine).

While the cabbage was resting, I sliced half an onion thinly then peeled and sliced half an apple.  I cut the apple slices into little match sticks which I added to the cabbage.  After it had rested for about half an hour, a lot more liquid has developed, but not enough.  So I pounded on it with my potato masher.  Traditionally, people would pound the cabbage with a wooden rod.  I don’t have one, so potato masher it is (Sandor Katz would approve). The goal is to bruise cell walls to create more liquid.

 

Now it is ready to be packed into the jars.  Really press it down.  The key to fermenting vegetables is to make sure all the vegetables stay below the brine.  So, you don’t want any gaps where the brine collects, you want it on top of the vegetables.  When you press down on top of the cabbage, you should see the liquid.  When I put the weights in the jars, you can see the brine come to the top.

Then I add water to the airlock and put the lids and airlocks on top.  Set them aside somewhere out of direct sunlight and wait.  It should be ready in about seven days.  It will continue making more brine – here is a photo from the second day – you can see that the amount of brine has increased and there are bubbles in the airlock. By day three, the brine has turned a little cloudy.  That’s normal.  At this point you could start tasting it.  I tried a little and think it needs to get a little more sour before it is ready.

 

Checking on the fourth day, there is a little white stuff on top.  I think it is yeast and just skimmed it off.  That’s normal.  As long as the scum on top is white or pale gray, just skim it off.

After a few more days, I tried it again.  (There’s been no more white stuff on top of the liquid.) It’s ready.  I replaced the airlocks with lids and put it in the fridge.  It should keep for up to a year.