Fermentation Fun

Starting back in 2012 I made sauerkraut on a pretty regular basis. However, when we moved to our condo the equipment didn't make it upstairs from the storage unit, mainly because he new smaller kitchen doesn't have a good place to keep a crock of fermenting cabbage for the seven to ten days it takes. 

 For my birthday back in January Son Donald gifted me with a fermentation and storage container. I didn't even know something like it existed, but now I don't know what I did without it

The container has an exterior locking lid to help keep the sauerkraut smell contained, and an inner vacuum lid to provide an anaerobic environment. The interior lid has a small plug in the middle that you can open to let out accumulated gasses.

Since receiving my gift I've started made sauerkraut on a regular basis again. The ingredients couldn't be easier-a head of cabbage and some kosher or pickling salt (because the iodine in table salt is a problem for fermentation.) Using a food processor, the job takes about 20 minutes from starting to closing the lid.

The first job is to shred the head of cabbage. Next, I weigh it, add a tablespoon of salt for each 800 grams of cabbage, and massage the two together until the cabbage starts breaking down. Once the cabbage is exuding liquid I pour it into the container.

Sometimes the cabbage is dry and doesn't produce enough liquid. If that happens I mix up a salt/water brine and pour it into the container. The next step is to press the layer of cabbage down with the vacuum seal lid, close the plug, and clip the top lid in place.

Depending on the ambient room temperature it will take somewhere between seven and ten days for the sauerkraut to be done. I'm impatient, so every day I take off the top lid to check on the progress. At the beginning it tastes like raw, oversalted cabbage. As the cabbage shreds turned from green to yellow, the taste changes from raw to 'krauty'. When a taste test decrees the sauerkraut is done I scoop the sauerkraut into a couple of repurposed salsa jars and move it to the refrigerator. 

This sauerkraut is good straight up or as a side dish, but if it gets too hot the probiotic cultures are killed so I take the jar out several hours before a meal so it can come to room temperature. 

Sauerkraut with apple pork sausage link and sweet potato oven fries

 

 

 

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