Sauerkraut

[berryman]

I think a few of you make sauerkraut, we used to a long time ago in a big crock that I don't have anymore. I want to use one of my buckets I used for brewing and bottling. Anybody have a refresher on making it, thanks.

[bpgreen]

I make mine in a wide mouth quart jar with an airlock lid. But I would guess that the difference is just a matter of amount, sothe process should be the same.

I use a food processor to cut it into strips (at least I do when I remember that I have a food processor; I forgot when I did my last batch). I use either sea salt or Himalayan pink salt. I think I read that there can be a problem if you use iodized salt.

My notes say to use 2g of salt for every 100 g of vegetables.I usually add a couple of jalapenos if I have them or crushed red pepper if I don't. I also sometimes add an onion or some garlic (usually depends on if I havesome on hand. There are a variety of seeds that you can add, as well, like fennel, dill, caraway. I may have added fresh ground gingera few times, but that may have been when I made kimchi (use Napa cabbage for that and cut in chunks instead of strips).

I usually just use 1 or two heads of cabbage at a time. I cut the cabbage up, mixing in the other vegeetables as I go. When I get about half of a head of cabbage in the bowl, I add the appropriate amount of salt and start kneading it in. I keep kneading it it until the cabbage starts getting soft and liquid starts accumulating. lather, rinse, repeat until all of the cabbage and salt are done. Then I put in the the jar and really stuff it in until it's all in the jar. I use a wooden tool that I think is created for this purpose to tamp it down as much as possible.

If the cabbage isn't covered by liquid, I make some brine so there's enough to completely cover the cabbage.

I have some glass weights to cover the cabbage to ensure that it stays covered throughout the process. You would probably want to do something to cover the cabbage and maybe weigh it down (maybe a large plate with a clean/sanitized rock on top).

Theoretically, it may be ready in as little as 3 or 4 days, but I usually let it go for a least a week. I think you can let it go for several weeks. The longer you ferment it, the more sour/tart it becomes.

Some people say that if slime develops at the top, there's no reason for concern, but others say that's a bad sign.

I've also fermented other vegetables. Mostly broccoli, cauliflower, and brussles sprouts, but you can really do just about any vegetable you want. I break up the cauliflower and broccoli into chunks roughly 1/2 inch across. The brussles sprouts, I just cut in half. For those, I don't knead until they start producing liquid, I just cover them in brine.

[mashani]

I do pretty much what BP says, although I don't work quite as hard, IE I don't kneed and mess with the cabbage until it unleashes enough brine to cover immediately. I just mix with the salt and put a weight on it, check on it after 4 hours or so, then top up if needed, but generally it is not needed, the brine should form all by itself by the salt working on it and the weight pressing on it.

As far as slime or what not, I'd only worry if it smells awful or mold starts to form but that shouldn't happen if you keep a weight on it and everything remains submerged.

Side note, especially for newbies - I highly recommend Sandor Katz books when it comes to learning how to ferment pretty much anything.

[FrozenInTime]

I have made it for years in 5 gallon buckets. I use a new bucket every year as food grade buckets from Lowe's is cheap. I fill bucket with cabbage (pickling salt, ie non iodized mixed in), put a plain white dinner plate on top (to keep everything submerged, and fill a quart jar with water to sit on top of plate. If the water does not rise above the plate in a day, I put some brine in to cover plate. Of course, like brewing, I sanitize the cwap out of everything before hand. You will get a mat of stuff floating on top, I just scoop it off every few days, otherwise it will get nasty. I leave it in until the kraut hits the taste I want. As I put cabbage in the bucket, I will throw a handful of caraway seed in it as we love the taste. I leave at room temp in closed room as it can get smelly. I throw a clean towel over the bucket to keep undesirable critters out and let the fumes escape. When done what we don't plan on eating in a couple days gets put in pint jars and water-bath'd for 10 minutes. That kills any bugs, etc that manage to live in the salt water.

Wife gave me a nice fermenting clay pot for Christmas but wont be using it this year. In the 2 months we were away from home, my garden was destroyed by weeds, not much survived.

[berryman]

Thanks guys for the responses. It's been about 20 years since we made any and use to use a big crock that got broke. Wife and I have been reading up on it and it seems most are doing closed ferment now, and could do that too, but think going do it open like we use too. I have a new never used bottling bucket I bought just before I went to kegging and will use that. Wife will can it after it is done.

[FrozenInTime]

Home made kraut and venison sausage, homebrew, doesn't get much better than that!

[bpgreen]

One side comment on making sauerkraut in glazed pots. A long time ago, the glaze often contained lead. It usually wasn't a problem, but the acid produced when fermenting vegetables can cause the lead to leach.

[berryman]

I forgot how much work making that much ‘kraut was. It is in the bucket.





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[berryman]

I also forgot how it smelled while fermenting. We used to let it sit on the back porch out of the sun and never really noticed the smell unless you got close to inspect it. I have it in my basement on the floor about 8 ft away from my bar where I like to sit and get a few whiff's now and then.

[berryman]

Update: been a little over 3 weeks and did a inspection as wife was worried. All is fine and no funky stuff growing and tasted excellent. Was worried it might get salty if to long, but is not. I told her she can keep on doing her other canning and this can sit a little longer until has the time and ready. That is what you can learn from brewing beer and wine, if you do it right and have patience it will come out good.

[bpgreen]

That reminds me. I bought a head of cabbage a week or so ago (I do this on a much smaller scale). I need to shred it, salt it, and start fermenting it.

Out of curiosity, had anybody here ever tried to "jump start" sauerkraut by adding whey from kefir or yogurt? I've never done that, but I've read about it.


Edited to fix a stupid autocorrect

[mashani]

Out of curiosity, had anybody here ever tried to "jump start" sauerkraut by adding whey from kefir or yogurt? I've never done that, but I've read about it.

I've never done it. It would certainly work, but depending on the cultures involved it would potentially have a slight effect on the complexity of the flavors of the final product. Some of the bugs involved up front in the fermentation that you are suppressing to keep them from getting too big of a foothold by adding salt produce micro flavors that would be totally nasty if they stayed involved and became more then that or they weren't suppressed, but the PH changes produced by the lactic and acetic acid bacteria kills them off before that happens as long as you add enough salt, so they stay deep in the background and just add some layers of complexity. But if more acid producing critters are added up front, said things won't have so much of a chance to make said micro flavors, they would die off more quickly.

That said, it might also help avoid the random off or rank batch if for example you don't add quite enough salt up front to suppress the bad buggers enough, so it's a trade off that could be worth it, and maybe that slight added complexity is not even something anyone notices or cares about when it comes to their daily dose of kraut.

[berryman]

We.have enough ‘kraut to to keep us for a while.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[FrozenInTime]

MMMM, looks tasty. We're having kraut and v/sausage for dinner tonight. I see you still have the rings on. I always remove the rings after the waterbath. I noticed if I leave them on, I find they develop a lot of rust on the rings. It's also a good way to tell if a jar has become infected, if lid comes loose at any time, toss, don't use.

[bpgreen]

I just started some this afternoon. I used 2 heads of cabbage, but only 1 jalapeno.

Fortunately, I remembered that I have a food processor. Cutting the cabbages goes a lot faster with that than doing it by hand.

I've got two quarts going.