sauerkraut

I finally cracked open our Wild Fermentation book, which is becoming a household favorite and read about making sauerkraut. When I discovered that kraut making basically involves chopping cabbage and adding salt, I knew I needed to try it.

First step- pick the cabbage. Seems like a simple step, but I actually think I could have let this cabbage head get a little larger. I'll keep that in mind for next time. We grew several heads of ruby red cabbage this year.

Second step, chop the cabbage and marvel at the beautiful patterns unfurling in front of you. I chopped the cabbage pretty coarsely. We had sauerkraut made at the Kretschmann's farm this past spring and instead of the finely grated stuff that you get at the grocery store, it was really wide and chunky, which made for a different eating experience.

Step three, toss the chopped cabbage into a large bowl, adding salt as you add more cabbage and stir it all together. In Wild Fermentation, Sandor writes to use 3T of salt per 5 pounds of cabbage.

Dump the chopped cabbage into a container. I used a half gallon jar. We do have a 15 gallon sauerkraut crock from my grandparents, but for my first batch of kraut, that seemed a bit ambitious.

Firmly pack down the cabbage into the container. We ended up adding about half of a green cabbage head from our CSA to fill up the container all of the way.

If you are using a real sauerkraut crock, you just place the sauerkraut board into the crock to cover the kraut. Since we were using a jar, we used a drinking glass to create a seal at the top of the jar. Next, we covered the whole thing with a towel and placed lots of heavy books on top to push the glass down into the jar.

And now we wait.
As an aside, sauerkraut making seems to be in my genes. As I mentioned above, my Pop and Meemaw gave us their old 15 gallon kraut crock. My mom recently told me a story of how Pop made sauerkraut once in the basement and it smelled so bad, which drove my Meemaw a bit batty - she was a very clean person. After the fermentation was complete, there was still a foul odor in the basement. Apparently in the midst of the sauerkraut making process, a rodent had died in their basement and that was what was causing the bad smell. YUCK!

But, no seriously- I remember as a kid coming home and smelling sauerkraut fermenting on the kitchen counter and it does kind of smell like an animal died. I'm sure we'll find out soon enough. Good thing it tastes SO good!