Homemade sauerkraut
Well who’d think there’d be that much of a demand for a recipe for homemade sauerkraut? I’m all too happy to share it though. If you have ANY questions at all, please don’t hesitate to email me or post them in the comments and I promise I’ll answer them. Don’t be intimidated by the number of steps; the entire process takes a couple hours, and once you do it a few times you’ll have it down pat.
You will need:
1. A large (minimum 5 gallon is best) food-grade container. I use one of those big ten-gallon white plastic buckets that pickles sometimes come in; they can be found in restaurant supply places. (Note: These instructions are for the large bucket. You can also use large glass jars, but once you try this, you’ll find that you like it so much you want to make a lot at a time, and glass jars just don’t hold enough. I have never used the glass jar technique, but if you would like to do it this way let me know and I’ll see if I can find the small-batch instructions for that.)
2. A large knife or mandolin.
3. Large wooden spoon.
4. Kitchen food scale (the amount of salt you use depends on the amount of cabbage, so you must use a scale)
5. Two large (gallon size) ziplock bags
6. A plate that is just slightly smaller than the opening of the bucket.
7. Cabbage, either red or green but not savoy (I usually process a dozen heads at a time, but you can start with less).
8. Kosher salt or canning salt (NOT table salt!!)
SLICING:
Start by removing the dirty and damaged outer leaves of the cabbage and discard. Slice the head of cabbage in half, top to bottom (so you wind up slicing through the stem). Remove the stem with a wedge-shaped cut. Slice each head into 1/2-inch wide slices; it’s sometimes hard to keep the heads together at this point, so just do your best. Try not to slice off your fingers!
SALTING
Measure out 5-pounds of sliced cabbage. Mix 4 tablespoons of salt into this amount. Stir with wooden spoon until cabbage is well-coated with salt. As you mix, you will begin to see the juices getting released from the cabbage. When salt is well-mixed with the cabbage, start packing cabbage into food-grade container (I recommend placing the bucket on the floor and working with it that way, as that makes it easier to move later). Tamp down well using your hands; the tighter the better. Do not worry about bruising the cabbage; you kind of do want to bruise it, although not into a mush. As you pack, you should see more juices (brine) getting released from the cabbage. Continue packing until all of the 5-pounds is packed into the container. Continue to measure out 5-pound batches of the cabbage, mixing with salt, and packing into the container until all the cabbage is packed in. At this point enough juices may have been released from the cabbage to cover it; sometimes that’s not the case.
BRINE
Boil 1 quart of water, and add 1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt to it. Let it cool. If there was enough brine to cover the cabbage (and this will vary from batch to batch depending on the cabbage; some years you will have plenty of brine, some years you will need to add), you will not need to add any. If you do need to add some, add as much of the brine that you prepared as necessary to bring the level of the brine above the cabbage (the cabbage needs to be completely submerged in brine, by about 3 inches). If you need more than a quart, prepare as much as you need, making sure you keep the ratio of one quart of water to 1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt.
WEIGHTING
Fill one of the ziplock bags 2/3 of the way with the cooled brine you prepared on the stove (make more if you need). Seal it, and place it in the other ziplock bag. Wash the plate with soap and hot water; let it cool and place it in your container on top of the cabbage. Push it down slowly so the cabbage is held under the brine by the plate; place the double-bagged ziplocks on top to weight it down. Your cabbage should now be trapped under the surface of the brine. Remove any stray pieces of cabbage that might have escaped the plate. If the ziplocks are not heavy enough to weigh down the plate and it starts to float to the top of the bucket, add more double-bags of brine until everything is held down under the brine. The ziplock bags may stick up above the brine; this is fine, as long as the cabbage does not.
If you have a cover for the bucket, place it loosely over the bucket (do NOT seal, as you need to let the gases escape). If you don’t have a cover, then a towel placed over the top of the bucket (anchor using clothespins attached to the sides of the bucket, or tie a string around the outside of the bucket and towel) will keep dust and other stuff out of the brine.
Place bucket in a cool, dark place (approximately 75?F is best). The warmer the room, the quicker it will ferment. The cooler it is, the longer it will take.
That’s it! The sauerkraut shouldn’t need any more attention. After a few weeks have gone by (3 weeks at 75?F), remove the cloth cover and the ziplocks and plate, and taste the kraut. It should have gotten tender, and developed a mild sour taste (like a more delicate and complex version of the stuff you buy in the store). You can let it ferment longer, if you like it a bit stronger, or stop at this point and remove it from the bucket. If you’re happy with the taste, I recommend removing the kraut and storing or it will continue to ferment. You can store it the following ways (I have used all of these methods; all three result in delicious sauerkraut):
1. Place in container and into fridge for consumption within a few weeks (make sure you include enough brine to cover it); some people have kept it this way for months, eating it as they go, but it never lasts that long in our house!).
2. Pack it in ziplock bags and freeze (it will soften slightly this way, but not too badly). Just pack freezer-quality ziplocks with kraut, close up and freeze. Easy!
3. Can in a water bath (some kraut-makers don’t like this because you lose the “raw” quality of the kraut, but if you have massive quantities, this might be the best technique. Again, it will soften and get slightly tarter, but will still be eons better than store-bought stuff!!
Enjoy! I know this seems like a lot of work, but it really isn’t, and you will never go back to store-bought stuff again!
