After waiting nearly six weeks, we enjoyed homemade sauerkraut last night (with Krameria Estates Oktoberfest beer, of course).
Sauerkraut is another one of those things that our grandmothers made. And make it they did – Dad remembers the sauerkraut crock in their house as being three feet tall. Both mom and dad remember going into the pantry, scooping out however much was needed for the meal and then placing the plate back on top. What an easy way to have access to a vegetable all winter long.
To dispell stereotypes, sauerkraut is not just a German thing. Neither grandmother who made it had German ancestry. Again, it’s an easy way to preserve a vegetable. It doesn’t involve any cooking, canning or pressure cooking. It’s just cabbage and salt that hang out for awhile and ferment into sauerkraut.
The process for us started on Sept. 26. We searched the Internet for recipes and consulted a Ball canning book. Interestingly, the recipes were divided evenly regarding technique. We decided to go with a combination from the Ball canning book (Ball Blue Book: Guide to Home Canning, Freezing & Dehydration) and this Web site.
We each took a head of cabbage and sliced it as thin as we could. That’s something all the recipes agreed on: slice it as thinly as possible.
Filling the Jars. No, my hands aren't normally that red or wrinkly.
Working with one head of sliced cabbage at a time, in a large bowl (we used the one mom gave me for enjoying popcorn after I left home) we sprinkled about one tablespoon of sea salt over the cabbage. Then I used my hands to mix the salt and cabbage. With the second head, I learned that letting it sit a minute or so between each stir helped to draw out the moisture.
One thing to note: during this process your hands are basically sitting in salt water. If it was just one head of cabbage, it wouldn’t have been a problem. With two heads or more, I’ll be sure to wear gloves next time. Luckily, I didn’t have any cuts on my hands, but they weren’t looking too good toward the end.
Once there’s a fair amount of liquid, the cabbage is ready to be placed in jars. Surprisingly, none of the recipes mentioned sanitizing the jars; just make sure they are clean. We went ahead and sanitized our jars using Star San – a sanitizer we use all the time for brewing. For the jars, we used glass canning jars. Two heads of cabbage filled up two quarts and two pints.
Pinto beans keeping the cabbage in the brine.
Pack the cabbage down into the jars so that the liquid (brine) rises to cover the cabbage.
You can make more brine if needed, but we felt there was enough in the jars. For weighting the cabbage down in the brine, the Ball recipe didn’t have any suggestions; the Web site suggested zip-top bags of water. We were concerned that if one of the bags had a leak, it would dilute the brine. We poured dried pinto beans into small zip-top bags and used that for the weight.
With little bonnets on top, the cabbage is ready to ferment.
To keep out dust, bugs, the cat, whatever, we followed the suggestion from the Web site and used coffee filters and rubber bands. Then we put them on a lid from a cake pan, put them in the pantry and forgot about them until this weekend.
Two days shy of six weeks, we made roast pork, sauerkraut and dumplings (one of my grandmother’s recipes).
The ‘kraut was much crunchier than store-bought, but had good flavor and a greener color. We’re looking forward to trying the other jars to see if time changes the texture and/or flavor. We’ll keep you informed.
The finished product - Sauerkraut.
