Before I go ahead and make sauerkraut, is there something I should know?

[zippy]

Hi there,

I’m all ready with my plastic bucket method, bag filled with water for a weight and 1 and a half organic white cabbages.

I just wanted to know your experiences and what problems I should look out for. Also what recipes (flavouring) you use.

I had some home made stuff in Germany years ago that was made with caraway – gorgeous!

I’m after the good bacteria for my family’s health and can’t be bothered with making Kefir all the time.

[HT]

Yes Suzi

The main thing you should be aware of that Sauerkraut is yuckie…….. :S other than that,its just rotting cabbage with vinegar :pinch:

HT

[mauzi]

ha! ha! HT. In another life, well it feels like it, I spent 12 months in germany training horses. I hated Sauerkraut then, and sausages, and bread. I could have starved really 😀 but I actually don’t mind it now.

Another option Suzi is Kimchi which is basically pickled vegetables. If you are interested I have a couple of good recipes. I think it is a bit more interesting than sauerkraut and you still get the benefits.

[zippy]

Aha! Well I’ve got you there because there’s no vinegar. Just water, salt and cabbage.. fermenting.

[zippy]

Thanks Mauzi, I was thinking the same but only like kimchi with Korean food and we don’t eat much of that. Just when I go to the city for a treat (there’s a guy there who makes his own kimchi).

[Erthgirl]

My only tip is not to add too much salt… If it tastes ‘salty like the sea’… there’s too much salt… thus hampering the growth of beneficial bacteria…

It has to taste like ‘blech.. yuk… that’s salty… but not salty like the sea’ haha 😛

What’s the plastic bucket method Zippy? I just pound mine in a bowl and add to a jar… pack it in tightly, add a cabbage leaf on top and weight it down with a glass, (the glass fits under the lid of the jar and hold all the sauerkraut down underneath… and if there’s a bit of a seepage of liquid… it rises up over glass and goes down the inside…

Then I just crack the lid every couple of days.

Oh, and the other thing… use finely ground sea salt… not course rock salt… need the finer ground stuff to get a better surface area coverage… results in less spoilage.

I just grind mine down in food processor or mortar and pestal…

Edited to say… you shouldn’t need to add much water… pounding the cabbage with the salt results in cabbage releasing enough liquid to cover chopped cabbage… so should just need salt and cabbage.

[zippy]

THANKS Erthgirl, that’s what I needed to hear.

This is the thing I watched. She talks alot and takes ages getting to it but it’s the way I’m going to do it. Kiwi woman doing Sauerkraut

I would expect though, that she’d have to release the gas at some point..? She didn’t mention that.

Though I love watching a polish woman who does it with horseradish and gets her feet in and stomps it all down :laugh:

[zippy]

Ok HT I think I may have to agree with you on the ‘Yergh!’ quality of Sauerkraut.

I went to a local Christmas market thing at a local park and there was a guy there selling Bavarian hotdogs with homemade caraway sauerkraut.

I at it thinking “mmmmMMmm! this is so good for my gut” then realised how gross it was.

SO! Here’s to mine tasting different! I’ll try it anyway. I put a red onion and some grated carrots in. I WISH I had horseradish and fresh dill stalks to put in.. but .. such is life with a crappy bit of rock land around my house. :dry:

I think I’ll do water Kefir too.. looks yummy with fruit.

[Author]

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