For Christmas our son Scott and his wife Ericca gave us a small crock made especially for fermenting foods. Ericca knew that I always have a bottle of Bubbies sauerkraut in our refrigerator and that I once made sauerkraut in a quart jar. Of course, I have had to try out this new equipment. Here are the steps:
Kraut-1 These are all of the ingredients and tools. See the strange half circles? They are used to hold the cabbage under the brine. They came with the crock, which is dark brown and a bit difficult to see. The wooden pounder stands next to the “fermenting” cookbook, which was also given to us. The wooden pounder is used to push all the air out of the cabbage and brine in the crock. The only ingredients are cabbage and salt, plus water.
Kraut-2 I had to finely slice the cabbage. I had a huge head of organic cabbage. I thought if I was going to spend a lot of time with making kraut, the cabbage should be organic. I do not have a mandolin slicer, so I just used a knife. Note the whole leaf that I took off the head of cabbage and saved before start to slice. Actually, I forgot to do this and had to save two half leaves.
Kraut-3 Here I am squeezing the kraut. I have put salt on it. I am wearing food-quality plastic gloves. You have to keep squeezing until there is enough liquid to cover the cabbage in the crock. That took half a day. I would squeeze a while and then wait an hour or two. The only ingredients needed to make kraut are cabbage and salt. I used sea salt. You should not use salt like Morton’s which has additives. Because I am not using vinegar, but only salt, time, and temperature, the microbes will be alive when the kraut is finished. Probiotics, naturally.
Kraut-4 You can see the “half-circle weights” holding down the shredded cabbage. Before you put the weights in, you have to put some full cabbage leaves over the shredded cabbage. The point is to keep the shredded cabbage under the liquid. “Keep the food under the brine and all will be fine.” That’s what the book on kraut-making said. The good microbes work without oxygen; the bad ones need oxygen. You can see that the crock pot has a water barrier around the top.
Kraut-5 After 7 days I declared the kraut “done” and packed it in jars. This is how much I got. The jars are not mason jars, but just jars I have saved from purchased food products. Because the kraut is not steamed for sealing and will be kept in the refrigerator, any jar will do. The quality is quite good. Crunchy and not salty. I could have added more salt. I’m not sure it comes up to Bubbies standard, but it is close.
