Spring Sauerkraut Recipe
Spring means sauerkraut. Not really. It's totally wrong as vegetable availability goes, but at least it gets made.
Sauerkraut Recipe
This basic recipe hits the one important note - namely, salt by weight of things to be krauted.
Ingredients
- Cabbage
- Salt, no iodine, anti-caking agents, etc., 2.5% by weight of above cabbage
- Optional: Caraway seeds, black pepper, red peer flakes
Tools
- Stoneware crock
- Plate, very slightly smaller in diameter than inside of crock
- Scale
- Clean heavy thing(s)
- Clean mashing thing
Instructions
- Slice, dice or shred cabbage
- Weigh cabbage & multiply weight by 0.025
- Using your fist, cocktail muddler or saw-off baseball bat mash alternating layers of cabbage & salt together
- Place plate & clean heavy things on top of cabbage, press until cabbage juices emerge. This may take overnight
- If juices do not cover the plate in 24-36 hrs., create a saline solution of roughly 2.5% salt by weight and cover
- Skim off the surface funkiness every few days and make damn sure the water level never gets below the plate.
- Wait 2-4 weeks, testing every few days for desired level of sour & crunch
- Pack in clean jars & refrigerate
Notes
I prefer thick slices of cabbage, although it seems some people consider this some sort of sacrilege. Thin sauerkraut always reminds me of the shit you buy in plastic bags in the meat aisle.
If you like the smell of rotting death, let the water level get below the plate. Otherwise? Top off the crock regularly.
Slightly More Complex, Spicy Beta Version (05.17.14)
Ingredients
- 1700g Red Cabbage
- 1500g Cabbage
- 500g Carrots
- 500g Fresh Jalapenos
- 105g Salt
Results
Surprisingly tasty.
Test Image
