Probiotics Galore with Homemade Sauerkraut!

Fasten your seat belt! As I promised, here are the particulars for making your own sauerkraut:

Let’s assemble the necessary tools. You will need: Organic cabbage. I buy or grow, depending on the season, about 20#’s or about 10 heads. Of course, this will depend on the size of your fermenting crock. You will need sea salt or Himalayan Pink Salt. A cutting board and a sharp chef’s knife will be needed for cutting the heads in half, trimming, and removing the cores. If you don’t have a mandolin, (Fig 4) you can use your knife to “shred” the cabbage. However, this is slow going and unless you are a ginsu expert, slicing it thin and uniform will be a problem. An electric slicer (Fig 5) is a great tool for this job (I bought an inexpensive one at Costco some time ago). Using a slicer will keep your shredding uniform, fast, and your arm won’t be in a sling for several days. A food processor is handy for chopping up those larger leaves that the slicer or mandolin leaves behind.(Fig 6) This is not a necessity, but there is less waste if you do use one. You will need a scale, a large bowl, a Tablespoon measuring spoon, something to tamp the cabbage down into the crock and food handling gloves. I use an antique wooden potato masher to tamp down the cabbage.

Okay, here we go. Wash your hands!! Everything needs to be as clean as possible. Bacteria, etc. will ruin a batch of kraut. To help ensure the working area is clean, we spray the counter, sink, slicer, etc. with pure vinegar, rinse and dry. Wear your food handling gloves. Our crock and jars are put away clean, but we rewash them. Our stoneware fermentation crock holds about 15lbs of cabbage.If we have more cabbage than our crock will hold, we also use some Probiotic Jars that hold about ½ gal. These jars make fermenting easy and reliable. Especially suitable if you wish to make smaller amounts. Some people use food grade plastic buckets, but since we have no experience with that method, I am going to tell you about our fermenting crock and the Probiotic Jars.

Slice each head of cabbage in half, wash under cold running water and drain. (Fig. 1, 2, & 3).Begin shredding operation. Shred 5 lbs of cabbage(Fig 7), add 3 Tblspns salt and mix well with hands (Fig 8 and 9).Salt will draw water out of the shredded cabbage which helps make the juice that will cover the cabbage during fermentation and keep the kraut crisp.It also creates an environment that inhibits the growth of undesirable bacteria and yeast which can cause kraut to go bad during fermentation. Place cabbage in fermentation crock (Fig 10) and begin the tamping down process, this helps release the juice. Repeat this process for each 5lbs of cabbage. Since our crock holds 15 lbs nicely, we do this three times. Place the weighting stones on top. All cabbage needs to be covered with juice by about 3 to 4 inches. Place the lid on your crock, pour water in the in the groove (Fig 14). Leave at room temperature 2 to 3 days. When you hear a bubbling sound, the fermentation process has begun. Move pot to a cool place, about 70 degrees for 4 to 6 weeks. If you have your crock full and still have cabbage, then use one of your Probiotic Jars (Fig 13). Do not can your sauerkraut. It will keep in your refrigerator for several months. Canning will kill the live probiotics. Hildy says, “live healthfully and eat your kraut.”

Till next time.

Pictures below