Homemade sauerkraut: cabbage, carrot, 2 % salt and a week under a weight
Sauerkraut from one big jar or a stoneware crock, the way it used to be made in barrels every autumn. Three things are needed: cabbage shredded thin, salt weighed on a scale (2 % of the cabbage weight, no less, no more) and a weight that keeps the cabbage under its own juice. The bacteria do the rest in a week. The flavour is cleaner and less salty than shop-bought, and bigos and sauerkraut soup made from it are in another league.
Your own work in that: 45 min.
- Shredding 20 min
- Salting and kneading 25 min
- Fermenting (a week, warm) 8640 min
Step by step
0 / 7 doneShred the cabbage
Remove the outer leaves (keep 2–3 clean ones), quarter the cabbage, cut out the core and shred thinly, 1–2 mm, on a cabbage slicer or mandoline. Thin strands give up their juice faster and ferment evenly. Weigh the shredded cabbage: the salt is calculated from this weight.
Ingredients: 3000 g white cabbage · 2 pcs carrots · 60 g non-iodised rock salt · 1 tbsp caraway seeds
TipChoose late varieties, heavy and dense. Early summer cabbage is too soft and watery and ferments to mush.
A millimetre or two; then onto the scaleWeigh the salt and add the carrot
Weigh the salt: 20 g per kilo of cabbage, so 60 g for 3 kg. Grate the carrot coarsely. Mix the cabbage, salt, carrot and caraway in the biggest bowl you have, or a scalded tub.
TipSalt is the one thing not done by eye. Too little (under 1.5 %) and the cabbage goes soft and spoils easily instead of fermenting; too much (over 3 %) and fermentation slows right down, leaving it salty and hard.
Sixty grams for three kilos, from the scaleKnead until it releases juice
Knead the cabbage with your hands, squeezing and rubbing it by the handful, 10–15 minutes, until it softens, shrinks by half and juice collects at the bottom of the bowl. When you squeeze a handful, juice should run out. Rest 15 minutes and knead once more.
Until juice runs from a squeezed handfulPack into a jar or crock
Transfer the cabbage to a scalded 5 l jar or a crock in batches and press down hard with a fist or a tamper until juice rises above the surface. Pour in the juice from the bowl. Fill the vessel no more than three-quarters: fermenting cabbage expands and the juice overflows.
TipPressing drives the air out from between the strands. Lactic fermentation is anaerobic: wherever air remains, the cabbage darkens and spoils.
Press until the juice stands above the cabbageCover with leaves and weigh down
Lay the reserved whole leaves on top, then a plate smaller than the opening, and on the plate a weight: a jar of water or a scalded stone. The juice should stand 2–3 cm above the plate. If there isn't enough, add brine: 20 g salt per litre of boiled, cooled water. Cover with a clean cloth.
Leaves, plate, jar of water; juice above it allFermentation: 5–7 days at 18–20 °C
Stand the vessel on a tray somewhere at 18–20 °C, out of the sun. After a day it starts to bubble and smell sour. Every day pierce the cabbage to the bottom with a clean wooden skewer in a few places to release gas, and skim any foam or white film from the top. Taste from day five: ready when clearly sour, crunchy and clean-smelling, without bitterness.
TipAt 24 °C and above cabbage ferments in 3 days but comes out soft and less aromatic. At 15 °C it needs about two weeks and usually comes out the most aromatic. A flat white film is yeast, skim it. Fuzzy coloured mould means cabbage was sticking out above the juice: remove it generously along with the top layer, and if it goes deeper or the cabbage smells rotten, throw the whole batch away.
Pierce to the bottom daily, skim the foamJar it and keep it cold
Transfer the finished sauerkraut with its juice into jars, pressing so the juice covers it, close and put in the fridge or a cellar at 4–8 °C. In the cold, fermentation almost stops: it keeps 4–6 months and slowly gets sourer. For salads, bigos, sauerkraut soup, pierogi.
Into jars with the juice, into the fridge, for half a year
Before you start
The top turned dark
The top layer touched air. Remove and discard the top 2 cm; the rest under the juice is fine. Next time use a heavier weight and more brine.
With apple and cranberries
2 tart apples in slices and a handful of dried cranberries in the cabbage: a sweeter, milder sauerkraut for salads.
In small jars
The same recipe with 1 kg cabbage and 20 g salt, packed into two litre jars weighted with a smaller jar of water. It ferments the same and fits any kitchen.