Homemade Fermented Sauerkraut
Homemade Fermented Sauerkraut is a crunchy and tangy topping that will keep your family salivating.
Equipment
- 1 Large food safe bowl with weight
Ingredients
- 5 lb Cabbage
- 3 tbsp salt
Brine
- 1 quart water
- 1.5 tbsp salt
Instructions
- Start by preparing your head of cabbage. Remove any loose or damaged exterior leaves, and cut out the core of the cabbage. It may be easier to first slice the head in half through the core, and then cut out each half of the core.
- Next, cut the head into strips about a quarter inch to a third inch wide. Then cross cut the strips every inch or two, so that you get long thin strips of cabbage.
- Rinse and wash your chopped cabbage in a colander.
- In a large food safe bowl or crock, begin massaging the cabbage. This should involve a series of crushing motions with your hand mixed with stirring and crushing the cabbage. The goal here is to get the cabbage slices to release some of their liquid. By the end of processing all of the cabbage, your bowl should have a fair amount of liquid, possibly even enough to submerge the cabbage.
- Add the salt to the cabbage and mix well.
- If you do not have at least an inch of liquid over the top of your cabbage leaves, prepare a brine per the ingredients above and add it to the bowl.
- Place your lid/weight on top of the cabbage, and store in a cool dark location. Make sure the weight on top keeps the cabbage below the liquid. Use only food safe weights (I used a heavy glass bowl.) I used a towel to keep light out.
- Check on the taste of your sauerkraut after a few days. Between 1-2 weeks of fermentation your sauerkraut should reach a desirable flavor. Remove any scum from the top of the sauerkraut, and then bag or jar it. It will hold in the freezer indefinitely and in the fridge for about a month.
