Easy Homemade Sauerkraut Recipe
You can easily make a salty, crispy sauerkraut recipe with few very simple
steps and enjoy this healthy and cost-effective probiotic diet at your home for
several months when stored properly in cold temperature.
steps and enjoy this healthy and cost-effective probiotic diet at your home for
several months when stored properly in cold temperature.
Servings: 2 quarts
Calories: 10kcal
Ingredients
- 2 Cabbages of about 5 pounds
- 1/4 cup salt
- 1 - 2 tbsp Tbsp caraway seeds (optional)
- 1 Fermentation crock of 2-quart size or mason jar of one half gallon size with airtight lid or fermentation weights
Instructions
- First, you need to clean your crock or mason jar whichever container you have taken and your hands properly with warm soapy water.
- Now it turns to slice your cabbage into small and thin ribbons size. In order to make this job easier first remove the outermost layer and cores of your cabbage. Slice this bigger size cabbage into four quarters so that it can be further sliced easily. Now slice each quarter of cabbage into small ribbons. If you have a food processor in your home then you can do this work much speedier way.
- After slicing the cabbages, place those small-thin slices into a clean large size bowl and sprinkle salt over it. Now squish and knead the salt and cabbage with your hands for at least 10 minutes. You will see after a few minutes the cabbage will start releasing liquid. Enough amount of liquid brine will be collected by the time to submerge the sliced cabbages easily in the jar or crock. Mix caraway seeds in it, at this point if you are using it in your recipe.
- Now put the cabbages into fermentation crock or jar and close the lid. Pour the liquid if any in your bowl into crock or jar. You can also add extra water if the brine or water existing in the jar is unable to cover cabbage entirely. In the case of fresh cabbage additional water is not needed to mix and even if it requires then also there is no issue.
- If you are using a mason jar as a container then make sure that you are adding fermentation weights and fermentation seal to ensure the cabbage remains beneath the brine. You can also use fermentation crock for proper fermentation of your recipe.
- The fermentation process will start just within a day and it will take up to 2 to 5 weeks time. The fermentation duration will depend on your expected tartness level and temperature in which fermentation is processing. This simply needs your patience to get ultimately the desired level of taste and texture in fermented sauerkraut. You can check the tartness level after 2 weeks and leave it as it is if it is not yet reached your expected level.
- Stop the fermentation once it reaches to desired tartness level. You can eat it instantly or can store it in the refrigerator for further use. It will remain in the right eatable condition for up to six months.
- Enjoy this delicious recipe directly in your meal or you can add it in soups, salads, or as topping on meats.
Notes
- It is absolutely normal to see foam, bubbles and white scum on top of the cabbage during fermentation process.
- There must not be any actual mold over cabbage. If it exists it must be scraped from top safely. Make sure the cabbage submerged in brine are in completely healthy condition.
- For a perfect salt level you can use the ratio of 2% of total cabbage weight. For this you can weigh your cabbage first and as per that can add 2% salt of the measured weight. Use only a good quality salt in your recipe.
- Depending on your fermentation timing the nutrition data may vary. Those who are taking long fermentation time their ultimate product will lose naturally generating carbohydrates in cabbage over time.
- The serving size can vary depending upon your measuring method like scooped or packed.