Sauerkraut [Time needed to prepare: Minimum 10 days, ideally 3 weeks]
Note: This recipe is intended to be scaled for larger amounts. If you have more jars and weights it’s very easy to create several jars full of sauerkraut at once.
To make 500g of sauerkraut at home, you’ll need:
- A large jar (2 pints, 1/4th of a gallon, or ~1 litre)
- A weight (you can purchase a fermentation weight or boil a flat stone that fits inside the jar for 20 minutes to sterilise)
- ½ Cabbage (any type/colour) (500g)
- Salt (10g)
- 500mL distilled water (or boiled, then cooled, water)
- Seasoning of your choice (e.g. black peppercorns, cloves, juniper berries, bay leaves)
- Gently wash the cabbage with the distilled water (no soap or sterilising agents). Peel away the top leaves from the cabbage and set these aside to create a natural ‘lid’ for your kraut.
- Shred or slice the cabbage into strips. Thinner slices produce softer sauerkraut and ferment faster. Thicker slices leave more crunch. It’s your preference.
- Mix 500g cabbage with 10g salt in a mixing bowl. Feel free to use your hands to massage the cabbage with the salt, then leave it to soak for around 20 minutes. This will draw out the water from the cabbage. You’ll be surprised by how much water is hiding in there!
- When the cabbage is soft and soggy, transfer it to your jar and use your fist or a wooden spoon to pack it in. Fill the jar to around 1/2 - 2/3rds with the cabbage.
- Place your fermentation weight on top of the salty cabbage or ensure you’ve pushed down hard into the jar to pack it tightly, add the cabbage water from the bowl (only add more water if needed to cover the top of the cabbage) so that everything is submerged. Leave at least 3 cm of air space at the top because sauerkraut expands… and we don’t want any explosions. Then place one of the cabbage leaves you peeled off earlier on top as a ‘natural lid’.
- Sauerkraut produces gas, particularly in the first week, so either loosely fit the lid to the jar or open it once daily (just for a second) to let the pressure release. This is called ‘burping’ the kraut. But, as air introduces new microbes, avoid leaving your jar open too long.
- Cover the jar with a lid and store it in a cool, dark place (ideal temperatures are 15-22C).
- You’ll start to notice a lot of bubbles forming in the first 2-3 days, and sometimes, a thin white layer covers the water. This is called Kalm yeast. It’s perfectly safe to eat, or you can skim it off if you’d prefer. If, however, there’s a fuzzy-looking substance that is blue, green, black, or brown, that’s probably mould and means the batch needs to be thrown away.