Lacto Fermented Sauerkraut Recipe
Lacto-fermented Sauerkraut is a favorite the world over. Its health benefits have made history and this powerhouse of nutrition is super easy to make. Fermentation makes your vegetables even healthier by enhancing vitamins and adding probiotic live bacteria to supercharge your gut health and balance your gut flora. This in turn will support your immune system! It's so much better than win-win.
Equipment
- Quart size glass jar - A mason canning jar works great or you can use a Flip-top jar with a hinged lid, which is self-venting and keeps oxygen out.
- A weight - I prefer to use a glass fermentation weight but you can use a clean rock or a zip baggie filled with brine (1 tbsp of salt per 1 pint water)
- A lid or cloth - Best is a fermentation top or airlock. These fit on canning jars. Otherwise you can use a sealing lid that fits your jar or a cloth secured with a rubber band.
- Large bowl
- knife - you can also use a mandolin or an electric food processor
- cutting board
- Scale - If you don't have a scale see notes below. Here is the link for an inexpensive scale.
- Tamper - optional - I love using a pickle packer for recipes like this, but you can use your fist.
Ingredients
- 1 small to medium head of cabbage - pick one that feels heavy for its size, red or white. You'll need to end up with about 1½ lbs shredded cabbage.
- Salt - the amount used depends on the cabbage weight.
Instructions
- Core and shred the cabbage to the desired thickness. Reserve a couple of the large outer leaves.
- Set your bowl on the scale and zero it (hit tare), on the gram setting.
- Add the sliced cabbage and record the weight of just the cabbage.
- Here you'll do a little math to figure out 2% of the weight in salt:Compute the weight of your cabbage x .02. This will give you the amount of salt to add. (Example: 1000 grams of cabbage x .02 = 20 grams of salt). You can apply this ratio to any amount of cabbage that you want to ferment! That's the beauty of using a formula.
- Adding the salt: Tare your scale to zero again with all the ingredients in it and add the amount of salt that you need by weight.
- Mix the cabbage and salt thoroughly. Let the mixture sit in the bowl for 10-30 minutes before proceeding.
- Knead the Cabbage. Knead the cabbage for a few minutes till it becomes pliable and limp and starts to release juices. You can pound it with something heavy too, but I just like to knead it and then I will know when it's getting juicy enough.
- Stuff your cabbage with the juice into the glass jar. Pack it down tightly. You can do that with your fist or a pickle packer tamper. As you pack down the cabbage, you'll find the juices rising. Keep packing the jar to within an inch and a half of the top rim. Press it in really well to push out any air and to coax out the juices.In the end you should have some juices rise above the ingredients. If not, let it sit a while longer and push on it again. You can add a little water if necessary. If you need a lot of water, then you should make a brine by adding 1 tablespoon of salt per pint of filtered water. I rarely find that necessary. If you use fresh from the garden, heavy cabbage you should get plenty of juices.
- Use the large reserved leaves to cover the shredded cabbage, which will help keep the bits submerged.
- Place a weight on the cabbage to submerge everything in the brine. The brine should cover all of your cabbage, so none of it is exposed to the air.
- Cover your jar with a lid or a cloth.
- Place your container in a darkish corner. Put a bowl under it to catch any overflow if that happens. This will be its home for the next 3 weeks or so. Try to find a place where the temperature is above 70 and below 80℉ most of the time. This will be your best fermentation temperature, especially for the first few days. But fluctuations are ok and a little higher or lower is fine for short periods.
- Check it occasionally. You might need to burp it once a day if you're using a sealing lid. Just quickly loosen the lid enough to let the pressure escape, and tighten it right up again. Don't remove the lid unless you have an issue to deal with. If you're using a cloth cover, skim the surface whenever necessary and be sure to keep the cabbage under the surface of the brine. Things to look out for is a thin layer of harmless, grayish-white kahm yeast and floaters. Keep those skimmed daily.You don't usually have to do anything if you use a fermentation lid, just check to make sure it's fermenting. You'll see the brine get cloudy, bubbles start forming, and the liquid expanding, possibly oozing out of the jar. This will normally start after 2-3 days.
- After 3-4 weeks: Give it a smell and a taste test. Your kraut should be done. When you open the lid, smell it. You should smell that distinct fermentation scent. It should smell pleasant and tangy. Check the kraut, is it still firm? Does it look good? If so, proceed and taste a bit of it. If you taste a salty and tangy flavor and your kraut is crunchy to slightly soft, all is well.
- You can now place it into cold storage for long-term keeping. Cold storage will slow the fermentation way down and make your kraut keep for a very long time. At least a year. I've had some of mine stored in the cellar for well over 2 years and it's quite tangy but still crunchy and delicious. If you have a cool corner in your home, you can also keep it at room temperature if it's not too hot. It won't keep as long as in cold storage, but it should stay delicious for several months at least. Let the smell and taste be your guide as to whether it's still good. Most likely you'll have eaten it well before it declines. If it smells bad or you find that it is turning mushy and unappetizing, it's probably time to feed it to the compost, where it will be useful as an effective composting accelerator.
Notes
This recipe can be scaled up indefinitely, using the cabbage to salt ratio formula. You can use a half gallon mason jar to fit double the recipe. You can use one of those gallon size glass crocks or you can use a 5 gallon food-grade bucket or a cambro plastic container. Or, if you have access to a big ceramic crock, you can use that as well. Just be sure that the glaze is safe for acidic foods. Just shred all your cabbage, weigh it, add the 2% of salt in weight, follow the recipe and use the appropriate size container for fermenting.
To use a weight in a larger container, try one of the different sized ceramic weights or use a plate and top it with something heavy that is food grade, such as a gallon jug of water.
*No Scale: If you have a cabbage and are ready to go, but you don't have a scale you can wing the salt ratio for a quart size ferment. Add 1 tablespoon of salt to the amount of cabbage that fits into a quart jar. I've used that method for years before I found out about the more technical way to do it.
Optional add-ins when making kraut: Caraway seeds, Pepper corn, Cayenne peppers, Turmeric, Onions, Carrots, Celery root etc.