Sauerkraut Recipes

[5030]

So I don't see any recipes here. My Mom used to make kraut and I did not pay much attention, didn't like it as a kid. Now I do like it but have never made it. We have several crocks in varying sizes that my wife's parents used for kraut and pickles. Wouldn't mind giving it a try, just don't know how. Thought about just Googling it and finding recipes but that seems a bit hit or miss. Figured I would trust the people here more.

So what is the best way for a rank beginner to make his first batch?

Grow some cabbage. (Store bought cabbage has been dehydrated and washed, you need home grown cabbage with white powder on the outer leaves)
Buy a box of Kosher salt
Get a crock (and some stones and a plate large enough to just fit inside the crock)
Shred the cabbage (use a food processor or a cabbage cutter), mix in the kosher salt at 5 pounds of shredded cabbage to 3 tablespoons of salt
Add apples (sliced not too ripe), or savory or shredded carrots or onions (not too much) or nothing, just plain cabbage (with the salt added)
Put a layer in the bottom of a washed (with hot water and soap and carefully rinsed) crock and mash it. I have a kraut masher but you can use your fist (if you need to release some anxiety...). Mash it down, put in another layer (couple inches deep. Mash it down. Put in another layer, mash it down and so on. The juice from the cabbage will start to come out.

By the time you get the crock full (takes a LOT OF CABBAGE), you'll have a good layer of juice on top the cabbage.

Take some whole cabbage leaves and cover the top and submerge them in the juice. Put a china (not plastic) dinner plate on top of the leaves and weight the plate down with clean rocks (I use paving bricks) when I use a conventional crock instead of the Harsch crock.

Put in a warm place and cover the crock with a black plastic garbage bag and do not disturb it for at least 3 weeks.

After 3 weeks, remove the garbage bag, the rocks, the plate and remove the any Kalm that has grown around the edge (Kalm is a nice name for the mold that grows in top where the cabbage juice is exposed to air). Scoop out the Kraut and enjoy. We can ours.

How it's done. We use regular and purple cabbage, makes no difference but remember, the cabbage has to be either home grown ot from a vegetable stand, supermarket cabbage don't work well because it's actually processed (moisture removed and washed) so the white spores that are on the outer leaves are removed and it's those spores that cause the fermentation action in the crock.

If you like to read, there is a very good book called "Making Sauerkraut and pickled vegetables at home" by Klaus Kaufmann and Annelies Schoneck from the Alive Natural Health Guide #35. You can buy it in most any bookstore.

You asked, you got it.................:thumbsup:

 

[AllByteNoBark]

5030 thanks for the recipe. As I read it I could picture my Mom working on it when I was a kid. Seems we always did it at the end of summer when there was no decision making on which head of cabbage to pick. I got the job of cutting them off and bringing them to the house. I wasn't very old and thought it was cool to get to use a big butcher knife. If someone gave a kid a knife like that now days people would throw a fit. Your description reminds me of Mom pressing the cabbage down into the crocks. Like I say I didn't pay much attention but funny the things I do remember.

Going to print this recipe out and see if I can find some cabbage. If not I think I will try growing some next year.

Thanks!

 

[goeduck]

5030, What does the black garage bag do? Never have done that.

 

[Doofy]

I also enjoyed watching Mom make sauerkraut and other savory foods to can. I did not pay close attention either and regret that. I agree with using your own or farm-fresh cabbage for kraut. Store-bought cabbage is dry and bland.

 

[5030]

5030 thanks for the recipe. As I read it I could picture my Mom working on it when I was a kid. Seems we always did it at the end of summer when there was no decision making on which head of cabbage to pick. I got the job of cutting them off and bringing them to the house. I wasn't very old and thought it was cool to get to use a big butcher knife. If someone gave a kid a knife like that now days people would throw a fit. Your description reminds me of Mom pressing the cabbage down into the crocks. Like I say I didn't pay much attention but funny the things I do remember.

Going to print this recipe out and see if I can find some cabbage. If not I think I will try growing some next year.

Thanks!

If you have a local vegetable stand, that cabbage will work because it's not processed. I live in cabbage country. Up here the big produce crop besides tomatoes is cabbage. We live in sandy loam, perfect for growing it. Most growers here double crop cabbage and we have a huge cabbage processing facility at the end of the road so I know about how it's processed for supermarkets and salad makers.

All summer it's a procession of flat racks being pulled by migrants on tractors, hauling cabbage in hampers to the facility where it's washed, dehydrated, cooled to 34 degrees and loaded on reefer trailers to go to who knows where.

We have enough in the root cellar for at least another year, then I'll be growing and cutting heads myself.

Get yourself the book I mentioned. it's full of good recipe's for kraut and pickles and even has a chapter on meat preservation in crocks. Even has a recipe for corn relish. Wife made some last year and it didn't last very long.

Glad to help. Kraut is good for your digestive system.

 

[5030]

5030, What does the black garage bag do? Never have done that.

It keeps the air from getting in to a certain extent and keeps it warm too. You want the crock and it's contents to stay warm, why, back in the day, it was kept in the kitchen by the stove to ferment. The less air movement across the top of an open crock, the less Kalm that grows. Why I prefer to use a Harsch crock. The Harsch crock has a 'gutter' all around the top you fill with water and then you 'float' the lid on the water and that seals the air out but still lets the gas that the fermentation makes out. Like making wine in a bottled water bottle with an air lock but it's all around the edge of the crock.

Like I said in a previous post, I don't believe Harsch is in business today. They were made in Germany and we have a couple in addition to open top crocks. You might do a Goggle search on Harsch. it's really the way to go with making Kraut. Much easier. The Harsch crocks we have come with their own weight stones that fit snugly inside. You have to apply weight to the top of the cabbage to keep it tightly packed in the crock, why you mash it down in the first place. Mashing it not only releases the juice, it aids in the fermentation process.

Maybe I should change my screen name to 'Kraut King'....lol

I love polish sausage and kraut for dinner.

 

[Jstpssng]

I had never heard of them until this thread. You are correct, they stopped production in 2013. However there is another company which makes something similar, in 5 and 10 liter (1.3&2.6 gallon) sizes here.
The SAUERKROCK™ Fermentation Crock | Humble House

 

[BrokenTrack]

I have never made my own Sauerkraut as we have a farm here that makes it that is pretty hard to beat. But my wife and I make Ruben or Racheal Sandwhich's from scratch that are to die for! To make our own sauerkraut would be even better.

For those that do not know:

Ruben Sandwich=Sauerkraut
Rachel Sandwich=Coleslaw

For a new tasty hotdog, try a "Racheal Dog" which is Coleslaw. (I had a Racheal Dog, but that was just an ugly girl in my high school class) LOL

 

[Clint S]

I just made a gallon this year in a plastic tub. Shredded , salted and let it sit for a month then canned it up. I made it for my dad and he said it was good.

 

[5030]

I have never made my own Sauerkraut as we have a farm here that makes it that is pretty hard to beat. But my wife and I make Ruben or Racheal Sandwhich's from scratch that are to die for! To make our own sauerkraut would be even better.

For those that do not know:

Ruben Sandwich=Sauerkraut
Rachel Sandwich=Coleslaw

For a new tasty hotdog, try a "Racheal Dog" which is Coleslaw. (I had a Racheal Dog, but that was just an ugly girl in my high school class) LOL

I have a very close friend that lives up your way in Stockton Springs. My wife and I need to get up to Maine and spend a week or so with them. Send me a message this morning, told me his cukes have went crazy and they have been giving them to everyone.

I do like a Ball Park Frank smothered in coleslaw, but then I like coleslaw anyway. Anything cabbage related is good for us but I still prefer fatm made Kraut over everything else.