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Tag: sauerkraut

  • Making Sauerkraut Made Easy – GF Video

    Making Sauerkraut Made Easy – GF Video

    Making sauerkraut is the gateway recipe to fermentation success. Here’s how to make sauerkraut: shred cabbage, add salt, put in jar. Done. In this recipe video i wanted to show that making sauerkraut does not have to involve large fermentation crocks and lots of work. This is small batch kraut made easy.

    Making Sauerkraut Is Not Rocket Science

    I’ve heard from a few people about their fermentation failures, usually with a recipe for making sauerkraut. The first time I tried to make it, it didn’t work out. I think one of the biggest mistakes people make is using tap water that has been chlorinated. I figured this out when I was baking bread, I found that using water from our Brita Water Filter Pitcher allowed the yeast to work much better.

    This sauerkraut how to is based on the methods laid out by Leda Meredith in her book, Preserving Everything. I think a lot of people have this impression that you have to have big fermentation crocks and tons of cabbage to make this. Leda’s method uses mason jars. You can use most any glass jar, you just need to be able to cover the jar in some way. Either with a lid or maybe plastic wrap with a rubber band to cover the top – whatever works for you. What does not work is metal containers, use only ceramic, glass, or food grade plastic. If you use a plastic container, it will smell like fermented food forever after, in my experience.

    Making Sauerkraut Made Easy - GF VideoHow you chop the cabbage for making sauerkraut is a matter of preference. Basically, do you like chunky or fine kraut? If you cut the cabbage with a knife, you can get chunky cabbage. If you use a knife, mash and crush the cabbage before adding it to the jar, you want to break down the cell walls of the cabbage leaves to allow the fermentation to start quickly.

    Making Sauerkraut Made Easy - GF Video
    A box grater works, but I suggest a food processor with a shredding blade.

    You want the cabbage to start making a brine fairly quickly, which is why I like to use a food processor to shred the cabbage. This method lets a lot of liquid out of the leaves and mixes with the coarse salt you’ve added to make the brine.

    If the brine does not start by itself within an hour, add 1/2 teaspoon of salt to a cup of filtered water, and top up the jar. Some cabbage will always float a bit, but you want most of the cabbage submerged.

    Press down the cabbage, if you see some bubbles come up out of the brine, you are making sauerkraut. If you don’t see bubbles, be patient, wait up to 4 days, just be sure the brine is topped off and keep the jar in a dark place. You can start eating the kraut after it has been fermenting for 3 days, but I like to wait at least 1 week. Some people wait a month.

    Making Sauerkraut Made Easy - GF Video
    Small bubbles means fermentation has started!

    After the initial 3-4 days of fermentation, I keep my sauerkraut in the fridge, I think it mellows the kraut, and it will keep for 6 months. Visit Leda’s website for great foraging info and food preservation recipes.

    Bonus! I got to interview Sandor Katz on GardenFork Radio, Some fermentation books we recommend:

     

    How To Make Sauerkraut Recipe
    Author: Eric Rochow
    Small batch fermentation in mason jars allows you to make sauerkraut the easy way. This sauerkraut recipe is based on Leda Meredith’s single jar kraut in her book, Preserving Everything.
    Ingredients
    • One small head green cabbage
    • 1 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
    • Filtered water
    • One pint mason jar
    Instructions
    1. Remove any wilted parts of the cabbage
    2. Cut cabbage in half lengthwise, then cut each side into quarters.
    3. Put shredding blade on food process and shred the cabbage.
    4. Layer the cabbage into a pint mason jar, adding about 1″ of cabbage, then some of the salt.
    5. Press down the cabbage a few times while adding the layers.
    6. Add cabbage until the level reaches about 1/4″ below the rim of the jar.
    7. Let sit for 1-2 hours.
    8. If brine does not develop, add 1/2 teaspoon salt into 1 cup water, and add to top of cabbage.
    9. Keep cabbage submerged in brine, add saltwater mix as needed.
    10. Put on jar lid loosely, let sit in a dark place to ferment for 3-4 days.
    11. Tighten jar lid and refrigerate.
    12. Kraut keeps for 6 months.
    13. If you use a quart mason jar, double this recipe.

     

  • Homemade Sauerkraut – Fermentation Progress Report

    Homemade Sauerkraut – Fermentation Progress Report

    We are basing our new homemade sauerkraut how to on Leda Meredith’s new book, Preserving Everything, which shows how one can make sauerkraut in a mason jar. We talked with Leda recently on GF Radio: listen here. Links to buy book at end of post ↓

    homemade-sauerkraut-fermentation-progress-report1

    I like this mason jar sauerkraut method, it makes it less daunting than having to go find or buy a big glass jar or crock. Most of us already have a couple of mason jars somewhere. I might have too many jars, according to some family members…

    But this is pretty simple, chop up cabbage, add salt, put in jar, wait.

    homemade-sauerkraut-fermentation-progress-report2I couldn’t find the shredding blade for my food processor – not surprising – so I cut up the cabbage by hand. Its my experience that shredding with a food processor will yield a much more shredded cabbage, and that will start fermenting much faster than cabbage cut up with a knife.

    The reason for this is that with a food processor, the cabbage is cut finer, exposing more leaf surface area to the salt. The salt draws some moisture out of the cabbage, and the brine starts to form. With the knife sliced cabbage, this process is much slower. Its also important to basically massage or kinda crinkle the cabbage to break down some cell walls and allow the salt to do its work.

    After your cabbage in a jar has let out enough water to create a brine that covers all the fermenting kraut, we will let it sit in a dark place for a few days. We’ll be looking for bubbles, a sign that the lacto fermentation has kicked in.

    In our case, because of the knife cut leaves, I had to add salt brine to the jar. I set out a pint of water overnight – because our water is chlorinated – and then added a teaspoon of kosher salt to it, and topped off the kraut so that all the leaves were covered in liquid.

    You can get Leda’s Preserving Everything book here:


    Buy Preserving Everything On IndieBound

  • Sandor Katz on Fermentation – GF Radio 316

    Sandor Katz on Fermentation – GF Radio 316

    Sandor Katz join us to talk fermentation, and how to make sauerkraut, and just how much of our food is a product of fermentation. Sandor Katz is the author of The Art of Fermentation, An In-Depth Exploration of Essential Concepts and Processes from Around the World.

    We talk about the ubiquity of fermented food in our world:

    • Cheese
    • Bread
    • Chocolate
    • Coffee
    • Condiments

    sandor-katz-on-fermentation-gf-radio-316-2

    “So many of our food staples and gourmet treats are products of fermentation” Sandor points out. Eric brings up the bread starter he is working with based on the Tartine Bread book. Sandor points out how just adding water to flour will start fermentation. He has a starter and makes pancakes with his starter.

    Buy Sandor Katz’s Books Here (affiliate link)

    Sandor Katz on Food Safety

    “Fermentation is actually a strategy for safety” says Sandor, explaining how fermentation wipes out the bad organism that can cause food safety issues

    How to get started in fermentation

    Sandor suggests starting with vegetables and a container you have in  your kitchen. You don’t need any special starters. Any kind of vegetables will work, you can mix them together, add seasonings. Chop up your vegetables, add some salt, enough for it to taste good, squeeze the vegetables, bruise them to allow the salt to interact. Stuff them into the glass or ceramic jar you have, get them submerged under the liquid. You can put a plate with a weight on it to keep the vegetables under the brine. Leave it on the counter in a darker corner, with the jar slightly open. If any mold appears, scrape it off and allow the vegetables to ferment more.

    You can let it ferment a week or month, and then when it tastes to your liking, you can move it to your fridge.

    Sandor then talks about the cabin he is restoring with volunteer help, and the workshops he hosts. You can get more info on his site about where he is hosting fermentation workshops.

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    Watch our fermentation videos here

    Listen to Daniel Gasteiger talk fermentation on this GF Radio episode

    Easy Fermentation Recipes & Foraging Tips with Leda Meredith – GF Radio 355

  • How to make Sauerkraut Kinda Sorta – GF TV

    How to make Sauerkraut Kinda Sorta – GF TV

    We made a sauerkraut how-to video today. Fermenting green or red cabbage into sauerkraut is an easy recipe to make, and the possibilities are endless. Fermentation and fermented foods are on the rise, with their probiotic organisms and all around healthy food reputation. Making sauerkraut should be on the to do list of all urban homesteaders, and i imagine most homesteaders already make sauerkraut.

    Inspired by Daniel Gastieger, author of Yes You Can! And Freeze and Dry It, Too, we make a simple sauerkraut recipe that is the basis for all sorts of combinations. Daniel was on GardenFork Radio, you can hear his interview here.

    If your idea of sauerkraut is that greyish stuff you see in the store, try making sauerkraut yourself. Take red or green cabbage, or a mix, add salt and go from there.

    Basic Sauerkraut Recipe

    this is based on Daniel’s Yes You Can! And Freeze and Dry It, Too book.

    1 head of green or red cabbage

    pickling or kosher salt

    Glass, plastic, or ceramic fermentation container

    Remove the outer leaves from your cabbage, just the dinged up ones.

    Chop up your cabbage, you can do this by hand or use the food processor to coarsely grate the cabbage.

    Put the cabbage into a clean large bowl. Add a teaspoon of salt for each pound of cabbage.

    Use your hands to mix the salt into the cabbage, you want to crush and crinkle the cabbage.

    Put the cabbage into a fermentation container, mash the cabbage down and put a clean plate or something similar on top of the cabbage to keep the cabbage down in the container.

    Cover the top of the container with a plastic grocery bag and put the container in a dark cool area.

    Check the sauerkraut after 24 hours, there should be enough brine to cover the top of the cabbage. If there is not, boil a quart of water, add to it 1.5 tablespoons of salt. let the salt water cool, the  top off the sauerkraut so the cabbage is covered.

    Ferment the sauerkraut for at least 5 days, you can go a month if you want to. any mold that forms should be skimmed off.

    When you are happy with the fermentation, put the sauerkraut in a clean closed container in the fridge. ©2011 all rights reserved