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Thread: Homemade sauerkraut

  1. #1
    Senior Member CathyA's Avatar
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    Homemade sauerkraut

    Today I tried my "The Easy Fermenter" to make sauerkraut. I had gotten this kit last year, and just got around to using it.
    I used a medium-sized head of cabbage, but it only made 1 quart of sauerkraut. I was expecting at least 2 quarts, but once the salt draws the liquid out, it doesn't make much.
    Kinda a lot of work for just one quart. I want to start fementing other veggies too, in hopes of improving my G.I. biome. This set-up is nice because it has a one-way valve to let the gases out, but no oxygen in.

    Now I just have to wait until sauerkraut is born.

    IMG_9494.jpg

  2. #2
    Senior Member JaneV2.0's Avatar
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    Huzzah! Fermenting is on my list. I have made jasmine green tea kombucha, which I love.

  3. #3
    Senior Member herbgeek's Avatar
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    Fermenting is way easier than I ever thought. All you need is salt and water (unless you're doing a kraut, in which case you only need salt). In the summer, I just keep my brine (1 T sea salt per pint of water, heated to dissolve the salt and then cooled) in the frig so its ready to pickle any extra vegetable. I do mine in pint size mason jars. No special equipment needed, but I did get some silicone lids that allow gas to escape only because I was too lazy to loosen the rings every day while the items were fermenting.

    A lot of books will mention using a starter, but I have not found that necessary. I'm guessing I have plenty of yeasts/bacteria already in my kitchen from bread baking.

    I typically ferment jalapenos- last year I had enough to last through the winter and into early spring. Have also tried carrots, daikon, green beans, cukes, herb pastes, and salsa.

  4. #4
    Senior Member bae's Avatar
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    I just use an old school ceramic fermenting crock, made just a few miles from where I lived in Ohio:

    http://www.ohiostoneware.com/products.html

    I use my grandmother's recipe - throw cabbage into crock with salt, ignore. Comes out great. I sometimes Pacific-Rim-ize it with some hot peppers or whatnot, to make sort of kraut-kimchi.

    I always have a crock bubbling away.

  5. #5
    Senior Member CathyA's Avatar
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    I made a bunch of it in the basement in a big ceramic crock one year, and then canned it. I was too afraid to eat it. It didn't look too good. hahaha

  6. #6
    Senior Member CathyA's Avatar
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    bae......that's a cool place. Maybe I'll buy some of their jugs and start a band.

    Very interesting video of the place.

  7. #7
    Senior Member razz's Avatar
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    I used to make 4 gallons of it every year and froze it. Loved it but it is too much effort for just one person eating it. I may try a small batch again.
    As Cicero said, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.”

  8. #8
    Senior Member CathyA's Avatar
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    Razz.....it didn't get mushy from freezing?

  9. #9
    Senior Member razz's Avatar
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    Not mushy at all. I always cooked it with onions and topped sausages etc with it or had it on the side. What I really liked is the unique flavour totally unlike bought sauerkraut.
    As Cicero said, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.”

  10. #10
    Senior Member SteveinMN's Avatar
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    I feel like I'm way behind on summer things (got some local garlic scapes I haven't yet done a thing with) but, yes, time to get the fermenting pails going. Gotta keep the batches small, though, since I'm the only one who eats fermented pickles here and there's only so many with which I can share. Hmm. Maybe tomorrow is a farmer's market day... (well, it is every Saturday, but is it a farmer's market day for me?).
    Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington

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