When I first read the receipt it seemed really simple. Take cabbage and salt throw it together in a jar and wait. Simple, Right?
Not so much.
With my first try the cabbage didn’t release enough moisture to make brine. The cabbage has to be completely submerged in brine. I read a couple of different websites that talked about making sauerkraut. I decided I must not have massaged my cabbage enough.
No you didn’t read that wrong. You supposedly have to toss the cabbage with salt and then massage the cabbage until it goes limp and starts to release water.
For the second batch I massaged my cabbage. I think my husband was jealous of the cabbage and with good reason. I haven’t massaged him that long in years.
It didn’t make any difference. My cabbage still didn’t release enough water to make an adequate amount of brine. All the websites I had read said that if you don’t get enough brine then you are doing something wrong.
But I am determined to make sauerkraut. I am tired of my food choices. I need something else. Plus sauerkraut is supposed to be full of probiotics and good for you. I want sauerkraut!
I read more blogs. Then I found a blog post in which the writer made a distinction between store bought cabbage and fresh cabbage. She said that if she uses store bought cabbage she never gets enough brine. Yes, I like this answer and it makes sense. Of course store bought cabbage would be more dried out than fresh cabbage. She also mentioned that her grand something or another would only make sauerkraut at night, during a full moon, in the fall, under an old oak tree, with a bunch of other women. Supposedly this was the only time the cabbage would sour properly.
I have to say that sounds like to me they sold their husbands and children a load of poo poo and had a party.
So I began to wonder if all this massaging was really necessary.
Once again I bought a head of cabbage. I chopped it all up into nice thin slices. (At this point I am getting really good at chopping cabbage.) But this time I made a strong brine. I used 3 cups water and 5 tablespoons kosher salt.
I came to this amount of salt because the receipt I am using calls for 5 pounds of cabbage and 3 tablespoons salt. Unless you use kosher salt which I am, then you need to use 1 ¼ times the normal amount of salt. Plus to make brine the receipt calls for 4 cups water and 1 ½ tablespoons salt. I had about 4 pounds of cabbage from my head. So I figured about 2 ½ tablespoons salt. Adjusting for kosher salt I just called it 3 tablespoons. Then to make brine I needed another 1 ½ tablespoons. So I just rounded it off to 5 tablespoons. The reason I used 3 cups of water is because to dissolve the salt in the water to make brine you have to heat it. But then you have to let it cool before adding it to the cabbage. I skipped the cool down and just added 2 cups of ice. I figured 2 cups of ice melted should be about 1 cup of water.
After I had my 4ish cups of strong brine, I tossed the cabbage in the brine. Then I started cooking my beans. (I was making chilly.) Then I tossed the cabbage. Then I ground rice flour. Then I tossed the cabbage. Then I mashed bananas. Then I tossed the cabbage. Etc. Etc. Until an hour-ish later I had banana muffins made and hadn't let my beans burn. What happened to the cabbage? It looked just like all the websites said the cabbage should look like after it had been massaged enough. It was all nice and limp and wilty and had started releasing moisture (at least I think there was more brine).
I followed the rest of the instructions like I was supposed to. I weighted down the cabbage. I pushed it down once a days. I kept it covered. It sat on the counter and bubbled away.
Now a week later what do I have? Sauerkraut! It may be a little salty. Next time I am going to use 4 ½ tablespoons salt but I suspect that I will eventually go down to 4 tablespoons salt. Other than that it tastes wonderful. Granted I don’t know what homemade sauerkraut that gets massaged properly and doesn’t need brine tastes like but I think mine is just fine.
So if you are nuts and just want to make homemade sauerkraut or maybe your body is crazy like mine and reacts to store bought sauerkraut give it a try.
