Lacto-Fermented Sauerkraut

[JRinPA]

Maybe I'll try caraway seed next time. I like it straight just fine. The basement is already pushing 70 after two days in the 80s and I guess in July or August when I make some more it will have to be in the mini fridge again like last summer.

[worth1]

Maybe I'll try caraway seed next time. I like it straight just fine. The basement is already pushing 70 after two days in the 80s and I guess in July or August when I make some more it will have to be in the mini fridge again like last summer.

I like a sweet Bavarian sauerkraut.
The raisins weren't quite enough.
I adjusted mine this morning by adding some light brown sugar and Rhine wine.
I just poured it into the zipper bag and back into the refrigerator.
It'll work fine and you wouldn't know the difference in a week.

[JRinPA]

A 5 gallon bucket is on the bubble for me. Same thing as last summer, mini-fridge. Set 70/72 right now, I will lower the temp in a week or so.

Question: shredded cabbage and salt at 1 tsp per 2 lb. Then cabbage outer leaves. Then a dinner plate that fits near the edges. Then a bowl on the plate holding a ziploc bag with lead bars as weight.

Which direction should the plate go? I had it placed normally. Then everytime I'd see an example (from a website pic) the plate would be inverted. I think an inverted plate has a chance to catch air under it. Which way should the plate be? Rightside up or upside-down?

[worth1]

@JRinPA

First I don't think it makes any difference what side of the plate is facing up.
But I would be really concerned about using lead bars as weights in a bag or not.
I mean seriously I would use gold bars or even rocks, but lead.
What if the bag springs a leak?
Or are you testing us to see if we read everything.

[rdback]

...I think an inverted plate has a chance to catch air under it.

That's always been my way of thinking as well JR. Does that mean we're "great minds"? lol

[JRinPA]

So if an inverted plate catches air in the initial placement, and/or then catches additional gas bubbles from the process...how big a deal is it? I don't think I saw a single pic with a plate right side up.

It would be nice to get a nice flat stone weight that fits the buckets. But then I get this picture of little stone chips falling off and into the sauerkraut like a mill wheel into the flour.

@worth1
Lead bars, not lead dust or oxidation. Not fumes. Not lead pipes and 50 years drinking water through them. No, I don't think lead is an actual problem for anyone except those poor ducks they murdered "for the cause" by filling and refilling their gizzards with shot until they got sick, for political reasons in the 70s.

I'm more concerned with the plastic than the lead. The bag of lead is in a bowl and can't touch the brine. The weighted bowl is holding down the plate. The ziploc is just to hold bars together in one group. My first thought was bundling them with tape but this was easier and cleaner. Last year I used a gallon bag of brine as the weight, they didn't fail, but messy in its way and certainly feels like it would tear open or unzip every time as it is lifted. Another easy weight I saw was a vacuum sealed freeweight plate, but that would be directly on the cabbage leaves waiting for a plastic bag to fail.

[worth1]

Some people use a round board with a big river rock on it.
Popular wood seems to be the board of choice.

[JRinPA]

Okay 10 days I better check that.
Okay I checked it a couple hours ago and it looks good...

Yeah worth, no way that bag of lead bars will ever touch the brine. The bowl is above grade, so it would overflow at the rim first. I guess I mentioned lead because that is some REAL weight, with an SG of 11.

I dropped it 4 degrees, it had been holding at 69-71

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[worth1]

It may or may not overflow the large container.
One must calculate the displacement of the bowl and compare it to the empty space in cubic inches left in the large container.
Just tossing it out there for fun.
I'm not concerned in the least about lead contamination of your sauerkraut.

[JRinPA]

I just dropped mine another degree or two, so it is set at 63 or 64. That mini fridge smells wonderful.

On Sunday I went up to my brother's and helped him jar up his two 5 gallon buckets. They were 3-1/2 weeks fermenting. One made 12 qt of fresh packed, I took 7 qts for my fridge, and that left 5 or 6 for his. That is 12+ qts from a 5 gallon bucket comfortably underfilled and sitting room temp in his upstairs. The other 5 gallon bucket we bwb. He said they all sealed, 14 qts.

It is pretty good stuff. He put black pepper in one, I don't know about that being a good thing, little black flecks look kinda yucky.

I'll just keep my 5 gal bucket humming along in the mini- fridge in the low 60s until needed, should be great. I have a bunch more Bravo cabbage in for fall, and I just used up the last half head of cabbage for coleslaw.

[worth1]

Excellent

[karstopography]

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Kicked off a batch of sauerkraut today. Ended up using five of these Bonnie hybrid cabbages I picked this morning. No water added at any point, but added was about 2.75% sea salt per weight of the thinly sliced cabbage. This all got mashed and rubbed vigorously together with the force of my hands until the water from the cabbage was released. That all got stuffed, and I mean stuffed hard with an acacia wood stuffing tool, into the glass gallon fermenter with about 15 grams of caraway seeds, which was all the caraway I had on hand. More than enough water was released to completely cover the cabbage. Hopefully, I left enough room in the vessel for expansion. The salty cabbage is already delicious raw, cannot wait until it gets good and sour.

I anticipate a 20-30 day fermentation. If all goes to plan, I’ll then after the cabbage has become sufficiently sour I will park it all in a 2 gallon zip bag out in the garage fridge. I won’t pasteurize it or add any vinegar. It should keep for months and still be a living fermentation out there until we eat it all. Looking forward to some brats with kraut.

[worth1]

No need to do all that rubbing with your hands it'll release water with just the tamping and time.

[karstopography]

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Had a little sample this morning. Already good and sour. There are three heavy glass weights in there to help contain the cut cabbage underneath and a couple of cabbage leaves underneath the glass weights, but some of the cut cabbage always makes it over to float near the surface. I can see the CO2 bubbles trapped in between the pieces of cabbage.

No sign of mold or anything undesirable. Good texture, not too soft or mushy or too hard and crunchy and nothing slimy going on.

I cut all the cabbage with a chef’s knife. I rather enjoy the process of cutting it all up. Most of the slices of cabbage are very, very thin.

[worth1]

@karstopography
That looks good.
I once did an experiment and made a jar of sauerkraut and just let it sit.
It lost a lot of volume because I think it sat for close to two years but I know it was over a year.
I tried it and it was good and not spoiled.
But I didn't eat all of it just tasted a couple of spoonfuls.

[rossomendblot]

On the left is the savoy sauerkraut I started last month. The colour is from turmeric and paprika. Tastes great, but running out!

The new batch I started today is on the right and a bit more adventurous: red cabbage, mibuna, komatsuna, carrot, garlic, ginger, chilli, turmeric, cumin and coriander. The mibuna and komatsuna were starting to go to seed and had developed a strong mustard taste.

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[rossomendblot]

Interesting colours in this new batch!

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[JRinPA]

I finished the last of the "fresh" sauerkraut this week.
So it was an August 11th start. We did three 5 gal buckets. One went in my mini fridge. Two went in my brother's kitchen (lol). He didn't like the smell after 3 weeks or so we jarred his up the day before Labor Day. I kept some of that fresh in the fridge, it was good. He kept some fresh in the fridge, but didn't really like it. I'm not sure how much he really likes sauerkraut. The rest we canned up there and he kept it.

After I used up those from my brother's, probably mid October but possibly later, then I took my Aug 11th start and jarred that. Some fresh, probably 7-8 qts into the fridge, and then 4 or 5 qts were sealed at 180F. I re-topped the ones in the fridge after a few days. And the last of that is what I just finished up, end of March.

My fall cabbage wasn't super because I failed to thin them properly and a few spots had two or three starts fighting for space. I had plenty of kraut so I used them fresh for coleslaw, before the deer ate them off.

So I am down to just the stuff I canned at 185 or whatever. I will report back on how that turned out after I try some. And the next available for making kraut will be...July?

Interesting cycle for the year, though I wish I didn't have to devote the mini fridge to it. There is just no way I would want to do a big summer ferment in the basement when it is above 80F.

[crunch1224]

A friend of mine's dad used to make fermented sauerkraut in 55 gallon barrels in his basement. He would ferment the entire head of cabbage not shred it up. I think he took the core out of the bottom put salt into the hole where the core was and then pushed to core back in. Then put them into the barrel and then fill it with water. He would then put huge serving dishes on top of the heads and a big ass rock on top. Then he would cover the top with a towel and skim off any crud ontop of the water from time to time. I forgot how long he let them sit in the barrels. When they were finished they tasted amazing. It was just that simple.

We used to make pigs in a blanket with the fermented leaves. I think he told me that a friend from work from Macedonia taught him how to do it that way. The smell of 3 55 gallon barrels of fermenting cabbage in his basement is something that I will never forget lol.

[JRinPA]

Plastic drums or metal? LOL