If you’ve been too intimidated to try your hand at making sauerkraut, this is the one you need to try! A simple formula with very little hands on effort makes this your new go-to probiotic!
Skip the jarred stuff.
Hear me out! If you’ve only had the “sauerkraut” from a shelf at the store, you have to give this a chance. That stuff is mushy, somehow has a completely different flavor, and is lacking everything that makes sauerkraut something you’d want to eat. While that pale, stringy nonsense basically dissolves in your mouth, this is still crisp, crunchy and vibrant! (But hey! Let’s give them credit for not adding colors to make it look fresh and alive! I love that it owns its unappetizing color and isn’t pretending to be anything it’s not.) And, yes, sauerkraut is an excellent companion to anything MEAT. But we all know why we’re really here expending the effort to make this condiment from scratch.
Eat food that is ALIVE!
Premade, shelf-stable sauerkraut is pasteurized, which kills every beneficial purpose of the food in the first place. It takes things that are superfoods and turns them into something quite toxic. I don’t mean to slam pasteurization—I understand why it needs to be done within the systems that are in place. But it is what drives this need in me to get my food from as close to home as possible.
Instead of killing everything that could be growing on it so it can travel around the world without turning, we get to have something alive. As with raw milk, it will only get more nutritious the longer it sits out (albeit, a bit harder to get down, the longer it goes!). The natural yeast on the cabbage and in the air of your home work together with the sugars in the cabbage to grow something INCREDIBLE that supplement companies sell to you for waaay more than the 82 cents per pound you’ll pay for cabbage.
Tips to simplifying sauerkraut:
- Use FRESH cabbage. I’ve made this mistake of loading up at the grocery store, only to not get around to making it for a week or so. Any time I’ve had issues with my sauerkraut, it’s been with cabbage that’s been in my fridge for far too long.
- Use an extra large bowl. If you read my kale salad post, you already know! Having room to mix things around without losing its contents is key. You can move faster and mix more thoroughly.
- Chop course ribbons. I’ve been duped into thinking a food processor will make light work of this. When I consider the cleanup involved, give me a knife and a cutting board any day! Plus, I’ve used the grater plate, and ended up with a texture resembling the nasty jarred stuff!
- Let it rest. After chopping one head, sprinkle one tablespoon of salt and gently mix it in with your hands. I’ve followed other methods that encourage you to massage at this point. Which I did for years. But I’m a mom, and distractions happen! Imagine my joy when I came back to my project after an interruption to cabbage that had already released its juices! By letting it rest with the salt, you don’t have to expend any energy trying to make that happen. If you’re doing more than one head, layer the salt between each one.
Specs on raw sauerkraut:
If you’re here, I’m sure you’ve already heard the benefits of sauerkraut. I love traditional foods so much. The way that God provided added nutrients within His provision of preservation is incredible. It’s so God to bless us abundantly more than we could imagine during a time of scarcity. Not only did He provide a way to have vegetables in the winter, but He made it so the health benefits shoot through the roof. Sauerkraut is loaded with vitamin C, iron and probiotics. That combination strengthens your immune system, improves digestion and absorption of other nutrients. Plus, during those dreary days, we get a mood boost from sauerkraut, too! In promoting healthy gut flora, it increases the absorption of mood-regulating minerals from your food. Both of these effects help reduce stress and maintain brain health!
Are you ready to give this simple sauerkraut a try?
The only necessary ingredients are salt and cabbage. However, adding caraway, garlic, carrots, ginger, etc… all add to the flavor and nutrition of sauerkraut. My kimchi recipe is coming soon, which is where I add basically everything in my fridge. But sometimes I just want the simplicity of basic sauerkraut, so that’s what I’m sharing with you today. If you are adding the extras, you can add them in once your salt has had a chance to draw the water out of the cabbage. Taste it as you go! It will be extra salty in this state, but figure out how much of the extras you’ll want by tasting regularly.
Ingredients:
2 heads of cabbage
2 TBS salt
*Note: One cabbage head will fit in a one quart jar. I’m using a half gallon today. When my big jar isn’t occupied with storing dried beans, I do about 6 heads of cabbage and have sauerkraut to last for months!
Preparation:
Cut the bottom (dirty part) off the cabbage. Remove the outer layers until you can’t take a leaf off without it breaking. That’s your cue that it is fresh and crunchy and perfect for sauerkraut. Save a large leaf that’s in good shape for later.
Chop one of the cabbages to your desired size. I do ribbons of about 1/4” wide. You can discard the core, but you could also chop it up and throw it in as well! It will not be noticeable. Place chopped cabbage in large bowl. Cover with one tablespoon of salt. With your hands, mix it up well, moving the cabbage from the bottom of the bowl to the top. Once it feels like the salt is evenly mixed, rinse your hands and repeat with the other head. Once both cabbages are salted and mixed, clean up your mess and go have a cup of tea (…or, swap the clothes from the washer into the dryer, water your plants, etc…). Come back anytime after about 30 minutes.
Give it another mix, and be in awe of all the water in the bottom of your bowl! Start grabbing handfuls and place them into your clean jar. With a tool of some sort, pack the cabbage tightly by punching it down all over. I have commandeered my kids’ toy rolling pin as my sauerkraut puncher, so use anything you think will get the job done! Keep packing it in until all of the cabbage is loaded.
Rinse the cabbage leaf you saved from earlier. Place it on top of your soon-to-be-sauerkraut and use it to push all of the cabbage underneath the water. I went years without having a weight, so use anything you have (for years, I used a rock that I had boiled to purify.) I’ve seen people use a 4oz jar if there’s room for it, and as you screw the lid on the sauerkraut jar, it pushes it under. You’ve got options!
Fermentation
Now you’re ready to watch the miracle of preservation. Place a lid on. You don’t have to screw it on tight. My big jar that I use for 6 heads has a plate for a lid. Every day, at least once, check on it. Make sure the cabbage is staying submerged. After 5-7 days, give it a taste. You get to decide when it’s ready! It could go for another 2 weeks or more, but start tasting it and put it in the fridge once you like how it is. It will get more sour with time. How much time makes the most nutritious sauerkraut? However long it takes for it to get to a flavor you like! If you like it at 5 days and you’ll eat it that way, do that! I’ve got quite the track record of turning my ferments into vinegar, trying to maximize the nutrition! Do we want to eat it when I do that? Not at all!
My last tip is to make sure you save a few tablespoons of the brine. If you add that to your next ferment, it will be ready much sooner! This form of fermentation is called “lacto fermentation” which just uses salt to aid in making sure beneficial bacteria can grow without harmful bacteria taking over. You can preserve most vegetables this way, and use this sauerkraut starter for any other vegetable! My favorite is cauliflower, but I rarely make it because it is soo stinky!! But man, does it taste good! My kids love lacto fermented carrots, and I’m going to try freeze drying those to see if it makes tasty “chips!” I’ll keep you posted…
Thank you so much for being here today. Please let me know if this inspired you to take the plunge into the fermenting world!
MAKE SIMPLE SAUERKRAUT!
Simple Sauerkraut
Make your own probiotics at home for less than $1.00 a pound! Loaded with vitamins, minerals and probiotics, sauerkraut needs to be a staple in your diet!
Ingredients
- 2 heads of cabbage
- 2 TBS salt
Instructions
- Peel outer leaves off cabbage until you get to a firm layer that breaks when you try to remove it. Save one of the better looking leaves for later, discard the rest.
- Cut the bottom dirty part off and discard.
- Chop entire head up into 1/4“ ribbons. You can even include the core, you won’t notice it once it’s sauerkraut!
- Once one whole head of cabbage is chopped, place it in a large bowl and sprinkle one tablespoon of salt over it. Mix the salt in well.
- Repeat steps 1-4 with second head of cabbage.
- Once both heads are salted and mixed, let rest for about 30 minutes.
- Once water has been released, start packing it into a 1/2 gallon jar. Use something to help punch it down and pack it in tightly.
- Use saved outer leaf to submerge all sauerkraut.
- Cover with a weight of some sort to keep it under the liquid. Cover jar and let rest for about a week. I start checking my flavor at about 5 days. Refrigerate once the flavor is to your liking.
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