Directions: |
Directions:1. Wash the cabbage and remove any wilted outer leaves.
2. Quarter the cabbage, remove the core and slice the cabbage into thin strips. (I shoot for around 1/4" wide.) Try to make the strips as uniform as possible, but don't feel like they have to be perfect.
3. Place the strips in a large bowl, and sprinkle sea salt over the top.
4. Allow the cabbage to sit for 15 minutes or so, and then start mashing. There isn't a right or wrong way to do this — just use your hands, a mallet, or whatever blunt object you can find to mash/knead/twist/press/crush the cabbage. The goal is to get the juices flowing.
5. Mash/knead for about 8 minutes. Hopefully, by the end of this process, you'll have a lovely pool of salty cabbage juice sitting in the bottom of your bowl. Taste the brine, and add more salt if necessary. The brine should taste quite salty, like seawater.
6. Place a couple of handfuls of cabbage into the jar or container, then thoroughly pack down with a wooden spoon. I used the E-Jenn Container. The goal is to eliminate as many air bubbles as possible.
7. Repeat the packing and mashing until the jar is full — just make sure to leave about 2-inches of headspace at the top.
8. If there is enough liquid flowing from your cabbage to cover it completely, congrats!
9. If you need more liquid, dissolve 1 tablespoon fine sea salt in 4 cups water. Use this brine to top off the jar. This is important because if you don't completely submerge the cabbage in liquid, it's susceptible to mold and other gunk.
10. Cover the exposed cabbage with brine, leaving 1-inch of headspace at the top. If you’re having troubles with the cabbage floating to the top, you can weigh it down with a glass weight, or even wedge a piece of the cabbage core on top to hold it down. Any cabbage that is exposed will need to be thrown away, but you were going to toss the core anyway, so it's no big loss.
11. Affix a lid or airlock to the jar (fingertip tight), and set it aside in a room-temperature location, out of direct sunlight, for at least one week.
12. Place a small plate under the jar, as they have the tendency to leak a bit and spillover.
13. After a few days it’s a good idea to “burp” the jar once a day, to release pent-up gas.
14. Taste and smell your kraut after one week. If it's tangy enough for your tastes, move to the refrigerator for storage. If you like a bit more tang, allow fermenting for a bit longer. |
This recipe for MAKING SAUERKRAUT is from