Have you ever made something at home and been amazed how different it is than the store-bought variety? Sauerkraut is one of those items. The cooked and jarred sauerkraut you can get at the store is completely different than the fermented kind traditionally made for thousands of years. Sauerkraut is talked about as being super healthy because of all the probiotics it contains. But here’s the catch: those beneficial probiotics die when exposed to heat. So pressure cooked sauerkraut does not have all those good probiotics that fermented sauerkraut has! Good news… fermenting your own Sauerkraut is quite simple. All you need is Cabbage, Salt, Water, a glass jar and lid. I use a fermenting lid but it’s not absolutely necessary.
And if you have any young kids around, could I suggest you include them in the process? Growing up Mom would let us kids help her with the pounding of the cabbage. Boy, did we enjoy that! Beating food was not something Mom and Dad usually encouraged 🙂
HOMEMADE SAUERKRAUT:
1 large head cabbage
Water
Salt
Remove outer leaf of cabbage and set aside for later.
Thinly slice the rest of the cabbage. Weigh cabbage in grams and mutiply weight by 0.025. This is how many grams of salt you need. Add salt to the cabbage and pound until the juice starts to release. Alternatively I put the cabbage into the bowl of a stand mixer and run on low speed with the paddle attachment for a few minutes.
Pack cabbage into a glass jar. Press the outer leaf of cabbage on top. This helps keep any small pieces of cabbage from floating to the top. Make a brine by dissolving 1 tbsp of salt in 2 cups of warm water. Pour into jar until it covers the cabbage by about an inch.
Secure with a lid and place in a dark place for 8-10days. If you are not using a fermentation lid make sure you open the lid once a day to allow any pressure to release. The cabbage will go from green, to light or even yellowish in color when ready. Keep in fridge once opened.
