How to Make Sauerkraut

Every once in a while, people will ask me how we make our homemade sauerkraut, and I've even led workshops at my house to teach this simple skill. It's a snap once you know what the steps are! Zach and I just made a big batch (five cabbages/17 pounds), and I had the forethought to actually catalogue the process so I could write this blog post. Read on to find out how to make this tasty food!

Ingredients:

-Cabbage (green is the easiest to ferment, but you can do savoy or red)

-Pickling salt (other salt will work in a pinch, but the pickling salt lacks an ingredient that can stunt the fermentation)

Supplies:

-Some sort of jar (half-gallon mason jars work well. We're using a special fermentation jar we found at a thrift store)

-Sharp knife and optional mandoline slicer (this was the first time we'd used a mandoline– good for big batches, not necessary for small batches)

-Big cutting board

-Large bowl

-Kitchen scale

-Something to weigh down the cabbage at the end (see note on step 9)

1. Wash the cabbage and remove the tougher outer leaves (save these for later). Clean the jars with soap and hot water (unlike canning, the jars do not have to be sanitized, just clean).

2. Cut the cabbage into quarters, then set each quarter on its side and slice out the stem in the middle.

3. Finely slice the cabbage with the knife or the mandoline. The mandoline couldn't slice everything, so I finished up the ends with the knife.

4. Place the bowl on the kitchen scale, tare it (so you're not weighing the bowl itself), then dump the cabbage into it and see how much it weighs. We like to weigh it in grams.

5. Calculate 2% of the weight (for instance, if the cabbage weighs 1,000 grams, 2% is 20 grams). Add this much salt. (It's helpful to weigh the salt on its own, then add it, rather than adding it to the whole thing.)

6. Massage the salt into the cabbage with your hands until it becomes really juicy. If it seems dry, let it sit with the salt for about twenty minutes, and try again.

7. Pack the cabbage into the jar, pushing down firmly with your fist to pack it as tightly as possible.

8. You should be able to pack down the cabbage and see liquid float up above the level of the cabbage (this is the liquid from the cabbage itself). If you can't do this, keep packing and punching until it's wetter. (Sometimes we add a small amount of 2% brine solution to top it off if the cabbage is particularly dry, but this is very rarely necessary. We thought we'd have to do it with this batch, but then didn't.)

9. Put a clean cabbage leaf over the top to keep all the sliced cabbage corralled. On top of this, add a weight in order to keep all the cabbage submerged below the level of the liquid. We have special purpose-built weights, but an easy trick is to use a sturdy ziplock filled with water and then crammed into the top of the jar. Now cover it— you want some air to be able to get through. A cloth is fine. We use airlock jar lids because we're fancy, but any sort of cover that keeps dust out but also allows air to escape is fine.

10. Place the jar in a cool place (like a basement) to ferment. It's a good idea to place a plate under it in case it bubbles up and overflows. Check on the jar every few days; it'll take at least a week (in warm weather) or two (in cold weather) to ferment properly.

Now you're on your way to having delicious sauerkraut! When our cabbage starts fermenting, I'll update the photos here.