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Sauerkraut made at home has live probiotics for your GI tract health, good source of Vitamin C (or why Viking raiders didn't get scurvy on long sea journeys, despite having no citrus), has no nasty phthalates or BPA from can liners because it isn't canned, and is very economical. If people knew how easy it is to make, no one would ever buy it. So here goes!
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Signing UpStep 1Tools and materials
You will need:
- fresh cabbage,
- a way to shred it finely
(a food processor, or a hand-crank cone shredder of good quality, are both easy and quick), - salt
[so far as I can tell, it doesn't much matter what kind you use. That's a personal taste issue. It all makes kraut, because the purpose is allow fermentation by lactic acid-producing bacteria rather than spoilage by other bacteria, and all salt will do this]
The proportion of salt to cabbage I follow is roughly
3 TBSP salt to every 5 lbs cabbage.
I know that Kosher salt will measure differently than standard table salt, but Kraut is so forgiving, it really doesn't seem to matter. Let taste be your guide, and use less than the full amount, then taste, and add the rest if it seems desirable.
and
-a place to store it.
I use a glass gallon pickle jar, and it holds 4-5 heads of cabbage. Others may use a food-grade plastic bucket (but is there *really* such a thing as a food-safe plastic? Inquiring minds wander...er, wonder.) or if you are lucky, you have a stoneware or wooden crock specially made for pickling and fermenting. You will need something to weight the kraut down with, but more on that later.
It needs to be at a cool temperature, ideally in the 60-degree range, but can tolerate anything except "wam" and "cold" at which point, it will either spoil because it's warm enough that other microbes take over, or it will cease fermenting properly because it's too cold. That's why kraut was traditionally made in the fall. I keep my jar in the northeast corner of the basement. If you are unsure of the temperature you are keeping it at, a cheap weather thermometer helps. Just set it by the jar. Over about 75 or under about 60 degrees F may yield poor results.
- fresh cabbage,
- a way to shred it finely
(a food processor, or a hand-crank cone shredder of good quality, are both easy and quick), - salt
[so far as I can tell, it doesn't much matter what kind you use. That's a personal taste issue. It all makes kraut, because the purpose is allow fermentation by lactic acid-producing bacteria rather than spoilage by other bacteria, and all salt will do this]
The proportion of salt to cabbage I follow is roughly
3 TBSP salt to every 5 lbs cabbage.
I know that Kosher salt will measure differently than standard table salt, but Kraut is so forgiving, it really doesn't seem to matter. Let taste be your guide, and use less than the full amount, then taste, and add the rest if it seems desirable.
and
-a place to store it.
I use a glass gallon pickle jar, and it holds 4-5 heads of cabbage. Others may use a food-grade plastic bucket (but is there *really* such a thing as a food-safe plastic? Inquiring minds wander...er, wonder.) or if you are lucky, you have a stoneware or wooden crock specially made for pickling and fermenting. You will need something to weight the kraut down with, but more on that later.
It needs to be at a cool temperature, ideally in the 60-degree range, but can tolerate anything except "wam" and "cold" at which point, it will either spoil because it's warm enough that other microbes take over, or it will cease fermenting properly because it's too cold. That's why kraut was traditionally made in the fall. I keep my jar in the northeast corner of the basement. If you are unsure of the temperature you are keeping it at, a cheap weather thermometer helps. Just set it by the jar. Over about 75 or under about 60 degrees F may yield poor results.
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Henry
If you want a similar dish to sauerkraut that you can make in Jamaica, you can check out my instructable on Tsukemono, which is a Japanese fermented cabbage that is done in days rather than weeks and can be made even in tropical climates. However, unless cabbages grow in Jamaica, it may be better to discover your region's unique treasure of fermented traditions that people in colder climates cannot easily duplicate.
Hope this helps, and I do hope you will share with us what you discover of Jamaica's wealth of fermented food traditions!
but honestly, if you use cabbage for your salads, it IS an easy task :-)
Definitely no tight lids, as the gasses from the fermentation do need to escape!
Krissi
Do be aware that freezing may kill any or all of the probiotic bacteriathat are beneficial to your gut health and immune function, although itpreserves more nutrients than canning or other heat processing would.
However, it does store a fairly long time in a jar in the refrigeratorin case that is helpful, and if you have a sufficiently chilly basement,you can store the whole 5 gallons safely there, and eat it throughoutthe winter as they used to do before basements were overheated byfurnaces. The length of time it will keep depends on being stored in acold enough space, and having enough salt.
Here's an equation that ilustrates
9T of Morton Kosher Salt = 8T Morton Canning & Pickling Salt
I haven't actually found dissolution in cold water to be an issue, since I don't "dissolve" the salt in water... I just mix it with the cabbage and it dissolves itself over time as the cabbage juices out. Kosher salt was just the kind I had to hand when I made the Instructable.
But it's great to have the conversion factor right there, thanks!
For those who might worry over it, my personal experience has been that it hardly seems to matter what salt I use, so long as I don't use too much or too little (there is a lot of room for variation there before it affects the kraut adversely), so let your tastebuds be your guide.
If you find iodized salt tastes objectionable, don't use it, and if you feel that gourmet sea salt adds that special something, go for it. But it all makes kraut. Still, good to note that the different coarsenesses will affect the amount, so use tastebuds as well as general measure.
But what popped into my head was Cypress Hill's Hits From The Bong. "Pick it, Pack it, fire it up...it kinda has the same cadence.
We must both be old. :)
Very detailed 'ible. 5* and FAVED!