Sauerkraut

Ingredients: 2-3 kg of cabbage (preferably organic)

Salt, best coarse Himalayan salt, 3 teaspoons/1 tablespoon per kg of cabbage (avoid iodised salt as iodine can inhibit bacterial growth enough to prevent fermentation from happening)

Water (preferably filtered)

Optional:

Oranges, shredded carrot

Brine: 1 tablespoon salt per 1 litre of water or 1.5 teaspoon per 500 ml of watter (or 20 mg petr litre of water)

Crock pot or a jar. Airlock preferred but not essential.

2.5 kg cabbage should fill up a 3 litre crock pot with some headspace

Process:

1. Start wih shredding the cabbage as thin as possible (or however think you'd like it!)

2. Sprinkle salt over the cagbbage and start massaging it with your clean hands. It will take it around 5-10 minutes for the cabbage to start releasing juices and shrink. You want the juice to start pooling at the bottom and covering the cabbage if you push it down with your hand/fist.

3. Time to pack it into your chosen fermentation vessel. Push the cabbage tighgly towards the bottom. You can use wooden spoon to push it down until it is fully covered in juice/brine. If there is not enough brine (cabbage not fresh enough or not enough massaging?), covere it with salt diluted in water in proportions as above.

4. You can use any weighs (preferably glass or ceramic, avoid any metals as they will react with the brine) to ensure the cabbage remains submerged.

5. You can keep one larger clean cabbage leaf on top of the shredded cabbage. This helps keeping it under the surface of the brine

I used ceramic weights to keep the cabbage submerged

6. Close the lid and cross your fingers. Best to check the cabbage daily or every second day and "burp it": push/repack the contents back down. If you did not use airlock but a simple jar lid you will need to open it daily to release accumulated gas. Otherwise you are risking the jar to burst/crack.

7. You can start tasting ater 5-7 days.

   It will likely take 10=14 days for the sufficient souerness to develop.

   Discard the cabbage if any mpuld develops on top (any black fuzzy creature). Thin layer of white/beige growth is usually yeast. This can be discarded carefully. What it often means is that the brine is not salty enough or there is too much oxygen.

8. When all the bubbling and fizzing settles down and you are happy with the taste you can move the jar to the fridge or repack to smaller jars and move them to the fridge. Always make sure that the cabbage remains fully ubmerged under the brine. It will keep for weeks (months?)

Enjoy!

I am not a big plain sauerkraut lover. I prefer it in salads and other dishes. Stay tuned!