Its Sauerkraut Making Day! Tomorrow.

It started innocently enough…

Eat Sauerkraut.

So I go to the store… and as I am fondling the bags of cold chopped Sauerkraut I start to remember the neighbors when I was a kid:

They had a Sauerkraut Party every year. They would get about a truckload of green cabbages. Set up some Sawhorses, place a couple thick sheets of plywood on it, then a brand new tarp. The whole clan would show to cut so much cabbage that it filled two hard packed 25 gallon Crock Pots. Then they let them sit, open in the basement, for months. The stuff would get this nasty cap on… but when it was time for processing – it was removed and beautiful Sauerkraut was born.

12 years ago I modified my own technique with a Red Wing Salt Crock and borrowing an idea I attribute to Harsch Crock-pots and how they worked.

My first year I did the cleaning method, where you skim off the scum on the water… Cabbage 30 days submerged makes Sauerkraut. Now, I create an Anaerobic Process and no more skimming.

I get 50 pounds of Cabbage (after cleaning it is about 40 pounds chopped) and some Kosher Salt.. Grab the XOX Mandolin. Take out my wonderful 6 Gallon Salted Red Wing Crock - with rare cover. Chop and pack cabbage like a freak… and then wait.

Tomorrow is the new batch Jarring date. The best thing is eating some right out of the Crock – fully alive with Probiotics. I then pressure cook the batch, half with Caraway Seeds… I get about 15 quarts and it can last for years.

Yum

I assume you’re making it for New Year’s blessings and good luck .

We’ve got a saying around here .

When you eat sauerkraut on New Year’s “you have the wind at your back” . ( literally ) lol

A big plate full of saurkraut, brautwurst, and beer.
A fine feast.
Pity the fools down wind.

I have had the pleasure of eating home-made kraut......no comparison to store bought.
IMHO.

a reply to: Newt22

WOW!! This sounds AWESOME!!!

I've been wanting to do this, but I don't have the right stuff (i.e. mainly weights)

I'm jealous!!!

Do you make your own horseradish too? Same process, but different.

S&F~!!!!

That sounds awesome. Wonder if you could insta pot it?
I'm going to check it out. Store kraut is kinda bland.
This reminds me of my favorite sandwich. The Smoked Basa Reuben from Skippers Smokehouse in Tampa.
OMFG
Now I'm hungry.

Mhmmm Sauerkraut. Try our German white wine Sauerkraut.

This is the Bavarian style

www.justapinch.com...

Aloha from Germany

Well... as you were - I decided that I needed a little more flavor in the Sauerkraut and postponed jarring for another week. I like my hash wicked!

It has a nice crunch - a pleasant squeak - like walking in snow; But with your mouth. However, it needs more (I won't say the word - Flyingclaydisk understands).

Yep.

This should be a Youtube video.

a reply to: Newt22

I've only eaten store bought (canned) kraut. Not fermented, but soured.

The process you describes sounds like the process for kimchee: fermented cabbage.

And I LOVE kimchee.

a reply to: Newt22

However, it needs more (I won't say the word - Flyingclaydisk understands).

Just insert the word "Birkenstocks", or "Mini-van", ... or "Soccer ball" works too.

I'm always stuck between a rock and a hard place when I buy sauerkraut. Good sauerkraut is too expensive to eat it the way I do (I put it on everything). Cheaper sauerkraut is not that bad but it just doesn't have the same depth of flavor and so forth as the good stuff. And of course, most of the cheap sauerkraut you buy here is pasteurized.

My in-laws used to make loads of sauerkraut, and it is way better than any store-bought or restaurant kind that I've ever had.
That flavor you just can't get from a can.

originally posted by: Liquesence
a reply to: Newt22

I've only eaten store bought (canned) kraut. Not fermented, but soured.

The process you describes sounds like the process for kimchee: fermented cabbage.

And I LOVE kimchee.

Just discovered Kimchi, its so wonderful great flavor, supposedly good for your digestion/ ulcers which is why I started eating it.

originally posted by: BrianFlanders
I'm always stuck between a rock and a hard place when I buy sauerkraut. Good sauerkraut is too expensive to eat it the way I do (I put it on everything). Cheaper sauerkraut is not that bad but it just doesn't have the same depth of flavor and so forth as the good stuff. And of course, most of the cheap sauerkraut you buy here is pasteurized.

I hear you on that. Good is pricey... bad, ya just can't do it. Regardless of savings..

Also, like Liquesence and Putman6 point out, the first part of the process is just like Kimchee. Which I also love. Same thing on expense.

Anyway, if you want it to stay a live cultured, fermented, food you have to jar it, then cool it. That can stay in a fridge for a good long time. Just like Kimchee... but if you want it to stay on a shelf for years that's different.

I do both. I straight jar a few quarts for the fridge - in the cave and in the kitchen - live active no heat. I can the rest.

Jar it really. I run the rest through a pressure cooker under a load of 10 atmospheres, at 220 degrees, in clean Mason/Ball jars. That pasteurizes everything. Pasteurization happens at 160 degrees, but, I found some things out in the years...and I follow my own recipe now.

A large portion of what I do in making follows the Ball Canning Cookbook, but, they water bathed the jars too long. I adapted a pressure cooking method. It keeps the Sauerkraut far crunchier, and you retain almost all of the vitamins. Plus, you get the added benefits - as pertaining to natural fermenting - which helps in breaking/digesting the food down, but you do lose the live cultured Sauerkraut.

The taste is still the same. However, the can/jarred ones can get wicked with age. It's something to do with live fermentation, and something sitting in what amounts to salt water, hermetically sealed, in a jar. The salt gets stronger tasting over time... I think it re-establishes its crystalline pattern regardless of atmosphere.

So it is all pretty salty after 3 years.

But it is cheap. After the crocks are paid for. I used a normal 6 gallon crock for years, then I found a salted (dark brown inside) glazed 6 with a cover. That stuffed will make 20 quarts of Sauerkraut... repacked you are looking at 30 quarts pasteurized if you want... I run a standard 50 pounds of cabbage, give me about 3-4 gallons of packed cabbage, then I get 15-20 quarts of Sauerkraut in the end...

Enough to do what you want for ya.

Amazing......how do people find out about stuff like this.....