Sauerkraut
Recipe
Ingredients
- • 1 medium sized cabbage
- • 1 tablespoon unrefined salt (sea salt or Himalayan rock salt)
- • 1 jar (volume approx 1 litre)
- • A place to chop (that is clean…goes without saying dudes) or a place to grate the cabbage (or even throw it in a food processor to shred it)
- • To pound the cabbage use a meat cleaver or spice grinder or potato masher or your knuckles!
Instructions
- Sterilize the jar (boil a large saucepan of water and add the glass jar and lids for ten minutes - remove carefully!
- Chop or grate cabbage. Place cabbage in a large (clean) bowl or container.
- Add salt. Mix salt and cabbage. Pound for approximately ten minutes – or enough time to smash the water from the cabbage.
- Stuff the cabbage mixture in the jar.
- Press down and compress the mixture so the extracted water covers the mixture. Add enough mixture to leave approx 2 cm between the water and the top of the jar. Seal the jar.
- Leave at ambient temperatures for about 4 days then move the fridge. In another 4 days it will be good to try. It will keep fermenting (and improve) for a while and as long as it is kept refrigerated it will last months.
Notes
Once opened the sauerkraut will last for months in the fridge compared to supermarket bought, which does not contain live culture and only lasts a week or two. The main thing to watch is that the product remains covered in brine.
Remember to use clean utensils when handling the refrigerated product each time – this is a live culture environment and we do not want to introduce any other bacteria that may impact the good bacteria already in there.
Sauerkraut is awesome with pan fried sausage and beer (all hail Oktoberfest). I also love to add it to a kidney bean soup (look up a ‘jota’ recipe if you are game and want to impress the in-laws).
We add it to salads, as an accompaniment to a ‘meat and three veg’ type dinner, inside a bacon and egg roll - the options are endless!
