SAUERKRAUT

Follow us in our process of making sauerkraut..

First chop the cabbage and veggies

When Brian makes our sauerkraut the result is a luxurious pickled masterpiece with thinly shaven, long strands of cabbage. When I do it, it's chunky and a bit frantic.. lol who cares, unless you care. Chop the veggies thin enough to extract flavour but we can't all be chefs!

I like to separate my cabbage into bowls so then I can make some jars flavoured.

So in this case I made batches of:

• Regular sauerkraut with just cabbage, cracked pepper

• Cabbage, parsnip, onion, caraway, cracked pepper

• Cabbage, jalapeno, apple, coriander and cracked pepper

No particular reason for those flavour combinations, I was just using the foods going bad in our fridge and then matched them up accordingly, and added some corresponding spice.

Mix it up

Once all the veggies are chopped in their bowls, give them salting. Aim for 2 teaspoons (10-12g) of salt per pound of cabbage.

I use sea salt or pink himalayan salt. Salt here is used to extract the juices and PRESERVE the freshness of the food, it is a traditional technique and works very well to even preserve vitamin C content.

Next, add a drizzle of vinegar, I like to use apple cider vinegar. You can adjust this at the end if you need more, but with enough salt and hand power you should be able to extract most of the water out of the veggies. This is completely optional, but I find best results and flavout with this additional splash of apple cider vinegar.

Make a mess and pound it out.

This is my favourite part. I purposely make a giant mess because it's just fun to sometimes! Remember when I made sauerkraut in your kitchen Mum? (I almost became homeless that weekend...)

Push, squeeze, mash and stir the ingredients. Give it a few minutes, then let it rest for half an hour before squeezing again.

During break time I get my jars ready and clean up to allow the salt to absorb into the veggies.

Juicy!

The juice at the bottom of the pot is the liquid you will use to fully submerge the product as it ferments.

Ferment

Load up the jars, pressing the veggies down to the bottom, and you will see liquid come to the top. I use a mallet for making mojitos. Fill the jars and make sure there is enough liquid to submerge the tops of the veggies. Using a top cabbage leaf and a fermentation weight is what I choose to ensure there is no risk of mold.

Lightly seal the jars, label & date, and then place them in a cool, dark place. I put mine in the bottom cupboard of my kitchen with some long lost appliances and stale chips.

Visit them

Check on the jars after one week to ensure they are not going to explode (this can happen with a temperature fluctuation or if you pack them too tightly), if so burp them, a.k.a allow some air to escape the jar. You idealy will see bubbles, which means that fermentation is occurring.

After a couple weeks it may be a good time to check on how fermented you like your sauerkraut if you are new to this. I let my cabbage ferment for at least a month, longer in the winter. Eventually when you are satisfied, the flavour and the texture of the cabbage, transfer the jars to the fridge.

Samantha