Traditional Sauerkraut Recipe

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Sauerkraut, a form of fermented cabbage, has been popular throughout Central Europe for hundreds of years. Traditional Sauerkraut recipe or, Lacto fermented sauerkraut is often one of the first fermentation projects recommended to curious DIY-ers

When life gives you cabbage, you make sauerkraut

Making Traditional Sauerkraut Recipe is very easy and in order to make a simple Sauerkraut, all you need is just 2 simple ingredients, cabbage and salt.

The FDA defines Sauerkraut as The product, of characteristic acid flavor, obtained by the full fermentation, chiefly lactic, of properly prepared and shredded cabbage in the presence of not less than 2 percent nor more than 3 percent of salt. It contains, upon completion of the fermentation, not less than 1.5 percent of acid, expressed as lactic acid.

Ingredients

• cabbage
• salt

Tools

– chopping board

– chef’s knife

– mixing bowl

– glass jar with a rubber seal

– Digital Food Scale

– weighting stone

 Instructions

1. Sterilize the jar with boiling water.
2. Remove outer leaves of the cabbage. Shred cabbage into very thin ribbons and leave the core on the side.
3. Transfer the cabbage into a mixing bowl.
4. Weigh the shredded cabbage.
5. Add 2 to 3% kosher salt (2-3 g of salt per 100 g of cabbage) to the bowl.
6. Start massaging and squeezing cabbage with your hands until it’s soft and juicy. This will take 2-10 minutes.
7. Squeeze well the cabbage and juice into a glass jar. Ensure the cabbage is submerged below the brine of cabbage juice. (You can use a Sauerkraut Pounder it is an ideal tool for pounding cabbage to draw out the liquid and then packing it tightly into your jar)
8. Leave 3-5 cm of space between lip of jar and brine. Place a weighting stone on the top of the leaves to keep the cabbage weighed down. If you do not have weighting stone you can use the cabbage core or a celery root instead.
9. Close the jar tightly and set aside for 10 days. In the first three days, a pressure of 2CO is created inside and it is recommended to open and release the pressure twice a day.
10. After ten days the Sauerkraut is ready to eat. You can leave it in the jar (taste improves with time) or refrigerate.