# Making Sauerkraut (with pics)



## Haven (Aug 16, 2010)

I thought I would post some pics of the last batch of kraut I made. Anyone else make it? Would love to hear your stories and recipe.

I just add basic salt and water to make a brine.

Edit: Nevermind. It wont let me link photos from facebook. I will come back and try to fix this after work tonight. I have about 8 big pics to add...any idea how to link them off of FB?


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

I make mine in 1 gallon glass jars, leave at room temp for a week and then put them in the spring house. I keep 3 going all the time. All winter from the cabbages I cover with straw. Great stuff. I just use cabbage and 2 Tablespoons salt per jar, mix in large plastic Tupperware bowl, let set 1/2 hour to sweat, pack it in the jar with a dowel to bruise it, I add layers of whole leaves every 2" and put more on top. That way the scum (if any) can be rinsed off the top leaves (no waste) make sure juice is over cabbage, just pack tighter until it does. Oh, the leaves in the crock, they make the best cabbage rolls. MM MM Good. 3 months is a good waiting period but who can wait. That is the reason for 3 jars going all the time. Make 3 first and start eating at 2 weeks. I bring a pint to the house at a time and eat some everyday. For added flavor add any vegetable (i like carrots) or seed you like. I slice apples very thin and layer in the kraut. Red cabbage with apples is the best....James


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## Granny Sue (Jan 12, 2009)

How neat. I make mine in jars, a simple way to do it for small batches. Tipper at the blog Blind Pig and the Acorn offered step by step instructions for making kraut in a crock. I did that years ago but with just two of us now there's no need for that volume.


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## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

Interesting. Mine is going on the hoosier, it's a mix of red and white. 5 lbs and 3 tb. salt. It is a very pretty pink.


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## cowboy joe (Sep 14, 2003)

Still a few months to go before we pick cabbage. Three big heads growing in the garden which should make plenty. The farmers around here usually don't harvest until the first snow which is around Thanksgiving time. Hoping to make sauerkraut for the first time this year, that is if the critters out of the garden. Taller fences this year with lots of noise makers hanging on top. The deer haven't touched a thing so far knock wood.


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## Horseyrider (Aug 8, 2010)

Granny Sue, the Blind Pig website is awesome! Thanks for posting it. The Grannyisms are so sweet....


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## Falls-Acre (May 13, 2009)

What does one do with the sauerkraut? I'd love to make some, but no idea how to eat it!


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## LonelyNorthwind (Mar 6, 2010)

jwal10 said:


> I make mine in 1 gallon glass jars, leave at room temp for a week and then put them in the spring house. I keep 3 going all the time. All winter from the cabbages I cover with straw. Great stuff. I just use cabbage and 2 Tablespoons salt per jar, mix in large plastic Tupperware bowl, let set 1/2 hour to sweat, pack it in the jar with a dowel to bruise it, I add layers of whole leaves every 2" and put more on top. That way the scum (if any) can be rinsed off the top leaves (no waste) make sure juice is over cabbage, just pack tighter until it does. Oh, the leaves in the crock, they make the best cabbage rolls. MM MM Good. 3 months is a good waiting period but who can wait. That is the reason for 3 jars going all the time. Make 3 first and start eating at 2 weeks. I bring a pint to the house at a time and eat some everyday. For added flavor add any vegetable (i like carrots) or seed you like. I slice apples very thin and layer in the kraut. Red cabbage with apples is the best....James




Oh I just love your method! I started my first batch of saurkrout yesterday and was frustrated as to what to do with the outer leaves! Is it too late to dump it out of the crock and start over your way? After it sweats, are you supposed to pour off the liquid or keep it?

Does anyone know why some of my cabbage is nice & firm and some is really loose and hollow inside?


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## LonelyNorthwind (Mar 6, 2010)

Oh Granny Sue, thank you for the Blind Pig website! I have too much to do and can't stay on this computer any longer but I'm leaving it on their homepage with the volume cranked while I putter. I love it!


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## Horseyrider (Aug 8, 2010)

Falls-Acre said:


> What does one do with the sauerkraut? I'd love to make some, but no idea how to eat it!



Oh my! I love it cooked with brown sugar and caraway seeds, and a few good sized chunks of smoked sausage. Or tucked into a Reuben sandwich. Or with chopped apples stirred in and cooked. It's a natural with anything pork. Or even in a sauerkraut cake! It makes a cake every bit as moist as zucchini, carrot, or any other vegetable will. 

It's good fall eatin'!


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

No you can take it out and start over. I pack it in the jar and use what juice I need to cover. If a head is loose it needed to grow longer to make a tight head....James


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## LonelyNorthwind (Mar 6, 2010)

Thanks James. I only harvested the tight heads. I was hoping if I left the loose ones long enough they'd firm up.


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## suitcase_sally (Mar 20, 2006)

Haven said:


> I just add basic salt and water to make a brine.


Why do you add water?? The salt will draw out moisture from the cabbage.


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

No need, I just pack tighter until it goes over the cabbage. If I make too much in the bowl and can't get it all in the jar I just rinse what is left and make coleslaw....James


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## elinor (Jun 20, 2002)

When I make my sauerkraut, I make a big batch. I have two five gallon buckets in the back bedroom where it's nice and cool. I got my cabbage from the farmers market and because I bought 10 heads at one time, I got them for $1 each. I try and find the most solid heads that feel heavy, so I get my moneys worth. For each 5lbs of sliced cabbage, I use 3 Tablespoons of canning salt and mix it thoroughly in a spare bucket. Let that set to draw the water while slicing another 5lbs of cabbage. By the time the first 5lbs has wilted and dampened, I transfer that into my six gallon bucket and tamp it down good and firm with my fist. Second 5lbs of cabbage gets salted and mixed, let to set and so on and so on until the first six gallon bucket in filled to within four inches to the rim. Hopefully with all the tamping and such, enough liquid is to the top of the kraut and with a clean ceramic place, weigh it down and fill a gallon jar with water and keep it covered. 

Keep on slicing, weighing, salting, mixing, let set, tamp down until both buckets are filled and then just let it sit and work it's magic!!! And everytime I go in the back room, the aroma of sauerkraut is oh so wonderful. 

I was nervous when I first made my batch last year because I had a scum forming on top of the brine, but everything that I read (here especially) said that as long as the cabbage is below the level of the brine, it's okay. Scum is normal. Just scoop it every so often. 

I'll have to try some red cabbage with my green. 

I love my homemade sauerkraut. Especially when it's still got some 'bite' to it, no all wimpy and soft. 

elinor


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## buslady (Feb 14, 2008)

I just started my kraut yesterday. This is my first ever. I put in five lb of chopped cabbage, and one cup of salt. After reading this site, I decided that I had used too much salt. 
I read the site by Blind Pig and it said you can never use too much salt. I now feel much better. I am using a no.12 crock, and it is about 2/3 full. That is a lot of food to throw away.
I helped my mother-in-law make kraut about 55 years ago, but I have forgotten a lot in that time. I used my Foxfire book for the recipe, and now we can hardly wait.


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

Falls-Acre said:


> What does one do with the sauerkraut? I'd love to make some, but no idea how to eat it!


There are stories of some farm families who survived an entire winter during the Depression years eating only sauerkraut. I'll admit that we don't eat it as often as we probably should but this past Sunday's supper was a simple one of bratwursts, red kraut, and boiled potatoes. If naught else, just try it as a small side dish with a plain meal of perhaps roast beef, potato, and vegetable. Use that instead of a small salad. That's how it was intended in North Europe when it was able to supply many vitamins not available from most stored food. My cabbage, carrots, kohl rabi, and rutabaga recipe has been on here a few times. When one looks at nutritional value of the ingredients, and the fact that none are lost, one should think that kraut is the only way to preserve them. 

Martin


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