Sauerkraut Recipes

[5030]

So I don't see any recipes here. My Mom used to make kraut and I did not pay much attention, didn't like it as a kid. Now I do like it but have never made it. We have several crocks in varying sizes that my wife's parents used for kraut and pickles. Wouldn't mind giving it a try, just don't know how. Thought about just Googling it and finding recipes but that seems a bit hit or miss. Figured I would trust the people here more.

So what is the best way for a rank beginner to make his first batch?

Grow some cabbage. (Store bought cabbage has been dehydrated and washed, you need home grown cabbage with white powder on the outer leaves)
Buy a box of Kosher salt
Get a crock (and some stones and a plate large enough to just fit inside the crock)
Shred the cabbage (use a food processor or a cabbage cutter), mix in the kosher salt at 5 pounds of shredded cabbage to 3 tablespoons of salt
Add apples (sliced not too ripe), or savory or shredded carrots or onions (not too much) or nothing, just plain cabbage (with the salt added)
Put a layer in the bottom of a washed (with hot water and soap and carefully rinsed) crock and mash it. I have a kraut masher but you can use your fist (if you need to release some anxiety...). Mash it down, put in another layer (couple inches deep. Mash it down. Put in another layer, mash it down and so on. The juice from the cabbage will start to come out.

By the time you get the crock full (takes a LOT OF CABBAGE), you'll have a good layer of juice on top the cabbage.

Take some whole cabbage leaves and cover the top and submerge them in the juice. Put a china (not plastic) dinner plate on top of the leaves and weight the plate down with clean rocks (I use paving bricks) when I use a conventional crock instead of the Harsch crock.

Put in a warm place and cover the crock with a black plastic garbage bag and do not disturb it for at least 3 weeks.

After 3 weeks, remove the garbage bag, the rocks, the plate and remove the any Kalm that has grown around the edge (Kalm is a nice name for the mold that grows in top where the cabbage juice is exposed to air). Scoop out the Kraut and enjoy. We can ours.

How it's done. We use regular and purple cabbage, makes no difference but remember, the cabbage has to be either home grown ot from a vegetable stand, supermarket cabbage don't work well because it's actually processed (moisture removed and washed) so the white spores that are on the outer leaves are removed and it's those spores that cause the fermentation action in the crock.

If you like to read, there is a very good book called "Making Sauerkraut and pickled vegetables at home" by Klaus Kaufmann and Annelies Schoneck from the Alive Natural Health Guide #35. You can buy it in most any bookstore.

You asked, you got it.................:thumbsup:

 

[AllByteNoBark]

5030 thanks for the recipe. As I read it I could picture my Mom working on it when I was a kid. Seems we always did it at the end of summer when there was no decision making on which head of cabbage to pick. I got the job of cutting them off and bringing them to the house. I wasn't very old and thought it was cool to get to use a big butcher knife. If someone gave a kid a knife like that now days people would throw a fit. Your description reminds me of Mom pressing the cabbage down into the crocks. Like I say I didn't pay much attention but funny the things I do remember.

Going to print this recipe out and see if I can find some cabbage. If not I think I will try growing some next year.

Thanks!

 

[goeduck]

5030, What does the black garage bag do? Never have done that.

 

[Doofy]

I also enjoyed watching Mom make sauerkraut and other savory foods to can. I did not pay close attention either and regret that. I agree with using your own or farm-fresh cabbage for kraut. Store-bought cabbage is dry and bland.

 

[5030]

5030 thanks for the recipe. As I read it I could picture my Mom working on it when I was a kid. Seems we always did it at the end of summer when there was no decision making on which head of cabbage to pick. I got the job of cutting them off and bringing them to the house. I wasn't very old and thought it was cool to get to use a big butcher knife. If someone gave a kid a knife like that now days people would throw a fit. Your description reminds me of Mom pressing the cabbage down into the crocks. Like I say I didn't pay much attention but funny the things I do remember.

Going to print this recipe out and see if I can find some cabbage. If not I think I will try growing some next year.

Thanks!

If you have a local vegetable stand, that cabbage will work because it's not processed. I live in cabbage country. Up here the big produce crop besides tomatoes is cabbage. We live in sandy loam, perfect for growing it. Most growers here double crop cabbage and we have a huge cabbage processing facility at the end of the road so I know about how it's processed for supermarkets and salad makers.

All summer it's a procession of flat racks being pulled by migrants on tractors, hauling cabbage in hampers to the facility where it's washed, dehydrated, cooled to 34 degrees and loaded on reefer trailers to go to who knows where.

We have enough in the root cellar for at least another year, then I'll be growing and cutting heads myself.

Get yourself the book I mentioned. it's full of good recipe's for kraut and pickles and even has a chapter on meat preservation in crocks. Even has a recipe for corn relish. Wife made some last year and it didn't last very long.

Glad to help. Kraut is good for your digestive system.

 

[5030]

5030, What does the black garage bag do? Never have done that.

It keeps the air from getting in to a certain extent and keeps it warm too. You want the crock and it's contents to stay warm, why, back in the day, it was kept in the kitchen by the stove to ferment. The less air movement across the top of an open crock, the less Kalm that grows. Why I prefer to use a Harsch crock. The Harsch crock has a 'gutter' all around the top you fill with water and then you 'float' the lid on the water and that seals the air out but still lets the gas that the fermentation makes out. Like making wine in a bottled water bottle with an air lock but it's all around the edge of the crock.

Like I said in a previous post, I don't believe Harsch is in business today. They were made in Germany and we have a couple in addition to open top crocks. You might do a Goggle search on Harsch. it's really the way to go with making Kraut. Much easier. The Harsch crocks we have come with their own weight stones that fit snugly inside. You have to apply weight to the top of the cabbage to keep it tightly packed in the crock, why you mash it down in the first place. Mashing it not only releases the juice, it aids in the fermentation process.

Maybe I should change my screen name to 'Kraut King'....lol

I love polish sausage and kraut for dinner.

 

[Jstpssng]

I had never heard of them until this thread. You are correct, they stopped production in 2013. However there is another company which makes something similar, in 5 and 10 liter (1.3&2.6 gallon) sizes here.
The SAUERKROCK™ Fermentation Crock | Humble House

 

[BrokenTrack]

I have never made my own Sauerkraut as we have a farm here that makes it that is pretty hard to beat. But my wife and I make Ruben or Racheal Sandwhich's from scratch that are to die for! To make our own sauerkraut would be even better.

For those that do not know:

Ruben Sandwich=Sauerkraut
Rachel Sandwich=Coleslaw

For a new tasty hotdog, try a "Racheal Dog" which is Coleslaw. (I had a Racheal Dog, but that was just an ugly girl in my high school class) LOL

 

[Clint S]

I just made a gallon this year in a plastic tub. Shredded , salted and let it sit for a month then canned it up. I made it for my dad and he said it was good.

 

[5030]

I have never made my own Sauerkraut as we have a farm here that makes it that is pretty hard to beat. But my wife and I make Ruben or Racheal Sandwhich's from scratch that are to die for! To make our own sauerkraut would be even better.

For those that do not know:

Ruben Sandwich=Sauerkraut
Rachel Sandwich=Coleslaw

For a new tasty hotdog, try a "Racheal Dog" which is Coleslaw. (I had a Racheal Dog, but that was just an ugly girl in my high school class) LOL

I have a very close friend that lives up your way in Stockton Springs. My wife and I need to get up to Maine and spend a week or so with them. Send me a message this morning, told me his cukes have went crazy and they have been giving them to everyone.

I do like a Ball Park Frank smothered in coleslaw, but then I like coleslaw anyway. Anything cabbage related is good for us but I still prefer fatm made Kraut over everything else.

 

[5030]

I had never heard of them until this thread. You are correct, they stopped production in 2013. However there is another company which makes something similar, in 5 and 10 liter (1.3&2.6 gallon) sizes here.
The SAUERKROCK™ Fermentation Crock | Humble House

Actually, those prices are pretty darn good and they are a real good copy of the original Harsch crock. I cannot remember what we paid for the Harsch crocks we bought years ago but they weren't cheap and shipping was a bunch as well.

I recommend a waterlock crock over an open top crock because of the Kalm issue. A waterlock crock will never grow Kalm on the top because the oxygen cannot get to the brine. The presence of oxygen on the surface of the brine causes the Kalm to grow, plus the come with the 'stone weights' which are necessary to keep the cabbage compacted in the crock. $79 bucks for a 10 Liter is a good deal and 10 liters of kraut is quite a bit.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

You can make kraut in a FOOD GRADE plastic pail, and it will be just as good as using a crock.

SR

 

[5030]

You can make kraut in a FOOD GRADE plastic pail, and it will be just as good as using a crock.

SR

In reality, you can make it in just about anything, but, you have to exclude any light source. I'm a traditionalist. I prefer a crock.

 

[Jstpssng]

Actually, those prices are pretty darn good and they are a real good copy of the original Harsch crock. I cannot remember what we paid for the Harsch crocks we bought years ago but they weren't cheap and shipping was a bunch as well.

I recommend a waterlock crock over an open top crock because of the Kalm issue. A waterlock crock will never grow Kalm on the top because the oxygen cannot get to the brine. The presence of oxygen on the surface of the brine causes the Kalm to grow, plus the come with the 'stone weights' which are necessary to keep the cabbage compacted in the crock. $79 bucks for a 10 Liter is a good deal and 10 liters of kraut is quite a bit.

I wasn't sure, but thought that seemed like a good price. I bought a regular 3 gallon crock in 2015 from Cabela's without a cover and paid $35. Then I didn't use it because as you say, that's a LOT of cabbage. I made it once years ago in a 5 gallon crock, and the entire thing spoiled because I didn't know what I was doing.

 

[goeduck]

I just made a gallon this year in a plastic tub. Shredded , salted and let it sit for a month then canned it up. I made it for my dad and he said it was good.

Traditional heat canning sauerkraut kills the beneficial enzymes and bacteria which is what I am after (besides the taste). A cold pack canning method was mentioned but I am not familiar with that. I refrigerate in pint and quart jars and try to get an early and late batch though it lasts fairly well for a year. I move a few jars from the garage refrigerator to the kitchen refrigerator as they get used up.

 

[5030]

Traditional heat canning sauerkraut kills the beneficial enzymes and bacteria which is what I am after (besides the taste). A cold pack canning method was mentioned but I am not familiar with that. I refrigerate in pint and quart jars and try to get an early and late batch though it lasts fairly well for a year. I move a few jars from the garage refrigerator to the kitchen refrigerator as they get used up.

Here we go again... We only cold pack, never hot pack just for that reason and why I don't like store bought apple cider either....lol No pressure canner needed.

To cold pack:

You'll need a cold pack pot and wire rack (Walmart has them).

For cold pack times refer to any good cookbook in the canning section. Immersion times vary with what you cold pack and the volume of the material, quarts take longer than pints for instance.

Wash your canning jars rings and lids (my wife puts them in boiling water and then lets them air dry). it imperative that the sealing lids (where the red rubber ring is) are absolutely clean

Take the rings and lids and put them on a clean paper towel. Turn the washed jars upside down on a clean towel.

Take each jar with Kraut (or whatever you are canning) and fill the canning jar but not to the top. You have to leave 'headspace' at the top of the jar. You can buy 'canning kits' at Walmart or any places that sells canning supplies. They come with filling funnels that set the headspace as you fill the jar (read the instructions with the kit). We usually leave about 1/2" of headspace as a rule.

While all this is going on you should have the canning pot 3/4 full of water on the stove heating up.

When you get the jars full (with proper headspace), carefully wipe the top edge of the jar with a clean paper towel to make sure the edge is clean so the lid will seal. Put on the lids and rings but don't tighten the rings tight, just snug them up.

Put the wire rack in the boiling water and set the jars in the rack and immerse them in the water, you might have to add additional water to insure the jars are completely covered.

Time in the bath is again determined by the jar size and whatever you are canning, again refer to a good cookbook. Those times will be listed.

You 'time' how long the jars stay in the boiling water only when the water bath come so a boil.

Once the time interval has expired, pull the wire rack and jars from the water bath and hook the rack on the edge of the pot ( all the racks have a bend in them so you can do that.

Carefully take the jars and set them on a flat counter (I use an oven mitt so I don't burn myself).

Let them sit until the lids 'pop'. As the jars cool, they will create a vacuum inside and pull down the lids, they will 'pop'. Once they pop, tighten the rings down (again, I use an oven mitt because the jars will still be quite warm). Label the tops with the canning date and contents and let them completely cool and store them. We put puts on shelves in the root cellar. 'Cold packing' is good for at least a couple years (if the stuff don't get consumed before that). Remember, only use canning jars. Regular glass jars will shatter and they don't have the top edhe flat that is necessary for the lids to seal on.

I know I sound like a cook woman. I'm not. I just help my wife and we have been doing this stuff for years.

Pressure canning (with a pressure canner) is what boils the contents of the jars and kills the beneficial bacteria, especially in Kraut. it also decreases the flavor.

You cannot cold pack everything but Kraut, pickles and other vegetables can be cold packed. Jams, preserves and jellies have to be hot (pressure) packed.

How it's done. Again, any comprehensive cook book will explain it and have immersion times for various vegetables.

We do Kraut, pickles and relish maybe once every other year because my wife and I can enough to last multiple years. This year is a no can year. next year will be a 'can' year.

 

[Clint S]

Yes I canned it like that ,no pressure canner.10 minutes in the water bath canner for half pints

 

[Ford850]

The good bacteria in kraut is killed at somewhere less than 110*f, so cold packing can kill it too. Cold packing retains the texture and flavor better than hot packing though. I try to refrigerate as much as possible (fresh packed in canning jars with unsealed lids) to retain the good bacteria (probiotics). I freeze some too, which retains most of the bacteria supposedly.

 

[5030]

The good bacteria in kraut is killed at somewhere less than 110*f, so cold packing can kill it too. Cold packing retains the texture and flavor better than hot packing though. I try to refrigerate as much as possible (fresh packed in canning jars with unsealed lids) to retain the good bacteria (probiotics). I freeze some too, which retains most of the bacteria supposedly.

Sounds like the 20 gallons of cider I just squirreled away...

 

[goeduck]

I try to refrigerate as much as possible (fresh packed in canning jars with unsealed lids) to retain the good bacteria (probiotics). I freeze some too, which retains most of the bacteria supposedly.

What is an unsealed lid? I have not heard that freezing does not destroy the good bacteria and enzymes. That would be nice if it is true.