What gives me the authority to teach you how to make sauerkraut, and how to cook it to make it taste like the Germans serve it?
Glad you asked.
I was born and raised in Germany, and by the time I moved to America at age 20, I had eaten barrels of this healthy, probiotic-filled fermented vegetable and seen various German grandmothers make it themselves.
So you see, I'm kind of an expert (in sauerkraut, as well as bread, chocolate and beer. You know, the essentials).
Let me show you how to make kraut, which is so much healthier (and cheaper !!!) than buying the canned crap.
~Update: I teach a self-paced online fermentation course, where I teach how to make sauerkraut, greek yogurt, beet kvass, kombucha and no-knead fermented bread. Click here for more info. You get my ebooks, demonstration movies, recipes and a private Facebook group all for $39!~
Our house feels like a giant
fermentation vat. 25 pounds of Sauerkraut are cheerfully bubbling
and fermenting. Next to the Kraut crock, a half gallon jar of
cucumbers is quietly stewing in its juices, waiting for salt and whey
to start the lacto-fermentation process. Cheese is aging in the
crawl space under the bathroom. Next to the cheeses rest a few left
over bottles of blackberry and beet wine. Yogurt is doing its magic in my home
made yogurt incubator. All these substances are broken down by
bacteria, yeasts and various microorganisms in the name of health.
We make and eat this stuff because it
is supposed to be good for us. Fermented foods improve digestion,
restore proper balance of bacteria in the gut, are rich in enzymes,
have higher vitamin content, and help us absorb the nutrients we're
consuming.
I have made Sauerkraut successfully for
several years, and over time, many people have asked me how I make
it. I don't know why people think being German makes me such an
expert. I guess I did eat a lot of Sauerkraut in my childhood
(although it was not home made). So let me show you how I make
Sauerkraut from scratch, and then I will share the absolute best way to
prepare it for dinner.
Recipe for Sauerkraut:
The recipe I have used for years comes
from an old, beat up book called “Stocking up” by Rodale Press. Here's how I do it:
Get your hands on some beautiful,
organically grown cabbage. I grow a bunch in my garden just for Sauerkraut. How many pounds of cabbage you need depends on the size of the cabbage and on how much kraut you want to make. I usually use 30 to 35 pounds.
Wash the cabbage and remove any outer leaves that
have slug holes or bruises on them. You might encounter the
occasional earwig crawling frantically out of the cabbage while you
do this, or a lazy slug hiding between the leaves. Don't worry too much about these critters... they find
their way out. If not, it's extra protein for you.
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| Don't ask me why my daughter wears plastic shoes with high heels in the garden, or why she wears them period. |
Cut the cabbage in quarters and cut the
tough inner core out of the pieces. Cut them small enough to put through your food processor with the shredding blade attached.
If you were really groovy, you would use a non-electric Kraut cutter, especially
made for this process, like this nice wooden one. But I love my Cuisinart, and it makes the job really fast.
I cut enough to measure 5 pounds of
shredded cabbage into a bowl. Then I add 3 tablespoons of
canning/pickling salt to the cabbage in the bowl and mix it around
with my hands. This is kind of like cheese making – a very
tactile, messy process.
I let this sit for five minutes. (In
the meantime, I shred the next five pounds). After sitting in the
salt and softening up a bit, I put this layer of five
pounds into my 5 gallon sauerkraut crock. At this point, some people use
fancy wooden Sauerkraut stompers, but I use my hand to do the
following: press on the salted layer of cabbage with your hand until
the juices come up.
Then you keep adding layers of five
pounds shredded cabbage, mixed with three tablespoons of salt. Keep
pressing down after every layer.
This year, I alternated the layers of
cabbage with shredded carrots, which made it all more orange and strange-looking,
but I think it will taste great!
After you added the last layer, put a
plate on top of the cabbage. The plate should fit snugly inside the crock. You really want to
cover the cabbage tightly, otherwise it may spoil. I weigh down the
plate with something heavy, like a mason jar or two filled with
water, or ziplock bags filled with water. You want enough weight to keep the cabbage submerged in its
juices. I cover the whole thing with a towel, so no bugs or curious
kids can fall into it...or toothbrushes, since I keep the crock in the bathroom.
Ferment this whole thing at
room temperature (68 to 72) for a week or two (or more, depending on
the temperature). It will start bubbling, which is really
fascinating and a little weird.
If scum forms on the surface, just take
it off with a spoon. When bubbles stop rising to the surface, your
Kraut is done.
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| After a few days it starts to bubble. |
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| It's a little weird, right? You know what I'm saying? |
When it's done, you can either can it in
a hot water bath for 20 minutes (which I used to do), or keep it in
the fridge as a healthier snack without all the good stuff killed by
canning.
Your house will smell krauty and a
little sour during the fermenting. You should walk into my house
right now, with all the fermenting cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, cucumber, and
cheese drying before it's packed. Then you add the aroma from the
goat barn, and you got country air!
I like to eat Sauerkraut raw, but if you want
to make a real German dinner, here's what I do:
Fry up an onion in butter. A nice
sweet Walla Walla fresh from the garden is perfect for this. Add a
cut up (cubed) apple to the onions. When the onions are nice and
opaque, add some great sausages. Let that sizzle for a while. When
the sausages are almost done, add the Sauerkraut with some caraway
seeds. My Mom used to add Juniper berries, bay leaf and peppercorns.
You could add some white wine if you want to be fancy.
Serve it with some good beer and home
made bread or potatoes, and everyone will love it. Enjoy! Guten Appetit!
Watch my one minute video on my online fermentation course below and get a sense of what it's all about!
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~Reminder: I teach a self-paced online fermentation course, where I teach how to make greek yogurt, beet kvass, sauerkraut, kombucha and no-knead fermented bread. You get my ebooks, demonstration movies, recipes and a private Facebook group all for $39!~
