A jar or jars big enough to hold a
cabbage. Just make a second smaller Cabbage above water can and
jar when you overflow the first jar. generally does have mould bloom
sometimes. This isn't the end of the
A cabbage world if there is a bit of a battle
Salt ideally without random with a white mould bloom, and is
additives
A little bit of reliably normal, The mould can't bloom under
pure water the brine or when the fermentation
populations are otherwise
Remove leaves, including a few good overpowering it.
leaves from the outside of the
cabbage, also eventually remove the To start with, use something
root/core of the cabbage. Some of unreactive to push the cabbage down
these will be useful later. and minimize water surface area in
your jar. A smaller jar, or a
Grate the cabbage using the normal sealable kitchen bag of salt water
side of a cheese grater (in case it breaks), some of the
good outer cabbage leaves and/or a
Chop up some other vegetables you reasonably clean cabbage core can be
have around, maybe not more than a used to do this.
quarter the total cabbage.
Put on a lid or cover it with some
As you grate and chop fill the kitchen cling wrap. Your next mould
jar(s). Every layer sprinkle some mitigations are to shake/invert/stir
salt in. The total salt should be a the sauerkraut roughly daily, though
about one tablespoon per litre of I often forget. When mould or
sauerkraut being created. I'm in something appears on the surface,
favour of undersalting a bit, scoop it out to the extent possible
because you can add salt to taste as without worrying too much, and give
you consume your fermenting the top layers of cabbage a good
creation. stir. Add water if necessary, though
it's better to have a plug push
You will have noticed that cabbage everything under the brine.
is overflowingly juicy when grated.
In principle you don't add any water If there isn't much mould I've eaten
to sauerkraut and just press it the slightly mouldy surface
down, but sometimes you add a bit to sauerkraut before, though on one
make it nicely submerge. occasion there was a bit of a
tongue-numbing-pepper experience.
Store at room temperature, in a
reasonably dark place. The
temperature affects what the
sauerkraut will be like. It takes a
week to clearly be sauerkraut.
Refridgeration will slow further
fermentation. Add salt relative to
taste (or conceivably add water)
once you start eating it. A
sauerkraut that has been fermenting [a long time becomes soft and mild].
To quote Sandor Katz, Sauerkraut
juice is very powerful. It can and
will ferment other vegetables put
into it, and makes a great soup
feature (along with sauerkraut). I'm
not sure of the mechanism, but
drinking a shot of sauerkraut juice
clears the mind in a
not-at-all-psychosomatic way.
