How To Make Sauerkraut • The Healthy Eating Site
Well, I finally got up the courage to try, and found out that making sauerkraut is so easy! It's got to be one of the easiest things to make. It takes a bit of time, not too much considering what you get in the end though. My sauerkraut came out beautiful the first time, using green cabbage. The second time I put in too much salt, but I made both white and red cabbage sauerkraut, and the red cabbage kraut is such a cool color that's all I want to make.
It's more nutritious too because of the anthocyanins in the red cabbage. So last time I made it, I wrote down the recipe, and I think I got the salt just right. Now don't let the length of this recipe scare you off. The process is really easy, it's just that it looks like a lot because I've tried to explain the process really thoroughly. If you have any questions just ask them in the comments area below. I like to use coarse sea salt, during the process of massaging the cabbage the grains of salt will break down.
I usually put on some good music, or listen to an audio book while I'm doing it and I know I don't have to pay much attention until all the grains of salt have dissolved. It should work just as well with finely ground salt as well. Here's a tip if you're using red/purple cabbage, as you're massaging the cabbage your hands will get stained purple.
An easy and effective way to get the stain off is to rub a cut lemon on your skin where it's stained and then rinse your hands. So if you don't want to have slightly purple hands, be sure to have a lemon on hand (no pun intended) if you're using red/purple cabbage.
You'll need a 1 litre (1 quart) glass jar with a tight fitting lid. I like the jars with a glass lid and rubber seal that clamp down. A canning jar with a tight fitting lid will work fine too. Wash and drain the cabbage well. Cut off any outer leaves that don't look so good. Cut off and save one of the nicer looking outer leaves and put it to one side.
After you've made and packed all the sauerkraut in the jar, you'll fold up this leaf and put it on top to help press down the cabbage to keep it under the brine. Slice the cabbage as finely as you can. The reason you want to slice it so finely is to maximize the surface area. This will make it easier to massage and quicker to ferment. Add the sliced cabbage to a large mixing bowl, along with the salt.
Using your hands massage the salt into the cabbage by grabbing handfuls of the cabbage and squeezing it like you would squeeze out a large sponge then let go and drop the cabbage back into the bowl. Grab another handful and do the same. Repeat this until the cabbage starts to get soft. As the cabbage softens you'll notice more and more juice in the bottom of the bowl.
The juice will dissolve the salt, which will in turn draw more juice out of the cabbage. That's exactly what we want. Don't drain the juice off, it's the brine that will allow the cabbage to ferment without going ‘off'. You'll also notice that the volume of cabbage gets smaller as you massage it. Keep massaging until the cabbage is quite soft and limp, almost the consistency it is after being stir-fried or steamed. You want to keep massaging until the volume of the cabbage is reduced by about half.
If you used coarse sea salt, it should all be dissolved. If you taste a bit at this point, you'll notice that the cabbage has lost that sharp, pungent taste that raw cabbage has. I love the cabbage like this, even before it's fermented. I often use this technique for cabbage and kale when I'm making a salad, sometimes adding a bit of olive oil and massaging that in as well.
