Ingredients
For the sauerkraut
- Use the same amount as vegetables as your jar size, so approx. 500g cabbage for a 500 ml jar, or 1 kilo for a litre jar.
- Salt– approx. 10g for a 500g jar, 20g for a litre jar.
For the vegetables, you can use any combination of:
- White cabbage
- Pointed cabbage
- Red cabbage
- Carrots
- Fennel
- Kohlrabi
- a bit of apple
- a bit of beetroot.
For the optional extras
- Caraway seeds
- Fennel seeds
- Cumin
- Coriander
- Pepper etc
Method
Preparation
- Finely slice the cabbage, and place in colander. Rinse well and drain.
- Place an empty bowl on weighing scales and set to zero.
- Add cabbage and record weight.
- Add 2% salt, so that’s 2g of salt for every 100g of cabbage:
- For 1000g cabbage, that’s 20g salt
- For 500g cabbage that’s 10g salt
- For 800g cabbage that’s 16g salt
- Massage with your hands you get a pool of brine. The cabbage will become softer and more see through. If that seems like very hard work, you can batter it with the end of a rolling pin!
- Transfer the crushed cabbage into your jar, (a jam funnel will help), packing well and ensuring no air gaps - you need to leave room for expansion as the microbes will make carbon dioxide gas.
- Now, make sure that no air can get into the jar, so that the good microbes can flourish and to stop mould growing. To do this you need to weigh down the cabbage inside the jar. You can use:
- A plastic food safe disc from a food container
- A small jar, that the lid can press down on
- A large firm cabbage leaf
- A sturdy zip lock plastic bag filled with salt water
- Make sure there is enough salt water in the jar to cover the cabbage mix by one cm. if it doesn’t, make some brine by putting 2g of salt in 100 ml water and add some of that.
- Place your ferment out of direct sunlight at room temperature (18-22 o C), sitting on a plate or tray in case the brine spills over.
- Ferment for 7- 10 days at room temperature.
- Don’t open the jar at all. If you have a clip top jar and are worried about it exploding, just pull the rubber tab on the side.
- After a week or so taste. Leave for longer at room temperature for a softer texture and more mature flavour.
- When done to your liking, keep in the refrigerator.
