Sauerkraut - Part 1

Sauerkraut is so simple to make and when you make fermented sauerkraut at home it's SO GOOD FOR YOU! There's lots of media attention regarding the benefits of incorporating probiotics into your diet - don't just rely on pills, use real food to boost your friendly-gut-bacterias!

Today we started 2 gallons of Kraut.. this post is how to get started, look for more posts as I track it's progress...

Here's a step by step of how we're making ours, required supplies are pretty basic and the process is really simple. Shred cabbage, sprinkle salt, pound to release liquid, cover and let sit...

Today we bought 6 medium heads of cabbage at the farmers market and gathered our supplies. We got our antique kraut shredder from Ray's parents and our 2 gallon crock from my grandmother. (you can use a food processor with a slicing blade or just hand-cut your cabbage too! and you don't need a crock any non-plastic or non-metal vessel will work!)

We cut each head of cabbage in half and removed the core....

Ray shredded each half....

 Then we'd put about 2 inches of shredded cabbage in the bottom of the crock and sprinkled liberally with Celtic sea salt...

 Then pound your salted cabbage, you are trying to get the cabbage to release it's liquid. We use the wooden plunger for our kitchen-aid mixer's meat grinder attachment along with our fists in a punching motion...

 Keep  pounding the cabbage until the liquid released will cover the shredded cabbage when you press it down..

Keep adding additional cabbage/salt in 1-2 inch layers, and keep pounding.

 Our 2 gallon crock held 6 heads of shredded cabbage.. In order for the cabbage to ferment into sauerkraut you need to allow it to sit with the cabbage fully submerged underwater. Use a plate or other flat item that fills up the crock but can be pressed down (I used the lid from my rice cooker, it fit in the crock perfectly! If the weight of the item you are using as a submerged lid isn't heavy enough to keep the liquid above the cabbage, apply weight like a gallon jug of water or a brick.

Cover the entire top of your crock with cheese cloth and allow it to sit at room temperature and out of direct sunlight... every couple days check it out to make sure everything is submerged and to skim any foamy stuff that may collect on top...