I’ve recently come into possession of a large number of Mason jars. Being a fan of sauerkraut and knowing of Lemmy’s significant German/Czech populatuon, I’d like to ask how you make the best sauerkraut. What do you add beyond salt and cabbage? How do you store it?
I suppose this may also apply to kimchi and other pickled foods, too!
What do you add beyond salt and cabbage?
Bay leaves and juniper berries (hope that’s the correct translation).
How do you store it?
In the large wooden cask where it was made.
Caraway seeds are good too.
this is the correct answer
A mandoline slicer makes the chopping much faster if you have one.
I like caraway seeds in mine.
I ferment on the top of my cabinets in a mason jar, then move to the fridge when it starts tasting right.
Recently got one to help dicing onions for soups, definitely helps.
Not German (except by ancestry), but my advice is that you might want weights or airlock lids for the jars.
(Not sure what the pros/cons are of the two different styles of keeping the cabbage submerged.)
Otherwise, a Ziploc bag full of water can do the same task in a cheaper/jankier way.
Once it’s finished becoming sauerkraut, you store it by putting a regular airtight lid on it and putting it in the fridge. I suppose it could also be canned to make it shelf-stable long-term, but you’re going to want to look up reputable advice for that.
As far as what to add beyond salt and cabbage, since you have a bunch of jars I suggest experimenting with a bunch of different things.
You want both weights and airlock lids as they serve different purposes. Weights keep everything submerged below the brine, and airlocks allow produced CO2 to escape without allowing oxygen in. Lacto fermentation is an anaerobic process and oxygen is the enemy.
Don’t use an airtight lid unless you’re sure it’s done fermenting or else you can make little glass bombs in your fridge.
My Polish father in law makes it with bacon and it is by far the best fermented food I’ve ever enjoyed. I’ll see if I can get the recipe.
My family is polish, I’ll second the bacon. Also dried mushrooms, I want to say my babci used porcini
Yum! Definitely something to try. Might mix weirdly with crispy cabbage/soft mushroom, but oh well.
My step-grandmother made it in a 10 gallon barrel and used the end of a baseball bat to pound it down. Then put an ancient plate with bricks on it to keep it compressed while it cured. Sadly that seems to be all I remember.
Damn, that’s a lotta cabbage. I’d guess this was more a harvesttime affair, with the goal of getting through all the crops before they spoiled?
Yeah. The generations older than me in my family never got over the great depression. So late summer was always about pickling and canning. Then the family spent the fall trading their canned goods. Then spent the spring talking about which things were and weren’t so good.
It depends what you like, tailor it to spices you enjoy. I like some carroway and juniper berries in a german style one.
I also really like ginger, garlic, and chillies for something a little kimchi inspired, (kimchi technique is rather different, but I just adapt the flavors to kraut).
Best recipe I had contained fresh sprigs of dill. Could also experiment with small crunchy veggies (carrots, cauliflower, etc).
