Help With Kraut Rehab?

[Nyboy]

]Sour kraut. That mysterious fermented cabbage shreds of which I know nothing about, except the home made versions I read about here sound light years better than the mushy stuff my mother slopped out of a can when I was a kid. [/QUOTE] Bay I grew up on the same, mom only used it for hot dogs.

 

[so lucky]

Hey, nothing like some home made sour kraut with hot dogs (we eat the organic beef ones) and mashed potatoes and lots of mustard. (taters and mustard, remind anyone of Sling Blade?) If you heat fermented kraut, only heat it as little as necessary to be palatable. Again, no sense in killing of those good beasties with heat.

 

[Smiles Jr.]

@Smiles Jr. - You brew your own kombucha?! Can you start another thread with recipe/directions please?

OK

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

I make sauerkraut too. The last batch came from a bag of shredded cabbage that the food bank was throwing out. Actually they threw out cases of it. I dehydrated a couple of bags and then made kraut. But there was something wrong. Maybe due to the preshredded cabbage, I think I got some rogue bacteria/yeasts and molds in it. I eventually had to throw all the jars away cus they kept rotting.

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

Oh, and once you've eaten this, you'll never like canned kraut again.

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

a good recipe and instructions from another blog.

• 
  I use purple cabbage because it ferments faster and in my experience is more crunchy than slimy. It also is a lovely shade of hot pink which is awesome for our goal of "eating the rainbow" on our plate. I also have daughters so the hot pink was a nice selling feature. I tried a lot of different cabbages before I decided on my favorite so experiment and find out what you like! It is so good for you and there will be many, many opportunities to make kraut so just play with it. It is very forgiving, a wonderful quality in a food!
• For every five pounds of cabbage use 3 Tbsp of Celtic brand Sea Salt, course grind. You will layer this into the jars with the cabbage as you pound.
• Cut each head of cabbage into eighths, remove the white core from and finely shred each section.
• Tightly pack the cabbage (+ sea salt) into wide mouthed quart jars using a heavy, wooden mallet of some sort. I use this masher
  
  my mom gave me to push tomatoes through a Squeez-O-Strainer and instead of it being stained red from tomatoes it is purple from the cabbage!
  
  I recently noticed an ad for a "kraut pounder" which is as close to a description as I have ever heard. I have not bought fromkrautpounder.com but I would in a heartbeat if I needed one. I have yet to find a good alternative although another Mama and I spoke to a local wood spoon carver last weekend about making an artistic kraut pounder so if anything comes of that I'll put up that info too!
  

  • Pound, pound, and pound some more. Get out the anger at the _________ that totally screwed up the ___________. Bring peace on earth (or at least to your household) by bottling up your rage and saving it for a weekly/bi-weekly kraut pounding session. As you pound you break down the cell membranes of the cabbage which will release the liquids into the jar. About the time your arms are crying out for mercy just ask someone else to take a turn, rest up, and then get back in the ring! We call that tapping out in our household. ;-)

  • Once the kraut is sufficiently pounded into the jars (I usually fill a quart jar close to the top, leaving an inch to an inch and a half at the top so there is room for the liquid/brine) find a juice glass, partially fill it with water, and set it on top of the cabbage in the jar. The purpose of this is twofold. First, it provides a bit of weight to help squeeze out the water from the cabbage. Second, it will keep the cabbage submerged below the water so it does not get moldy as it ferments.

  • Gather your jars together in a reasonably cool/darkish space and put a towel over top of them to keep dust (and flies / eggs, but I am not admitting to having flies in my kitchen) from settling on the top of your kraut.

  • Twenty-four hours after you make the kraut check to make sure there is water covering all of the cabbage. If your cabbage was a little dry then you will need to add brine so it will not get moldy as it ferments. If you need to add brine mix up some water with sea salt (~1 tsp of salt to a cup of water).

  • Every day or two lift the towel, push down on the glasses, make sure things are not bubbling over (you don't want to lose the precious juice) and make sure none of the cabbage is exposed to air. Sometimes I end up taking the water out of the juice glasses so they are not pressing so heavily (if the water is overflowing) and other times I have to add a little bit of brine as things dry out.

  • Your sauerkraut is fully fermented when you push on the juice glass and do not see bubbles making their way to the top of the jar. At that point screw on a lid and put it in the fridge. It'll keep for a year!

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

I have added purple cabbage to my green cabbage but note that it bleeds the color through out, so you'll be eating "pink" kraut.

I've found two of those wooden pounders at garage sales. Love that tool!

I make mine in a very large glass crock that I bought at Wally World. I use large river rocks to hold down the cabbage in the crock and then when its all done, I transfer to canning jars for the garage frig.

 

[so lucky]

Well, I decided to try the re-fermentation on the kraut that was too crunchy. I made up a quart of salt water (2.5 tablespoons of non-iodized salt) and removed half of the gallon of kraut to another gallon container, then poured all the salt water in. The original jar was very dry, as a lot of the liquid had leaked out. That kraut has an excellent taste, even as crunchy as it is. I'll report on how successful this attempt is.
I always just use a gallon plastic food storage bag with about a pint of water in it, to hold the cabbage down.
@murphysranch, I bet the shredded cabbage in bags was too old and dry to work. I have never had luck just pounding mine down; always have to add some water. But I do pound, too. I use a two foot section of 1.5" dowel.