Make your own sauerkraut

The other day I was listening to my favorite channel on Sirius, which is Martha Stewart Living, when a discussion about Farmhouse Culture's kraut came on.  Disclaimer....there are shows on MSL that I really don't like, including Whatever with Jennifer Hutt and Home Design with Kevin Sharkey, but I just change the channel when they are on to the 60s or 70s channel or maybe the Loft or Coffeehouse, or one of the quote unquote "alternative" stations.  In Northern California, Farmhouse Culture is pretty much the same kind of business as Ann Arbor's Brinery, which makes all sorts of fermented treats.   However, they both charge about $8 for a 16 oz. jar of kraut, and it is so ridiculously cheap and easy to make at home, I recommended you do that instead. 

Yesterday, at the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market, I bought 2 whopper cabbages (about 9 lb each) for a grand total of $5 total.  That will about 7 quarts of kraut....let's do the math....7 quarts = 224 oz.  Time to do some "guzzintas", as Jethro Bodine used to say, ....that's 14 (16 oz.) jars of kraut,  now do some "cipherin" and "fetchin' the naught" and that works out to be about 35 cents a jar, not including the canning salt, which cost are negligible.  See what I mean?  You can do this - and no special equipment is required, despite what you may have heard.   For example, the Germans make so much kraut they have special tools to do the job.    Enter the krauthobel....which is a like a giant mandoline:

It's really not required if you have a knife.  I am going to use my food processor to make the job quicker.   Then, there's the people that believe you have to beat up the cabbage first....enter the kraut pounder....

The flawed theory is that you need to pound the cabbage to help it make juice...but you don't need to, it will do fine on it's own.   Then there's the pickling crock....

Being the child of Polish pickle making people, I have 3 of them, but you don't need a crock to make kraut.  You can make a small batch in a canning jar, or for a bigger batch, use the ceramic insert from your crockpot, or any food safe bucket.  In Ann Arbor, Kilwin's Ice Cream Shop will sell you their empty 5 gallon ice cream tubs for 3/$1.00 which would make a fine container for pickling

There is much folklore about making kraut, including:

1. In Appalachian folk medicine, menstruating women are warned not to make kraut of pickles when they are menstruating because the product will spoil. 
2. Make the kraut in the dark of the moon.  The moon sign has to be right - going down, or waning or in the "Dark Days" Otherwise the kraut would swell and run over.  
3. Never make kraut when the moon is full.
4. Don’t make the kraut when the signs are in the bowels or feet or dog days. The astrological chart has a Zodiac man with his body divided into 12 signs. Each sign is associated with a different part of the body such as the head, neck, shoulders, sexual organs, bowels, legs and feet. It seems that the best sign for kraut-making is in the head and neck. By all means, it must be in a sign above the waist. If you go below the waist, the kraut will either smell bad, rot or make to much water and overflow your crock.
5. If the moon is “waxing, full, waning, going down or new,” it is good to go ahead with the kraut.

So much to consider....let's see how I am doing here on Oct. 9, 2011. 

1. Without sharing TMI, let's just rate this as "no worries here" and move on
2. Moon is at waxing gibbous, 94% full.  Uh oh....
3. I'm good, the moon won't be full until Tuesday
4. Per the Farmer's Almanac, the moon is is Pisces, a foot sign.  Another uh oh....
5. Wait a minute, I thought the moon had to be waning per folklore rule #2, but now it appears it's okay to be waxing, too.   But then again, isn't this the same rule as #3?

I'm going to take my chances on today, I guess....

So here's how to make kraut...the ratio is simple....you need 5 lbs cabbage to 3 tablespoons pickling salt.   Slice the cabbage thinly....about the thickness of a quarter.  Mix the salt and the cabbage thoroughly and pack it tightly in your pickling vessel.   The cabbage needs to be weighted down to keep it from floating.   You can use a Ziploc bag filled with brine in case it springs a leak (1 1/2 T. pickling salt per quart of water) but for my crocks, I use a kitchen plate weighted down by canning jars filled with water.  Since I keep my crocks in the laundry room, I cover them with old pillowcases (a trick I learned at Greenfield Village's Firestone Farm) to keep lint out of them, but they don't need to be covered.   Pickling needs air!  Within 24 hours, the cabbage should be submerged in it's own juice.   If it isn't, add some brine (use the ratio shown above for the plastic bags)  I've never had to do this, my decision to not consult the moon signs not withstanding.   Every day or two, skim the scum off the top of the kraut.   Start tasting the kraut after 2 weeks....the kraut will be fully fermented in 2-4 weeks at 70 F and in 5-6 weeks at 60 F.  It will be pale in color and tart in flavor.  When fermentation is complete, bubbles will have stopped rising to the surface.  

When it's done, you can store it in a very cool place (38F) or your fridge.  It freezes well, too.  Canning will destroy the vitamin C and probiotic health benefits of live fermentation, so I don't bother with it.  I just keep it in my garage in canning jars over the winter, where it stays cold enough.

Here's a recipe I can't wait to try that the Farmhouse Culture people talked about on the MSL radio program.   It's for a kraut salad that's supposed to be a popular side dish served in Poland.

Polish Kraut Salad

Serves 6
16 oz. kraut

1 cup shredded carrots
1 cup chopped green onions
1/2 to 2/3 cup good quality olive oil

Toss all ingredients together and serve as a side salad.

Give kraut a try and tell me how it turns out!