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| These containers are great for stacking in a refrigerator. |
At home, I prefer canned sauerkraut to supermarket bagged refrigerated sauerkraut. The canned is blanched, so less raw in texture and less sour. I like the sour toned down a notch so it complements and doesn’t dominate the other paired food, like potato salad or pork chops.
Our favorite sauerkraut comes in jars from Germany, which is more costly (about $8 - $12 a jar) since it's imported.
Recently, using a medium head of cabbage (at 99¢/lb), I made my own batch of sauerkraut to see if I could match the German Sauerkraut in a jar. You only need 2 ingredients to make it: shredded cabbage and salt. You have to wonder why all forms of sauerkraut, including canned, have doubled in price.
My recipe follows:
German Sauerkraut
Ingredients:
cabbage, a medium-large head, shredded
1 1/2 tablespoons of non-iodized salt (I used pink Himalayan.)
Although you should keep sauerkraut simple, you can add optional flavors or textures to your batch if you wish --
Optional: I sprinkled in bay leaf powder (or 3 bay leaves work). I diced a carrot just to add color to the kraut. Some people like to toss in garlic or caraway seeds, which I didn’t do.
Directions:
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| 4 days of fermenting |
1) Mix the shredded cabbage and salt thoroughly. I used a fork and didn’t massage it. What am I, a masseuse? You can taste it to know if the salt is incorporated throughout.
2) Pack the sauerkraut into glass jars or food-grade plastic containers.
3) Let it sit at room temperature for 7 days to 4 weeks. No need to add water, as the salt draws the water out, turning it into a pickled juice.
My sauerkraut, weighing 2 pounds, is fermenting and starting to look like sauerkraut. How exciting that it's coming along without effort! I don’t aim to go into the sauerkraut business, but it’s great to know where your food comes from and what goes into making it! We’ll use this batch as condiments whenever we need a bit of sour and crunch, like on Fairway’s beef hot dogs. Fermented sauerkraut keeps in the refrigerator.
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