Preserving Veggies: From Cabbage to Sauerkraut
Preserving vegetables via salt brine (or ferments) might be one oldest ways besides drying. It’s so easy to do. You could teach your kids and they could probably do it on their own. There are probably a million and half how to blog posts and books out there about making sauerkraut, so I’ll just give you the quick run down.
Get very fresh cabbage, preferably homegrown and picked just minutes before you start processing. Weight the heads of cabbage so you know how many pounds you are working with and can decided how much salt to use. For 9 pounds of cabbage we used 4 tbsp of sea salt.
Cut the cabbage up into slices as thick or thin as you prefer. I have not found thicker or thinner to affect the end results. Once all the cabbage is sliced, put it in a large bowl and add the salt. Begin by massage the salt into the cabbage with clean hands. Then move on to using a pounding stick. You’ll want to pound the cabbage until is releases enough water to cover the cabbage entirely. It will feel like this will never ever happen, but it will suddenly!
You know the cabbage is ready to move into a jar or crock once you can squeeze some liquid from a hand full of it. Move all the cabbage into your fermenting vessel and then continue to pound and press down on it until the bring comes up above the level of the cabbage.
Cover with a few whole cabbage leaves and cover with a weight to keep it all submerged. Cover with a good lid and let ferment for about a week or more until you get the sour flavor you like best. Then move the whole thing into the fridge and enjoy!
Interested in learning about more ferments? I highly recommend the book Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz.
