food Sauerkraut

FWIW, this is my German kraut recipe. I use Silver Floss sauerkraut if available and it is drained before being added. The bacon and onion cook first until almost crispy, then the kraut is added with rest of the ingredients.
 

Attachments

  • C0005AC8-1372-44EF-A19B-9967A16C7BC0.jpeg
    C0005AC8-1372-44EF-A19B-9967A16C7BC0.jpeg
    100 KB · Views: 128
Pics as promised.
 
20180602_184025.jpg

 
 
Main ingredients
 
Cabbage, sliced thin
Garlic (as much as you want) I put in maybe 5 large cloves cut into thin slices
2 - 3 tbsp salt
Caraway seeds (as much as you want) I put in about 3/4 of a teaspoon.
 
That is what I would normally use, but this time just to be different I also added
 
Carrot (grated)
1/2 thin sliced onion
 
 
Put everything into a large bowl, mixing it all up to make sure the salt is through it all.
 
Get some one to hold your beer and pound it for maybe 10 minutes or so, until it is all even. I use a cabbage pounder.
 
20180602_192015.jpg

 
Cover with a tea towel for half hour for the salt to draw out the moisture. Come back every 5 or 10 minutes and give it another pounding. Get your hands messy and squeeze the juices out of it while you are doing it as well.
 
20180602_194642.jpg

 
Put it in your fermenting vessel.
 
20180602_195847.jpg

 
I then put the fermenter in a warmish kind of spot, because it is winter here, I put it in a cupboard over the fridge.
 
20180602_195933.jpg

 
Let it ferment. I usually let it go for 2 weeks or so, but I have never used the carrot and onion in it before so not sure how it will go.
 
I will normally put it into smaller sterile jars because a few people like this and I like to share it around.
 
You can eat this straight after the ferment, but if you sit it in the fridge for at least a week the flavors develop even more. The longer it sits in the fridge the more the flavors develop.
 
That seems like a little much on the salt. Not much though. Fermentation will just take a tiny bit longer to start. If your salt is more coarse it might be about right. I use Mortons canning salt most of the time and pink salt occasionally too. Around 2% salt by veggie weight and about the same % for additional brine seems to be the sweet spot for me. I try to get mine in the fridge as soon as i can but ive had plain kraut take 2 weeks before. Kimchi is nearly always ready for the cold within a few days at room temp.
 
There must be something in the kimchi ingredients that really kicks it in gear because its no fail sour within 3 days at room temp. Flavor though needs around a month or more in the fridge to balance out. Im not fond of the "raw" flavor of fresher kimichi usually. More like the aroma because even young kraut has it. Sort of bitter and tastes/smells "green".
 
I need to make a batch today. Got to check the market again for some radish. What they had the other day looked like crap. I will be making Mak Kimchi without the porridge.
 
It goes pretty much like this https://www.koreanbapsang.com/2013/10/mak-kimchi-simple-kimchi.html
 
So I have a 1/2-gallon ferment jar (with airlock) in which I put a gallon of diced red habaneros in, one 12-oz. can of mango nectar, and then two cans of sour kraut to help the overall fermentation process. Probably just needed the juice, but for some reason the whole thing went in the jar.  Also some probiotics to aid fermenting the peppers.  Then it occurred to me (upon sobering up), that I won't be able to separate the kraut from the peppers.  OK, I like sour kraut anyway, so now to do what with the product after a month or so of fermenting?  Add a few other spices and can/jar for consumption?  I will certainly test the product on some brats/dogs/schnitzengruben first.  Maybe some mustard??
 
Chorizo857_62J said:
So I have a 1/2-gallon ferment jar (with airlock) in which I put a gallon of diced red habaneros in, one 12-oz. can of mango nectar, and then two cans of sour kraut to help the overall fermentation process. Probably just needed the juice, but for some reason the whole thing went in the jar.  Also some probiotics to aid fermenting the peppers.  Then it occurred to me (upon sobering up), that I won't be able to separate the kraut from the peppers.  OK, I like sour kraut anyway, so now to do what with the product after a month or so of fermenting?  Add a few other spices and can/jar for consumption?  I will certainly test the product on some brats/dogs/schnitzengruben first.  Maybe some mustard??
Click to expand...
 

Epic Fail.  White to pinkish mold developed in the headspace.  Too scary to save.  Back to the drawing board, after wasting a gallon of habaneros. :crazy:
 
bob65 said:
I am still trying to figure out how you put a gallon of habs into a 1/2 gallon jar, plus 3 cans of other stuff
Click to expand...
 

Peppers were stored whole in a gallon freezer bag.  Upon processing in the food processor, the chopped pepper product filled roughly 1/2 of the 1/2-gallon jar.  Sorry I was not clear on the storage bag volume vs. the fermentation vessel.  Math not my strong suit. :scared:
 
Gunna need a big plate and a bowling ball to hold that down :D Only batch of kraut i ever had fail was red cabbage. Seems to take longer to turn sour.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top