Homemade Lactofermented Sauerkraut

I keep writing and rewriting this post. I am unable to accurately put into words how beloved my sauerkraut is to me. Especially this recipe. If you’ve never tried lacto-fermentation but would like to, I implore you to use this recipe. Whatever you may imagine fermentation to taste like, this will steer you away from that frightful imagery. The caraway seeds lend a buttery smoothness to the cabbage. Glorious, incredibly beautiful and healthy. If you are wary of probiotic pills and their efficacy, save up to buy a head of cabbage, try this and get back to me on how you feel. Sauerkraut and all the goodies in it deeply affected me and changed the role food plays in my life. Not bad for a vegetable!

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Homemade Lactofermented Sauerkraut

Sauerkraut is the best first ferment for someone starting to dabble in making their own probiotic vegetables at home!

Course Side Dish

Prep Time 10 minutes

Servings 12 people

Author Lucia Hawley

Ingredients

• 1 medium cabbage cored and finely shredded (purple if you desire)
• 1 tablespoon caraway seeds omit for AIP
• 1 tablespoon sea salt
• 2 tablespoons whey see note below for sourcing. If not available or AIP, use an additional 1 tablespoon sea salt in its place

Instructions

1. In a bowl, mix cabbage with caraway seeds, sea salt and whey.
2. Pound with a wooden pounder or a meat hammer (or the clean bottom of a bottle of wine!) for about ten minutes to release juices, and/or squeeze and knead the cabbage with your hands. The cabbage should release a lot of liquid. If it doesn't, keep working!
3. Place in a quart-sized, wide-mouth mason jar and press down firmly with a pounder or the bottom of a wooden spooen until the juices come to the top and cover the cabbage. You are trying to make sure there are no air pockets in the shredded cabbage in the jar. The top of the cabbage and liquid should be at least 1 inch below the top of the jar.
4. Put a lid on tightly and keep at room temperature for about 7 days (or, you can ferment up to 1 month) before transferring to the fridge for storage. The sauerkraut may be eaten immediately, but it improves with age.

Recipe Notes

*want to use whey, but don't know where to get it? Yeah, you can't buy it, but you can make it! Take 2 cups of whole milk yogurt, and place in a colander or strainer lined with a clean dishtowel. Put the colander over a bowl big enough to catch the liquid that drips from the straining yogurt. Put the whole thing in the fridge, and allow to strain for at least 2 to 4 hours, or overnight. Save the liquid that drains away from the yogurt, because this is the whey! You can put it in a mason jar with a lid and it should keep in the fridge for up to 6 months. The strained yogurt is now what you would consider Greek yogurt--extra thick and creamy! Eat it as you would any normal yogurt.

Tips and tricks:

Make sure all your tools and containers are sterile! You can boil the mason jar in water for a few minutes to sterilize it, or you can run it and your other tools through the dishwasher on a high heat setting. Conversely, sometimes I just bring some water up to a boil, let it cool for a little bit, and then pour it over what I’ll be using to make the sauerkraut. Just make sure that if you do this, you don’t pour it over glass that has not tempered, because the glass will shatter. You can avoid this by letting the water cool even more before pouring on that glass, or use an alternate method to clean that glass. Glass that is intended for canning, like mason jars, have been tempered.

You don’t need to use whey (the drained liquid from yogurt), especially if you are sensitive to dairy. The reason people use whey is because whey is naturally probiotic–it’s full of good bacteria. It basically inoculates the sauerkraut mixture with good bacteria, which can increase the odds of a successful ferment. Note that if you choose to use whey, you can use less sea salt. Some people prefer this because they find lacto-fermented foods to be too salty to their liking.

Make sure that your ferment sits at a temperature that is comfortable enough for YOU to be in. So, don’t store it in a freezing basement or garage! Usually a cupboard somewhere in the kitchen is fine and warm enough. When it’s too cold out, it just takes longer for the fermentation process.

Check on your batch every few days. Some people like to “burp” their jars of sauerkraut, meaning that they release the carbon dioxide that builds up inside the jar during the fermentation process. They do this to avoid the jar exploding from too much carbon dioxide. You can reduce the likelihood of this happening by making sure you have at least 1 inch of room between the sauerkraut mixture and the top of the jar.

The shredded cabbage will try to float to the top of the jar, and this is normal, especially as the mixture expands slightly due to the carbon dioxide that is building up during the ferment. You can try to avoid this by placing a small glass or ceramic object on the top of the cabbage before you seal the lid to start the ferment. This weighs the cabbage down, submerging it under its juices. If you don’t have a weight, don’t worry about it, it isn’t a key piece to the project.