6 replies to this topic

[AspenLeif]

I make a 6 gallon bucket every year (old brew bucket).I only use cabbage and salt. I don't put onion in it, but that's not to say you can't. I do put caraway seed in either 1) some of the jars when I pack it, or 2) in the pan when I heat it back up.for a 6 gal bucket, you want to fill it up to about 5 gal, you need headspace for the crude valve. It takes like 8-9 very large cabbages.1) quarter and cut the core from each quarter. Either shred using a madolin slicer or just a sharp knife and slice as thin as you can. If you do it with a knife, take the pile and cut it once or twice perpendicular to the pile of shreds to get like 2" long pieces (or smaller if you want)2) put about 1-1/2"-2" in the bucket, toss in about a tsp of canning salt or sea salt (I don't like the iodized) and take a heavy beer mug and smash it down, hard. You are trying to bruise it and get the juices flowing.3) keep repeating step 2 until your vessel is full.4) take a dinner plate (works for a 5-6gal bucket) or some sort of disk and put it on top of the cabbage.5) take a flat rock and scrub it up and put it in a plastic bag and put it on the plate. 6) if the juices are not over the plate, put a mix of 2:1 white vingar:water and pour it in until it just covers the plate.now here's the family secret so you don't need to skim the scum off it.7) use a (non-deodrized) tall kitchen garbage bag and put about 1/2 gal of water in it. Roll the top back on itself a couple times and tie it tight. Put this bag of water over the plate/rock. Walla! crude 1 way valve.8) put it in a cool storage place for at least 5 weeks. I usually put it away in the fall and can it in the spring, so 6 months or more is fine too. I've gone up to 12 months before with no issue.9) Take the bag off in the laundry tub or outside. To can it, I do both ways. Cold canning keeps it really crunchy and squeaky. Hot canning it just gets a little more limp. I do both, but prefer the cold method if I have the extra time...takes like an hour longer or so.To cold can.Sterilize jars in the dishwasher. Tightly pack it in the jars about 1-1/2" from the top. Clean the rim and put the lid and ring on all but one jar that you stick in the water bath. Use a thermometer to bring the center of the jars up to 185-190. Once the test jar hits that, twist the lid down and stick on the concrete outside. The test jar will have the kraut wanting to overflow the rim, just shove it down with a spoon, clean the rim and tighten the lid.To hot can.3/4fill a stock pot, heat and stir around a little as it heats, and as soon as it hits a boil or 200 deg, start packing in sterilized jars. Put out on the concrete.I like caraway seed, so I put it in some of my jars as I pack it, just layer it in as you put the cabbage in... A little goes a loonnngg way. That or I heat it in the pan when I prepare it.MB

[shmgeggie]

Mainely - For a beginner like me, it would be helpful to know about how much salt per pound of cabbage I should use. I found a recipe on the web that I could use to determine the right proportion but it seemed to come out a little on the salty side.

[AspenLeif]

I exactly don't do it by weights...or even measures. I do know that I salt after every 1/2 head of a shredding the cabbage...and it's about 3/4 teaspoon. MB

[AspenLeif]

ETA: 1/2 tsp to 3/4 tsp. If you are sensitive to salt, go with 1/2tsp. MB

[Deerslyr]

Bump for ease of finding.

[Jub]

I found through trial and error I like 30g NaCl per kg of vegetable matter (cabbage, shredded carrots, onoins, etc)

 

If you don't get enough liquid from the vegetables you can cover with a 5% NaCl brine so you don't get mold on top

[Stout_fan]

OK so I planted 10 cabbages this year with the idea of making Kraut. My brewery (yet to be operational) is 100' away and in the basement. I figure I can't infect my beer from the kitchen. So Among the slew of how to videos this one seemed the most simple. Salt is 2% of the weight of the cabbage; that's all there is. I recall my mom made some awesome kraut that was so much better than the canned version...once.

 

So out of the 10 heads I harvested too late and lost 2 due to splitting. Initially the cabbage moths destroyed all the leaves, but continual spraying with BT eventually won. So 2 weeks later I HB canned 8 quarts of the stuff. Mmm good.

 

So now I'm looking for something with a bit more flavor and I'm turning to youze guyz. So what worked, and what didn't?