Sauerkraut

Happily, my first day back from PASA is a snowy day off. I'm taking advantage of my fervor to get some projects going that will help us eat better for the coming weeks and also help me fulfill my pledge to use what we have. Another thing that helps with that, of course, is the fact that getting to a grocery store this afternoon is out of the question. The more I can eat from our stores here at home the better off I'll be (and the less I'll have to navigate the tricky icy streets out in the world in SNOWMAGEDDEON2010) I hiked out this morning to the East Liberty Cooperative Market after reading a blog post that they were open this morning since they got snowed out yesterday. Turns out the egg lady, who I was hoping to see, didn't make it, but I came home with some coffee, some mushrooms, some garlic, a cabbage, a pound of ground beef, and a stewing chicken. The chicken has been simmering away in the dutch oven with some bacon fat, garlic, onion, parsley, sage, thyme, salt and peppercorns ever since, and the meat is just starting to fall off the bones. Later I'll shred it and strain the soup and add some veggies and top it with dumplings. Southern style. Also on the horizon is a batch of bread dough and pizza dough, and maybe even an apple pie if I am still feeling up for the challenge. I really gotta take the Christmas tree down though....
In the meantime, I put up a batch of sauerkraut to start working. Since I conceived this as a sort of recipe blog, I figure I should put a sort of recipe up once in a while. So here goes.
Lacto-fermented, Oh So Good For You Sauerkraut ala Sandor Katz:
1 head cabbage (for this batch I used a savoy, which I wouldn't normally. it juiced up real nice though!)

about 2 tablespoons of salt (I use this nice red Hawaiian sea salt because it has minerals in it. Sea salt is best, Kosher salt is OK, iodized table salt is BAD!)

Flavoring (you can use no flavoring, or caraway seeds, or juniper berries like I did for this batch, or apples, or garlic or ginger or hot peppers. whatever you use, put in less of it than you think you might want as the fermentation will intensify)
So. Grab a big bowl and shred the cabbage really, really fine. You can use some core as long as you can get it sliced thinly, but don't try to shred up the very thickest pieces in the middle. Those should go in the compost. Here's halfway through the usable parts of my savoy:

When you have shredded all the usable bits, add your flavoring(if you want any) and start squeezing away. You want to squeeze and squeeze and mix and squeeze until you have just about as much liquid as solid. The cabbage will start to feel and look like sauerkraut already.
The salty liquid that comes out is called brine.
Next, you want to pack your kraut very tightly into a clean crock or jar. I have these nice crocks I got a million years ago at Kaufmann's or something that at the time I thought I would use for flour and sugar and coffee. Now I use them for fermenting veggies, just like grandma would. Really punch it down so that the brine comes up over the level of the veg. This cabbage was so juicy that the brine spilled right over the crock before I really got to pack it in there. Thankfully I anticipated this and placed the crock in the bowl to pack it.


The last step is to weight the kraut down below the level of the brine. I use an old sauerkraut jar that just happens to fit exactly into the opening of my crocks. It's like synchronicity. If you are not so lucky, you can use a plate that fits into the opening of your kraut vessel, or a clean rock, or if you aren't too freaked out about plastic--a storage bag filled with water. The idea is to keep the kraut submerged under the level of the brine for about 5 days. I think I remember reading that Sandor sometimes just remembers to push it down a couple times a day and doesn't therefore need to weight it down, but you want to be safe the first couple times at least. So find something that will work for you.

Put your crock or jar in a warmish spot in the kitchen and check every day to make sure your cabbage is totally submerged. If it seems dry and pushing down on the weight doesn't work, you can add a little salt water, but try to avoid that if you can. If it's the summer time and you have bugs flying around, cover the whole apparatus with a cloth. In winter it's not much of a problem.
In five days you will have a delicious and extremely healthful condiment. You can pack it into a clean jar and store it in the fridge at this point, or let it ferment a bit longer if you like a sharper flavor. Temperature will affect the amount of time it takes for a good ferment, so if it's really cold you might want to let it go longer. Some people never even put it in the fridge and just eat it out of the crock on the counter if it's not too hot out---if you make a tiny amount like this it might be all gone before you need to worry about refrigerating it. People say you should eat some lacto fermented food with every meal to help keep your digestive system in check. I am going to try harder to follow this maxim starting today.