Making sauerkraut yourself is actually not that difficult – if you follow a few simple steps and work cleanly. This basic recipe for classic sauerkraut is very tasty, healthy and the basis for a variety of German and Alsatian dishes.
If you want to make sauerkraut yourself, you’ll need cabbage, salt and a canning jar. And about a week of patience. Ultimately, salt is incorporated into the cut or grated cabbage by pounding it. The important thing when fermenting sauerkraut is to work cleanly and make sure everything in the jar is covered by the brine. Otherwise, it will grow mold. If you ensure that, you will be rewarded with amazing, Vitamin C-rich Sauerkraut!
Actually, you should keep everything that comes in contact with the cabbage sterile. However, I don’t clean my hands in disinfectant beforehand. And my kitchen knife must not be boiled either. In that respect, I think the sterile canning jar and the masher used to pound the cabbage and later press it firmly into the canning jar are crucial.
Sauerkraut should ferment at 18-22 degrees, which is best for the lactic acid bacteria that form or multiply here. I don’t think 3 or 4 degrees more harm it. It is just not optimal then. Through the salt and the rapid multiplication of the lactic acid bacteria, other germs have no chance to spread. This is actually the whole trick of preservation.
Please use organic cabbage if possible, as the cabbage should not be washed so as not to wash away the lactic acid bacteria present. As a rule of thumb, use 1-2 tablespoons of salt per kilogram of cabbage, but this must not be iodized salt. When fermenting, make sure that your pickling jar is only filled to about ⅔ full.
Sauerkraut in India
You can actually buy sauerkraut in India as well. However, it’s not cheap just by Indian standards. I do not know how good it is, because I wanted to try making it myself first. The cabbage in India is smaller than in Germany and I feel it’s greener, but taste-wise it is the same.
Ensuring the temperature for fermentation was a bit of a challenge for me here in India. I then read that in Korea, kimchi is traditionally buried in order for the temperature to drop. So I found a shady, cool spot in my in-laws’ garden and hope that everything works and I’ve done a clean enough job (at the time of writing this, I had no way of knowing how it’ll turn out).
Ensuring the temperature for fermentation was a bit of a challenge for me here in India. I then read that in Korea, kimchi is traditionally buried in order for the temperature to drop. So I found a shady, cool spot in my in-laws’ backyard and hope that everything works and I’ve done a clean enough job (at the time of writing this, I had no way of knowing that here).
When I started the experiment, it was the end of the monsoon, so it was reasonably cool. So my hope was high that it would work with the sauerkraut. It was 25 degrees at night and 30 degrees during the day. However, since the soil was wet from the rain, it stayed nice and cool due to the evaporation effect and the rain water (cooler than the ambient temperature).
The result: excellent sauerkraut! I can only recommend everyone to make it themselves once. It tastes better than the store-bought and is pretty easy to make. And it brought some home to Mumbai for me, being a Frankfurter Bub 🙂. Only “ordentlische Rippsche” (proper Frankfurt style pork ribs) are not availabe 😄. Only ordentlische Rippsche gibts here ned 😄. But Nuremberg bratwursts, they do it too!
In conclusion: even in India you can produce great Sauerkraut! In the monsoon, in winter or in an air-conditioned room.
The weight to weigh down the sauerkraut
You’ll need to weigh down the sauerkraut in the canning jar so that it gets pushed down and stays in the brine. By now, I have made my own sauerkraut twice. The first time I took two small stainless steel cups and put a weight in the top. The second time I filled a small freezer bag with water and used it as a weight. Both worked great. You just have to make sure it’s clean and that it doesn’t corrode!
Also a great hearty dish with sauerkraut: toss in a pan along with homemade Swabian Schupfnudeln, here is their recipe, and bacon. Tastes fantastic and is especially good for rainy fall days (hearty and full of vitamin C from the sauerkraut!). Works also outside India 😉.
How to make homemade Sauerkraut from scratch
Equipment
- 1 large pickle jar
- 1 weight (must fit in the jar, non-corrosive)
- potato masher or some other sort of pestle
Ingredients
- 1 kg white cabbage
- 1-2 Tbsp Salt (non-iodized salt!)
- spices to taste e.g. peppercorns, cloves, bay leaves
Instructions
- First, please sterilize your canning jar and masher by boiling them.
- Remove and wash the outer leaves of your cabbage and set them aside, you will need them later.
- Next, cut your cabbage into thin strips. I cut my strips so they were between 2 and 4 inches long. How will it turn out if they are longer? I don't know, it probably doesn't matter.
- Then you put the cabbage in a large pot with the salt. Mine was almost too small, so a lot of cabbage fell out while pounding. I recommend a 5 liter pot for 1kg of sauerkraut.
- Now pound the sauerkraut thoroughly so that the salt is incorporated into the cabbage and water comes out of the cabbage.
- The cabbage will slump and become softer.
- When the cabbage is covered with the juices or you feel that nothing is coming out, you are done.
- Now fill the cabbage, together with spices, into your preserving jar.
- Put the cabbage into the jar gradually and press it firmly with the masher in between, so that air escapes as far as possible.
- Leave about ⅓ space at the top of the jar.
- Now place one of the cabbage leaves on top of your cabbage and weigh it down with your weight.
- Make sure everything, including the leaf on top, is covered with the brine.
- If you don't have enough brine, just mix water with 2% salt and fill the jar until everything is covered.
- Anything above the brine can mold. Using a clean spoon, remove any small pieces of cabbage that are hanging from the jar above the brine.
- Screw the lid on lightly, do not screw it tight. The air in the jar must be able to escape. Otherwise, the jar will explode on you from the pressure of the gases and liquid from fermenting.
- Now leave the jar for a week in a dark, 18-22° Celsius (64-72° F) cool place.
- After that your sauerkraut is ready. If you store it in a cool place after that, it will keep. With time it will become more sour in taste.
Please rate my recipe before you leave 🙂:
Cooked with a lot of love on From zero to curry. Thanks for the great advice on Wurzelwerk!
