Commence Fermentation

On Sunday, I sought to make my German ancestors proud. I spent the afternoon slicing and slicing and slicing until I had enough cabbage to fill a dozen quart jars. All of this slicing was necessary because I am attempting to make homemade sauerkraut. It is truly amazing how dense a head of cabbage is! It only took 2.5 heads of cabbage to pack the jars full.

I followed a recipe from a book that was passed down to me from my mom, cabbage from my dad's garden, my love of sauerkraut from Grandma and inspiration from my Uncle Bill's foray into kraut making. The book has multiple recipes and methods for making sauerkraut. Since we weren't in possession of a suitable large vessel, I opted to try the version in canning jars. Another bonus to this method is that it'll be easier to hot water bath process them after they finish fermenting.

The recipe calls for a teaspoon of salt and a half teaspoon of honey in each crammed full quart jar of cabbage. (The raspberries are just for snacking.)

Then, boiling water is poured over the cabbage until the jar is full.

After you make sure you have enough water in the jar, you seal them up and put them somewhere to age. I opted to put mine in a plastic storage box because I was warned that they might "spit" liquid out during the fermentation process. In order to guarantee the right temperature, we decided to age the kraut in the root cellar.

It'll be at least 6 weeks before I know if it is edible. I'll let you know how it turns out. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that our house doesn't end up smelling like a rancid dumpster.