Just Do It: Make Your Own Sauerkraut
Three types of sauerkraut: Kimchee, Curtido, and Ginger-Turmeric Kraut
If you can make a salad, you can make sauerkraut. Even if you don’t like sauerkraut, you should! Feed your microbiome and your tastebuds will follow. By adding a tiny bit to a meal or two each day, you’ll slowly develop a taste for it and your gut health will benefit.
It’s easier than making salad, as long as you follow a couple of simple guidelines. I do recommend some basic and affordable gear to start. It’s not necessary, but your success rate is much more guaranteed with a few tools. Plus, the whole process is more hands-off.
You’ll need:
1 green cabbage, a fresh one, not one that has been languishing in your fridge for weeks
Sea salt
Wide mouth mason jar, 32 or 64 ounce
Chop the cabbage and toss with sea salt in a large bowl. Taste—it should be salty but palatable.
Pack tightly in a mason jar. Push down with a weight or two and seal with an airlock lid. The ones I use allow you to mark the date you should check for doneness. Set to check in 10 days unless it’s really warm where you are, in which case check after 7 days.
In the meantime, enjoy watching the bubbles rise up each time you pick up your jar. After 10 days, open up the jar and taste. Is it fermented to your liking or could it use a couple more days?
That’s it!!
Some notes:
Using fresh cabbage ensures that it gives off enough water. It’s important that the vegetables are completely submerged in their own liquid in order for proper fermentation to occur. That’s where the weights come in as well.
You can manage without the air release lid, but it requires opening the top every day to release gases, which can be hard to remember (for me at least). Plus, I find the results using the special lids produce a better result overall.
You can get fancier over time, and there is more to say, but this post is designed to inspire you to try by keeping it simple & getting you to success on your first try, which will inspire future fermentation explorations.
