Canning ~ Sauerkraut

On September 26, 2015 the Hubs started his second attempt at making home made sauerkraut.  There are some changes that we need to make to the recipe as far as how much salt to add.  The nice thing about cabbage is, it is cheap to do our experiments until we have it fined tuned.

The Hubs chopped up the cabbage real fine and added salt and mashed the two together until the sauerkraut was getting watery.

To hold down the cabbage so it would say immersed in its own liquid, the Hubs used a plate with a rock on top {the rock was inside of a zip lock bag}.

This is after 38 days this is the end result.  The Hubs used 2 heads of cabbage and a bit too much salt, but we will know for next time.

1 Quart, 2 Pints and one 1/2 Pint

This is the recipe we will use next time.  It is from a vintage Kerr canning book, {that my folks left behind for us}.

Use good, sound heads of mature cabbage.  1 pound of salt with 40 pounds of cabbage; or more realistically, 2 ounces ( 3 1/2 tablespoons) with 5 pounds cabbage.  One pound fills 1 pint glass jar.

Remove outside green and dirty leaves.  Quarter the head and shred the cabbage finely. Put 5 pounds cabbage and 2 ounces of salt into a large pan and mix with hands; we would use the wooden masher we have.   Pack gently into the crock {or whatever container you are using, we used a food grade plastic bucket} with a potato masher.  Repeat until crock is nearly full.  Cover with a cloth, plate and weight.  During the curing process, kraut requires daily attention.  Remove scum as it forms and wash and scald the cloth often to keep it free from scum and mold.  Fermentation will be complete in 10 to 12 days.

As soon as the kraut is thoroughly cured, pack into clean KERR Jars, adding enough of the kraut juice, or a weak brine made by dissolving 2 tablespoons salt into a quart of water, to fill jars to within 1/2 inch of the top of the jar.  Put on cap, screwing the band tight.  Process in a water bath for 15 minutes.

We lefts ours for 38 days, and then canned it today.  Hoping it turns out okay, we would like to use the sauerkraut we made today on Ruben sandwiches.

...the feast of the harvest, the fruits of thy labors... Exodus 23:16

M & S
Uptown Grange