Sauerkraut + Russia = USA + hamburger. A lot of folks associate sauerkraut with Germany but it has been used in Russia for many generations. IÂ grew up on this stuff, and have memories of it from very early childhood; to me it goes with everything, including breakfast. But it wasn’t that long ago that I learned about its amazing health benefits.
Vitamins contained in sauerkraut are numerous: A, B1, B2, B3, B6, C, K and U. The last one refers to the category of fairly rare vitamins, and has a remarkable feature – to prevent the appearance of ulcerative lesions on the walls of the stomach and duodenum. Sauerkraut is also very high in vitamin C, and contains ascorbigen (a derivative of ascorbic acid), which is not destroyed even with prolonged storage, and with a moderate heat treatment it’s converted to vitamin C. Choline, which belongs to the group of B vitamins, produces a positive effect on metabolism and normalizes lipid processes in the body.
Sauerkraut also has almost a record amount of minerals among similar products. It contains iron, potassium, iodine, calcium, magnesium, manganese, sodium, phosphorus, chlorine, cobalt, fluorine, silicon, boron, copper, zinc, sulfur, selenium, and others.
No less useful and valuable are amino acids in sauerkraut: lysine, tyrosine, tryptophan, methylmethionine as well as flavonoids and probiotics. It has immunization and tonic effect, anti-carcinogenic properties, reduces the risk of heart disease, improves the secretion of digestive glands and enhances stress resistance of the organism.
Sauerkraut juice has a rejuvenating effect on skin, you can apply it on your face or body, and in half an hour rinse with cool water, the result will amaze you – you skin will feel firm and smooth.
In Russia, sauerkraut and its juice are the first remedies for hangover, it replenishes your body’s stores of vitamin C and B, and aids detoxification.
HOW TO MAKE LACTO FERMENTED SAUERKRAUT
- 1 head white cabbage, shredded, 2 outer leaves reserved
- 1/4 cup sea salt, or Himalayan salt
- 1 large or 2 small carrots, shredded
- In a big bowl, mix cabbage, carrots and salt. Get your hands in the mixture and scrunch as hard as you can. It resembles kneading dough. If you want to take it easy – pound it with a meat hammer or this neat tamper until you see a lot of juice coming out.
- Place the wet mixture into a vessel of your choice (I use a crock pot from slow cooker and this pickling crock that I love), press it down really well, cover with the two reserved cabbage leaves, put a weight on top of leaves (a boiled rock, or a flat plate and a mason jar filled with water). Within an hour the juice should come up above the level of your weight/plate. If it doesn’t – press on your weight a little harder.
- Cover with cling wrap and leave at room temperature for five days. Transfer to mason jars, and to cold storage. I think the flavor gets better after a couple of months but you can start eating it right away. It will easily keep a year in the fridge.
SOME NOTES
- I normally prepare a batch of 3 cabbages at a time.
- Lactofermented sauerkraut is stinky while in the making, some folks don’t expect that, but it’s perfectly normal.
- There might be soapy looking stuff on the surface, it’s also normal, just scoop it out. If there is some mold on the shreds that were not fully submerged in juice –Â remove them with a spoon and transfer the kraut to the jars. If the sight of mold bothers you – keep that batch in the fridge, tightly closed, for a couple of weeks, and it’ll be good as new, the lactobacilli will take care of any unwanted guests.
- Don’t worry about being completely ‘aseptic’, bacteria and yeast are everywhere, the beauty of lactobacilli is that it’s more powerful than the other guys out there, and will do a fine job protecting you from whatever it is that scares you.
- Sauerkraut develops flavor with time, some say it takes 6 months to get best results. I don’t know about that, I love it so much that it never lasts me more than a month!
- The word “cabbage” contains the root of the Latin word «caput» (head).
Lacto Fermented Sauerkraut
Ingredients
- 1 head white cabbage shredded, 2 outer leaves reserved
- 1/4 cup sea salt
- 1 large or 2 small carrots shredded
Instructions
- In a big bowl, mix cabbage, carrots and salt. Get your hands in the mixture and scrunch as hard as you can. It resembles kneading dough. If you want to take it easy – pound it with a meat hammer or tamper until you see a lot of juice coming out.
- Place the wet mixture into a vessel of your choice (I use a crock pot from slow cooker and this pickling crock that I love), press it down really well, cover with the two reserved cabbage leaves, put a weight on top of leaves (a boiled rock, or a flat plate and a mason jar filled with water). Within an hour the juice should come up above the level of your weight/plate. If it doesn't – press on your weight a little harder.
- Cover with cling wrap and leave at room temperature for five days. Transfer to mason jars, and to cold storage. I think the flavor gets better after a couple of months but you can start eating it right away. It will easily keep a year in the fridge.
5 comments
I just discovered your blog tonight. I’m enjoying it very much. I’m into “old” ways of food preparation and preserving the way things were done in the past.
I make sauerkraut, but do it a bit differently than you. Large covered glass jars are available at Walmart for less than $15.00. They are easily sanitized and will hold 10 pounds or more of shredded cabbage. Ziplock bags of brine can weight down the kraut instead of a rock and the glass lid is another barrier. I use no carrots, less salt, and let it cure much longer, like a month. When I feel it has fermented long enough, by tasting, I first transferred it to quart jars and put them into the refrigerator in my garage. Everything was great! With the last two batches, I have transferred the entire glass fermenter to the refrigerator without bottling it and have encountered mold after some months.
Could I be introducing some “bad” bugs when I scoop out what I need for dinner, and ruining the rest of the sauerkraut?
( I HAVE dug down below and eaten the unexposed ‘kraut with no problems. I’ve been told there is no danger with lacto-fermentation.).
What did people do when they kept their crock in the cellar through the winter and dipped into it all the time?
I guess I will go back to packing it in smaller jars, even though they take up more storage space.
It’s time to make more ‘kraut. I have 8 heads of cabbage, almost 12 pounds, I just bought for $1.97!
Thanks, Rob! Love all your tips!
I don’t think you would ‘endanger’ your kraut with bad bugs if you open it repeatedly. Most of them wouldn’t survive in the acidic environment of your ferment even if you deliberately inoculated them 🙂 . I think it’s a good idea to scoop out everything that doesn’t look good but you shouldn’t have much bad looking stuff if you do everything right.
When I was little, we stored sauerkraut in big barrels in the basement and scooped out medium jars of it that we kept in a cold box on the side of a house for a few days of eating. Then repeated it again. Mold or anything else was not an issue.
What a good deal on that cabbage! 🙂
Is there a difference between lacto fermentation and regular fermentation?
No difference, it is the same thing 🙂
I am new to trying to heal my gut health and just live your site! Thank you!!!