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How to make sauerkraut the old fashioned way (step by step picto-instructions):
Go to the cabbage patch and grab some cabbages, bring them back to the kitchen:
Boil some water:
While you're waiting, clean off the cabbage. Wash the head well, cut off all the 'nature' (i.e. slugs and dirt, mostly):
Oh hi there!
Okay, the water is almost ready so take a large, clean ceramic crock pot:
And add the boiling water to it, swirling it around so it's sterilized. Then dump the water out:
Grab some caraway seeds and canning salt:
It's time to start chopping up the cabbage:
Put the sliced cabbage into the crock pot along with a tablespoon of salt/caraway seed mixture:
It's time to start mashing! Mash down the cabbage until it is nice and compact and juicy. It will take awhile in the beginning but the juice will appear much faster later on:
Repeat the slicing, salting and mashing process over and over and over again until your fingers bleed. This crock contains three heads of cabbage, each head weighed (pre-sliced) about 10-13 lbs:
Nice and compact and juicy and salted. Notice I started in the daytime but it was night by the time I finished. It takes all day and you end up smelling like a cabbage:
The cabbage needs to ferment for two or three weeks so put it in a cool, dry place. Add a weight to the top (some crocks come with covers) but I used a plate, a jar full of water and I also put an (not pictured) iron casserole on top of that. By the next day the plate will sink further down and the juice will be overflowing:
After two or three weeks I'll be able to put them in preserving jars and add them to the batch I did a month ago:
I've been helping my granny a lot this summer/fall! She is prepared for self-sufficiency this winter.
Go to the cabbage patch and grab some cabbages, bring them back to the kitchen:
Boil some water:
While you're waiting, clean off the cabbage. Wash the head well, cut off all the 'nature' (i.e. slugs and dirt, mostly):
Oh hi there!
Okay, the water is almost ready so take a large, clean ceramic crock pot:
And add the boiling water to it, swirling it around so it's sterilized. Then dump the water out:
Grab some caraway seeds and canning salt:
It's time to start chopping up the cabbage:
Put the sliced cabbage into the crock pot along with a tablespoon of salt/caraway seed mixture:
It's time to start mashing! Mash down the cabbage until it is nice and compact and juicy. It will take awhile in the beginning but the juice will appear much faster later on:
Repeat the slicing, salting and mashing process over and over and over again until your fingers bleed. This crock contains three heads of cabbage, each head weighed (pre-sliced) about 10-13 lbs:
Nice and compact and juicy and salted. Notice I started in the daytime but it was night by the time I finished. It takes all day and you end up smelling like a cabbage:
The cabbage needs to ferment for two or three weeks so put it in a cool, dry place. Add a weight to the top (some crocks come with covers) but I used a plate, a jar full of water and I also put an (not pictured) iron casserole on top of that. By the next day the plate will sink further down and the juice will be overflowing:
After two or three weeks I'll be able to put them in preserving jars and add them to the batch I did a month ago:
I've been helping my granny a lot this summer/fall! She is prepared for self-sufficiency this winter.