A couple of months ago I saw Christy's directions for making kraut. I remember when I was a kid my grandmother made kraut in the old churn and kept a plate on top. It seemed to take forever for the cabbage to become kraut. Then as I got old my mother made some one year. A couple of years later I asked her if she was going to make some more and she said it was a lot of work and you could buy a can for $.79. So I always bought kraut. I am a firm believer that you can not eat a hotdog without kraut so I always keep some in the fridge.
Fast forward to a couple of months ago when I found this recipe. She advertises that you can make this kraut without any special equipment. All this recipe takes is a little time. You can make this in a mason jar with a lid. I had a crock with a latch top and it worked well. Now on to the directions.
Isn't this a pretty jar of kraut. I have read some about kraut and there are a lot of health benefits. Kraut is high in fiber, vitamins C, A, K, and B. It is a good source of iron, copper, magnesium, calcium and manganese. Now is there any reason to not eat kraut. Well maybe one. It is a little high in sodium to watch the amount you eat at one time.
This is one of my favorite meals.
This is all you need to make a good jar of kraut.
I tried grating the cabbage to make it small. It didn't work.
So I got out the knife and started cutting it up in small pieces.
Put it in a big bowl.
Add 1 Tablespoon salt per 2 lbs of cabbage. You can use kosher, sea or himalayan salt just not iodized salt. That would be regular table salt. You can buy the cabbage already chopped up but I wanted to cut it up fresh.
Now you are going to work the salt through the cabbage. You are going to start breaking up the cabbage with your hands to release the water in the cabbage. Just keep working it around and around the bowl.
It has been worked pretty well. Water is forming in the bottom.
Cover it and let it sit for 10 minutes or so.
This is what it looks like after it rest. I worked it a little bit more then too.
Now you need to pack the jar.
You want to make sure there is liquid covering the cabbage. If there is not enough you can add a little water. The water covering it is what is going to make it ferment.
I actually had one full jar and a half jar.
You can let the cabbage sit for any where from 1 to 3 weeks. The longer it sits the better it will be. There is just a couple of things you need to do with it. For the first week you will need to open the jars twice a day to release the gases.
First morning I open them and push the cabbage down and make sure water is covering it.
Close it back up and set it aside.
This is after two week. At the two week mark you only have to open them once a day. You can see it is becoming more like kraut. Still leave it on the counter.
The end of three weeks it is good to go and use. After you use it put it in the fridge to keep.
So making homemade kraut is very easy these days.
Homemade Kraut Recipe
1 head cabbage chopped finely
1 Tablespoon sea salt
jar or crock with a lid
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