LACTO FERMENTED CABBAGE (Raw Sauerkraut) Beginner Friendly!

i know that there's already tons of videos out there on youtube on lacto fermented sauerkraut but everyone seems to have a little bit of a different approach and a different recipe well so do i the handmade technique that i use is probably a bit different than what you've seen before and so is my recipe what we're making today is not the german style kraut that typically looks like this and is cooked the kraut we're making today is raw lacto-fermented and has such a lovely texture to it i don't use a food processor and that's part of the secret of how i get the texture that i do it's also so delicious and yummy enough to eat by the spoonfuls by itself as well so without further ado let's make some homemade lacto-fermented sauerkraut aka lacto-fermented cabbage hey if you're a little intimidated because you're a beginner have no worries this is a beginner-friendly recipe i'm going to walk you through step-by-step and there's no need to fear you don't need any fancy equipment just a willingness to try we're going to head into my garden here where i'm going to pick one of my cabbages but if you're at the grocery store this recipe works great with a store cabbage too look how ginormous this cabbage head is okay we're not going to be using all of this cabbage this is about seven and a half pounds i just weighed it i only want to make about two jars for the sake of this video now it's your choice you can use purple cabbage or green cabbage and if you haven't seen it already i did an in-depth nutritional profile comparison between the nutritional differences between green cabbage and purple cabbage so if that interests you you can check that video out i'll leave it link in the description below okay so what we're going to need to get started is you need a clean cutting surface that's been washed with hot soapy water a large chopping knife that's also been washed in hot soapy water and then a really big glass bowl that we're going to be doing the mixing in if you don't have a large glass bowl like this one lose a large plastic one we're just doing the mixing you're not going to be fermenting in this so plastic will be just fine for today before i cut this cabbage down what we want to do first is we're going to remove the outer leaves but don't toss them okay we're going to use them later so as gently as possible try to pull off the outer leaves without tearing them too much these outer leaves are going to be plenty and i'll tell you what we're going to do with them when we get to that stage as for now just go ahead and set them aside i'm going to cut this baby in half look at that isn't that gorgeous well we're only going to use half of this because like i say i just want to do two so i think this will be just fine this is approximately three pounds so if you're at the grocery store and you don't have the garden cabbage then just go ahead and weigh out the cabbage head you want one around to three pounds if you have a little extra at the end of the day it's really no big deal this recipe is based on feeling our way through there's nothing here that's going to be exact you see this heart in here this guy we're going to cut that out eventually so what i'm going to do is i'm going to cut this down into quarters and from there we'll cut out this heart and stem all right here's the heart we're going to cut out and all this super thick stuff too just a little tough in the ferment so i'm just gonna take it out same thing now these pieces on the outer side don't have the heart but it does have this thicker tougher stuff so i'm just gonna cut that out as well alright so now begins the crucial hand technique for the best texture i'm just going to put these quarters aside and i'm going to do one quarter at a time and i'm going to coarsely chop the cabbage so the pieces that i'm cutting look approximately like this at the moment i'm going to do a little more chopping but still leave it quite coarse this wedge is done so i'm just going to transfer it into the glass bowl here i'm going to do the exact same thing with these other wedges so homemade sauerkraut lab results reveal that its probiotic count is even higher than a yogurt whether it be a dairy yogurt or a vegan yogurt homemade lacto-fermented sauerkraut just blows them out of the water dr mercola sent his homemade sauerkraut off to a lab and had it analyzed they found in a four to six ounce serving of the fermented vegetables that there were literally 10 trillion bacteria that means 2 ounces of home fermented sauerkraut has more probiotics than a bottle of 100 count probiotic capsules this means that one 32 32-ounce jar of homemade lacto-fermented sauerkraut like what we're making today is equivalent to 16 bottles of probiotics okay so we're getting ready to move into phase two adding the salt to make the brine now if you've seen some of my other fermenting videos like like the fermented bell peppers the fermented cauliflower and the fermented kale we would make a separate supplemental brine to add to the vegetable but in this case with this technique we're going to have the cabbage make its own brine also i want to mention use a quality sea salt don't use a table salt and especially don't use a salt that has anti-caking agents and other chemicals and bleaches added to it i like sea salts a lot but read the ingredients on the back to make sure nothing extra has been done to it i have measured out here about one tablespoon of this fine sea salt for my metric system friends out there this is about 21 grams i also want to note salt has a big play in how firm or how soft a fermented vegetable turns out the more salt that you add the softer the vegetable will become but i like this firmer texture of the sauerkraut so i'm going to stick with this 21 grams of sea salt aka one tablespoon here's what i'm going to do i'm just going to sprinkle this on top like so and then mix it in a bit add a little more mix it in a bit now the salt is going to work on the cabbage since most vegetables are mostly water what the salt is going to do is it's going to pull the water out of the cabbage and therefore make its own brine i'm just going to set this down for a moment so i can use both hands i'm going to kind of reach down here and flip the cabbage over so the stuff on the bottom gets tossed to the top then continue sprinkling the salt on top we're just going to keep repeating [Music] and that's it and you know what i'm not even going to use the rest of this salt so we're actually using less than a tablespoon like i mentioned i haven't really ever done specific measurements for this recipe i've always just kind of felt my way through it so i'm gonna say that was more like three quarters of a tablespoon and if you did use that whole tablespoon no big deal okay so that's all we're gonna do for now we're just gonna let this rest and let the salt do the work on the cabbage in a little bit we're gonna get into the next step of the hand technique but the more that we allow the salt to work on the cabbage the less that we're gonna have to use our hands later so i'm going to set this bowl aside for about 20 to 30 minutes while i get all my other ingredients ready and i'm also going to prep my jars i'm going to make two different recipes here to give you a little selection or just some inspiration maybe when i say recipes that sounds really advanced maybe i should just say some additions to the cabbage first ingredient in addition to the cabbage is carrot and i use carrot in all my crowds so whether we're going to do option a or option b today dice carrot is going to be in there so i'm going to call this option a for the recipe and diced carrot like i just said and then some seasonings will be either fresh fennel seed and i always like to use fresh seeds instead of just the pre-ground stuff that you buy at the grocery store why because it oxidizes so the health benefits are less and also the flavor is less so when you fresh crush these seeds the flavor is just out of sight and also you get all the amazing flavonoids and polyphenols and good stuff that's in the seed okay so i'm a fennel freak so i always put fennel in but if you don't like fennel then the alternative is whole dill seeds these are amazing as well so you pick whole fennel seeds or whole dill seeds with the diced carrot version b of the kraut that we're making today will be okay obviously the carrot cause i put that in everything and then ginger this fresh ginger makes it so good let me tell you if you've never had fermented ginger in your fermented cabbage then you've been missing out this version is so yummy you can also add garlic into this and a little bit of diced onion not too much garlic not too much diced onion because you don't want the garlic and the onion flavors to just overpower the kraut but a couple cloves or just a couple spears of onion would be a nice addition while the salt is still working on the cabbage we're going to get these ingredients prepped and ready to go i'm going to peel the carrot i prefer my carrots peeled so that's what i'm going to do if you really don't want your carrots peeled then don't peel them next we're just going to chop them up same concept with chopping the cabbage we're going to do really large chunky cuts of carrot all right just so you can see the type of coarseness this is this is what my chopped carrot looks like all right setting that aside i'm just going to get the ginger ready for option b i'm just going to break off a finger of this ginger and then i'm going to peel it definitely don't keep the skin on in this case with the carrot was optional this one i recommend taking it off it doesn't add any value or flavor and it's just hard and stringy it actually releases the wonderful aromas and flavors of the ginger when you take the skin off and i'm going to go ahead and chop these up as well same style as the carrot and the cabbage all right got that chopped here's what that looks like put about a tablespoon of the seeds into a little grinder let me get a spoon here and i'll just show you the level of fineness that i ground it down to mmm it smells so good okay now that we've got these ingredients prepped i'm just going to move this to the side as well and go get my jars ready to go all right i've just got my jars ready now they're freshly washed in hot soapy water and the reason why that i'm really adamant about always saying freshly washed hot soapy water is because in lacto-fermentation we're actually growing bacteria we're growing the good stuff the stuff that makes us more healthy and lines our gut but we want to grow the probiotics that make our guts really healthy we don't want to grow the bad stuff so that's why it's really important to make sure everything is really clean so that the bad bacteria doesn't get any chance to contaminate your lacto fermentation and then cause mold or spoilage in addition to the glass jars you're going to need your outer cabbage leaves that we pulled off earlier and then some fermenting weights these are some glass fermenting weights that i got off of amazon i'll put a link in the description below if you just want to pick some up for yourself but if you've seen any of my other fermenting videos i've also used fermenting rocks that were a diy and those worked really well for years i've just recently kind of switched over to the glass weights but if you don't have glass weights the fermenting woks are a good option too you can see some of my other fermenting videos if you want to learn more about that i think it's the mushroom video that has more detailed information on the fermenting box then next you're just going to need a couple coffee filters and two jar rings let's set all of this aside and check on our cabbage and see how that salt's been working on it it's perfect and it's ready for the hand technique and we're not going to have to do too much of it so we won't get sore fingers take a look here so what makes it perfect is you see all that glistening that's the water that the salt has been pulling out of the cabbage and then when i'm feeling it it's very tender soft i could even say i could feel it getting limp but you hear that sound that means that the cabbage still has some crunch to it it's not just soft mush like the cooked crop so the hand technique with your freshly washed hands and hot soapy water now we're just gonna grab the cabbage kind of twist with our wrists and squeeze at the same time now we're not trying to crush and bruise the cabbage it's just a squeeze and twist [Music] now sometimes this can take up to 10 minutes so this is a great opportunity to put on one of your favorite youtube videos or netflix show and just massage your cabbage as you're watching a good show as you're going along here you're going to feel your cabbage getting more and more watery as that salt pulls out the water from the cabbage leaf and it's going to get a little bit softer [Applause] but it's always going to have that little that sound that you're hearing that means that it does have some texture and firmness to it there should be some liquid starting to pool up at the bottom of the bowl as well we want that that's the brine we're going to be making sure that makes its way into the jar after we pack this okay this cabbage i can feel it it's done so you can kind of see the texture here super wet it's softer but not mush then we'll look down at the bottom of the bowl see that juice that means the salt has really been working on this this is good and the other test is you take it and when you squeeze it the juice comes out of it since we're making two versions of this i'm going to split this cabbage in half so i'm going to make one jar of version a with the seeds and one jar with version b with the ginger if you're just making one version then you don't need to split it i'm just going to eyeball it here i'm not going to weigh it out okay with this version a i'm going to add the fennel seed so i'm just going to sprinkle it in here and i'm going to add half of the carrot and then give it a mix okay that's it look at that beautiful mixture we're gonna set this aside do option b real quick add the ginger add the carrot give it a mix here looks like i kind of used a bowl too small so i got to be delicate okay we're ready to put the cabbage into the jars and just another little fyi i am using wide mouth jars because i am going to be using my hands to pack the cabbage i'm going to use this little canning dish because it's just helpful not to spill it all over the place just going to put a couple handfuls in use my fist and yes i've rewashed my hands so they're nice and clean okay so rinse and repeat [Music] now i'm pressing and crushing with my fist if you have a mallet you can use a mallet as well sometimes my fist does get a little bit sore from the prolonged contact with the salt but not big enough of a deal for me to switch over to a mallet at the moment now since we're not making a supplemental brine the cabbage is going to be making its own this is really important that i want to show you here see that you see the juice rising up over my fist that's what we want this natural produced brine has to cover the cabbage next i'm going to take our outer leaf that we set aside from earlier and i do have to tear this in half and we're going to push it down into the top of the jar here and we're going to press and this is going to be part of what's holding the sauerkraut down and keeping it submerged under the brine pack it down nice and tight try to push all remaining air bubbles out push it down the sides of the glass there it's okay if this top cabbage leaf has a little bit of exposure to air it's this sauerkraut down here that i want to make sure has absolutely no air contact with the surface and that that brine covers it completely you can see all the juice on top of that leaf on the top now the reason why i'm not bothered too much about that top cabbage leaf that's holding everything down being exposed to air because when this is done fermenting i'm gonna pull it out and just throw it in the compost anyway the gold is what's underneath all right so now i'm just gonna put my glass fermenting weight on top then i'm going to take this coffee filter this keeps the grime in the dirt out but allows the gases to escape and then the coffee filter is held down with the jar ring tada i'm going to do the same thing with this fennel seed batch now what you're going to do is you're going to set this on your countertop for about five days probiotics love to ferment in really snuggy warm temperatures so if your house is in the 70s or the 80s then five days should work just fine or if it's summer time as well and if your house is on the cooler side like in the 60s or anything lower it might take maybe up to seven or eight days sometimes it happens that over the fermentation period especially on the latter end the jar starts to overflow a little bit so the simple method that i do to just protect the countertop from overflow is putting it into a little glass baking dish and then no problem now don't go away because i'm gonna see you again in five days and we're gonna open these up and see how they turned out and do a little taste test okay it's been five days so let's check on the fermenting kraut we'll start with version a with the fennel seed remove the fermenting weight then pull out the top cabbage leaves if they seem perfectly good you can eat them too or just toss them into the compost the crowd so far looks absolutely perfect let's give it a taste yes wonderful next we'll get into version b with the ginger my personal fave and just a note once you eat the kraut don't toss the probiotic rich brine add a tablespoon or two over your salad each evening or add it to a salad dressing recipe ah this ginger kraut turned out perfect while keeping it in the fridge with the top leaf i'd recommend eating the kraut over a period of three to four months you don't have to eat huge portions like a side dish for me i just add a spoonful or two over my salad every night remember from earlier a tablespoon or two equals trillions of probiotics if you plan on long-term storage like six months to a year plus then leave the cabbage leaf on don't remove it until you're ready to get into the jar and start eating if you like my fermenting videos check out my other ones on bell peppers kale and mushrooms see you in the next video bye

Channel: Clean Food Living

Views: 1,345,917

Keywords: lacto fermented cabbage, lacto fermented cabbage recipe, fermented cabbage, lacto fermented sauerkraut, lacto fermented sauerkraut recipe, fermented foods, fermented sauerkraut, fermenting cabbage for sauerkraut, best sauerkraut recipe, easy sauerkraut recipe, fermenting for beginners, fermenting vegetables for beginners, raw sauerkraut, raw sauerkraut recipe, sauerkraut benefits, sauerkraut making

Id: elfcTldepX0

Length: 20min 13sec (1213 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 03 2021