Cabbage grows well in many areas of
Alaska. One favorite way to use cabbage is to make sauerkraut. I'm Julie Cascio
with the Cooperative Extension Service of the University of Alaska Fairbanks. By definition, sauerkraut is acidic cabbage. It's the result of natural fermentation
by bacteria in cabbage in the presence of 2 to 3 percent salt. Lactic acid is produced during this fermentation. This lactic acid, along with other byproducts of fermentation, gives sauerkraut its characteristic flavor and texture. Research on food preservation is an ongoing process. The United States
Department of Agriculture and the Cooperative Extension Service
continuously apply new research findings to their recommendations for food
preservation techniques. The guidelines in this module may be revised as
additional knowledge is gained that may increase the margin of safety or improve
the quality of home-preserved foods. Consult your local Cooperative Extension
office annually for updated information. You may do this through telephoning us,
through looking for our resources on the web, or through our publications. Let's talk about equipment needed for
making sauerkraut. A 1-gallon-sized container is needed for each
5 pounds of fresh vegetables. A 5-gallon container is the ideal size for fermenting about 25 pounds of shredded cabbage. Food-grade plastic and glass containers
and lead-free stone crocks work well. Other 1- to 3-gallon nonfood-grade plastic
containers may be used if lined with a clean food-grade plastic bag. Be certain that foods
contact only food-grade plastic. Do not use garbage bags, trash liners, or plastic
buckets not meant for food use or that have been used to store non-food
products such as cleaning supplies. You will also need a knife and cutting board
or food processor or a mandoline to slice cabbage. A tamper such as a wooden
spoon or a plastic potato masher, canning and pickling salt, a scale, a large mixing
bowl or pan, and a measuring spoon. You'll need something to wait down the
cabbage. It may be a muslin cloth, flat plate that fits snugly inside your
container, and a nonmetallic weight or a brine-filled plastic bag. Let's grab our cabbage and get ready to slice it up. Mature large-headed types of cabbage
weighing 6 to 15 pounds with a solid white interior are the most desirable
for sauerkraut. Red cabbage may be used, but the color changes during fermentation
and not everybody likes the results. Work with about 5 pounds of cabbage at a time. Remove the outer leaves and any portions
that don't look very good (anything undesirable). Wash them and then
drain them, which I've already done. Cut the cabbage into quarters and remove the core. You're going to cut it into thin shreds either using a mandolin or shredder or a knife.
We're going to start with the mandolin. You do have to be careful when using a tool like this not to get your fingers close to the blade. What you're looking for is uniform shreds of cabbage and you want to get
them about the thickness of a quarter. If you have larger shreds of cabbage,
pick those out put them aside. You can use those later for another
kind of cabbage dish or coleslaw. The importance of having shreds of cabbage
that are the same thickness is because of the fermentation process. You want them all to ferment about the
same length of time. So they all need to be
about the same thickness. Sometimes you'll have to cut up some of
the cabbage toward the end so that you can use the nice pieces. You
can also, if you don't have a shredder, just use a knife and cut all the shreds from
your cabbage by hand. When you add the salt to the shredded cabbage, it causes the juices to be extracted from the cabbage. This juice contains fermentable sugars. The microorganisms present on the cabbage leaves will, in the absence of oxygen, use
these sugars to produce the lactic acid. The acid is then what preserves the cabbage. It's very important to use the correct amount of salt when you're making cabbage. Less salt will cause the cabbage to spoil rather than to ferment, so if you want a product that has less salt you still use the same amount of
salt while you're fermenting the sauerkraut, but when the kraut is finished and it's been fermented, before you're ready to eat it, you can rinse
off some of this excess salt. We need just a little bit more cabbage in
here. We're looking for 5 pounds of cabbage. The proportion of salt that you need to cabbage is 5 pounds of cabbage to 3 tablespoons of salt. So when we've gotten a little
bit more cabbage, we're going to measure it out, taking out our larger pieces. Sometimes depending upon how you're holding the cabbage, you can see how this
one is really thick, and since it's the rib of the cabbage, you really need to make
sure that it's thin enough. Again, these can be either used in your compost pile or used for other cabbage dishes that
you don't need to ferment, such as coleslaw or cooking it on the stove with
some nice sausage. Good things to eat! Let's see how much cabbage we have. Let's see if I can do this balancing act
so the container doesn't fall off of my scale as I'm putting the cabbage into
the measure. We have just about 2 and a 1/2 pounds. We're going to add this to cabbage that we
already have measured, which is another 2 and a 1/2 pounds,
into our large container and we're going to mix this 5 pounds total of cabbage with 3 tablespoons of salt. I want this to be measured properly, so I'm
going to use a straightedge and sprinkle it all around my cabbage, and then mix it thoroughly. After I get
this mixed thoroughly, I'm going to let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes for that wilt to occur so that the natural juices come out of the cabbage. We have been waiting for the cabbage that
had the salt mixed into it to wilt. I've also chopped up some other cabbage, shredded it very finely, and I wanted to
show the difference between cabbage -- this is 5 pounds of cabbage with 3
tablespoons of salt added to it -- and how this is beginning to wilt and this is
5 pounds of cabbage that has not had the salt added to it yet. The cabbage that
we've had wilting the longest is in this container. We're going to transfer it to
a suitable fermentation container. You can actually ferment in smaller
containers if you have smaller amounts of cabbage, and later we'll show you the
quart-jar method for fermenting cabbage and making sauerkraut. Right now we're
going to go through the method for fermenting large amounts of
cabbage in a larger container. In the meantime. I want to get this
cabbage started wilting. So again, our method is the same. Notice that in this cabbage we have some
darker pieces of cabbage from the outer leaves and these outer leaves
are not going to hurt anything, but you need to know that at the end of your fermentation process the darker green cabbage will be a darker color.
It's nothing bad; it just means that the color is different. Since we have 5
pounds of cabbage, adding 3 tablespoons of salt and mixing it thoroughly to set aside. Now this cabbage that's wilted -- we
want to press down. We can use a tamper -- it's made for that purpose -- or a wooden spoon, or in this instance, we're
using a nylon potato masher. Notice there's some metal
here. I do not want to touch the cabbage with the metal. I only want to use the
nylon or the plastic part. Metal can interfere with the fermentation. As I'm packing this you notice that the
juices are beginning to show up. This takes some energy so the strong person in your house is a good candidate to
recruit for this part of the method. We're going to repeat what we've already done.
As I've mentioned, we have some cabbage that's wilted. We'll add the next layer. It's much easier to work with 5 pounds of
cabbage at a time and layer it. You get a better opportunity to get as many juices out of of the
cabbage as possible. if you have cabbage that's fresh out of
the field, you will find that it doesn't take as long for it to wilt and that you
will get more juices. If you purchase cabbage or take cabbage that's been
stored, the juices take a little bit more coaxing. Sometimes you even need
to add a little bit of sugar to help those juices be made more readily. You can use your hands as well to press this down. This plastic container is fun -- glass is too -- because you can actually see the layers that you put into the container. I'm going to continue pressing this and
we're going to wait while the next layer of our cabbage -- next 5-pound
layer -- is wilting. If the final batch of cabbage is less
than 5 pounds, adjust the salt. One pound of cabbage needs 1 and 1/3
teaspoons of salt for proper fermentation. Since we have 2 pounds of cabbage in this container
we would add 2 and 2/3 teaspoon of salt. In this container, we have four 5-pound
batches of shredded cabbage, so that makes 20 pounds of cabbage. The cabbage should be covered with 1 to 2
inches of liquid, and here we have -- if we press down on the cabbage because it
likes to float to the top of the juice -- we can see that there's about 3/4
inch of juice on top. If that's the case, if the juice doesn't cover your
cabbage or there's not enough, you may add some boiled and cooled brine. The
concentration of this brine is 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of salt to a quart of water. Do not add plain water as this will
dilute the salt concentration that's necessary for proper fermentation.
There are two methods of covering the cabbage and weighting it down to keep it
underneath the brine, and I'm going to show you both of them. The first one that
I'm going to show you, you cover the cabbage with a thin, white, clean cloth.
You want to tuck it down on the sides so that any floating tendrils of cabbage
are caught underneath. After you get the cloth tucked in on the
sides, you place a plate, a flat object that just fits beautifully
inside the container, and then you want to put a weight on it and the weight
needs to press the cabbage down underneath the juice. Okay, that's one of the methods that you
can use, and the weight could be weight like we have here,
it could be jars filled with brine that are seated on top just so that it's heavy enough to keep the cabbage underneath the juice. The other method that I want to show you
uses a plastic bag and brine. Let's set this aside for now. You fill it with brine in case there's a leak in the bag. So you take your plastic bag -- I don't want
to lose any of this wonderful juice -- The brine concentration is the same, and
because we need more brine we used a gallon of water to 6
tablespoons of salt. We're placing it on top of the fermenting cabbage -- you're
getting it all the way out to the sides. You may need to adjust the amount of
brine that you put into the cabbage or into the bag so that the cabbage stays
underneath the brine. In fact, I think I'm going to add a little bit more liquid to
this bag. It's a good idea to use a thickness of two bags just in case the
one that is actually holding the brine gets a puncture in it. Get the air out,
tie it securely. In this instance we could just zip it shut. The filled bag seals the cabbage from exposure to air and prevents the growth of film yeast or
molds. It also serves as the weight. The bag should be of heavyweight, watertight
plastic and, of course, be food-safe. Do not use plastic garbage or trash bags.
The amount of the water in the bag, as I mentioned, can be adjusted. Watch as you
have the sitting and fermenting for bubbles rising inside the fermenting
liquid. This shows you that fermentation is occurring. A room temperature of 70 to
75 degrees is best for fermenting. It usually takes from 3 to 4 weeks
to completely ferment, though it may work slower if it's kept at cooler temperatures.
Hotter temperatures can be a danger and you can have more spoilage
than actual fermentation taking place. If you weigh the cabbage down with the
brine-filled bag, as we're showing here, don't disturb the container until normal
fermentation is complete, and usually bubbling ceasing tells you that that
fermentation is complete. If you use the plate-and-weight method -- the first method
that I showed you -- check the kraut two or three times a week and remove any scum as it forms. Now that I've shown you how to prepare
sauerkraut in large containers, I will show you the quart jar method. You start
by preparing the cabbage in the same manner as for the large container method,
using a grater or knife to ensure uniform slices. Combine with the salt in
the same manner that we previously demonstrated, then, after allowing the
cabbage to wilt, you pack it tightly into sterilized jars. As you're packing, you want
to leave a headspace of 2 inches. It takes a little bit to get to that 2 inch
space because we'll start with 2 inches, but as we pack it, of course, it
gets compressed. This cabbage is really nice and juicy. This was about 2 pounds of cabbage. So as you can see, there's liquid
on top of the cabbage and there's about 2 inches of headspace between the top
of the liquid and the edge of the jar. You can either do one of a couple of
different methods in order to keep the cabbage below the brine: pack a clean
cloth into this headspace to keep the cabbage in the liquid and then put some
kind of a weight on top of it, or you can use small plastic bags filled with brine
and use that to keep the cabbage submerged in the brine. I'm going to use
that method today and pour the brine in using the double bag method. I like the brine-filled bags because I think that it does a good job of keeping the
cabbage submerged. I want to make sure, though, that it fits
snugly into all the corners so that no air gets inside. Remember, we're
looking for an anaerobic environment. Another option that you could do instead of the brine-filled method is to take the bag out, have the cloth inside, put the lid on top of the
rim of the jar, and put a band around it and tighten it -- not so tight
or not too tight -- but tight enough to keep air out. Again, we're looking for
that anaerobic environment. Let it ferment 6 days. Sometimes it takes a
little longer if you have cooler temperatures in the room where the
sauerkraut is working until the liquid has a chance to settle and bubbles no
longer rise to the surface. This sauerkraut has been fermenting for 4
weeks at 70 degrees Fahrenheit. During first week, bubbles rose to the
surface and broke. During subsequent weeks,
bubbles continued to form but not as actively -- they just kind of sat in the sauerkraut. Now that the bubbles have stopped,
fermentation is probably finished. Another indicator that fermentation has
stopped is color change, from opaque and white to golden yellow and translucent.
Smell it. It should smell like sauerkraut. Then taste it to check for characteristic
flavor. We're going to remove the bag that's been sitting, holding our
kraut underneath the brine. Take a nonmetallic spoon or utensil and
get a little bit of that sauerkraut out. It tastes like sauerkraut. You may notice residue on the inside of the container. This is salt sediment left behind from moisture evaporation. That's not going to hurt anything. Fully fermented kraut may
be stored in the refrigerator, in the freezer, or on a shelf after being canned. In the refrigerator, sauerkraut can be kept
tightly covered for 2 to 3 months. Make sure a sufficient juice covers the
kraut before storing it in the refrigerator. You can use any kind of nonmetal
container and scoop it in. This particular container is a freezer
container. You can check that by the words on the package. You want to make sure that it has enough juice in it to cover, and we're going to have to add a little of the brine that we have cooled and on the side so we have enough brine to cover. This
can be stored in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 months, as long as it's kept tightly covered.
You could take your original container and put that in the
refrigerator, depending upon whether you have a place in your refrigerator for it to store. I'll set that aside and put it in the
refrigerator a little later. To store it in the freezer, pack your kraut in juice in a rigid, plastic moisture-
vapor-proof freezer container, a glass jar, leaving 1 and a 1/2 inch
headspace for expansion, or in plastic freezer bags. Make sure that you mark the
freezer bag or the lid of your container with the permanent marker. Say the date
frozen, indicate that it's sauerkraut, because when you have containers in the
freezer it's sometimes difficult to distinguish what they are. You can
store it in the freezer, for best quality no more than 8 to
12 months. For canning the sauerkraut place your boiling water canner on your
heat source with enough water to cover the jars by at least 1 inch. Kraut can
either be hot-packed or raw-packed. The hot pack -- empty the kraut from the
container that it was fermented in into a large heat source and bring it to 185
to 210 degrees. That's a simmering temperature. Do not boil. We'll be back when the kraut
has come to a simmering temperature. We're going to pack our hot sauerkraut into
our hot, clean jars up to a 1/2-inch headspace. And we'll put in the juice to fill in those holes. (a little too much) if we get it too full, the problem ends up
being that the juice will run over the edges and very well can compromise the seal. We do need to make sure that we
clean the rims of our jars as that liquid brine can be very sticky. Then we're going to take the lids that have
been softened according to manufacturer's directions -- about 2
minutes in hot water -- and add the rings on that will keep the lids
from popping off during the processing. We'll add our hot liquid hot jars to our
boiling water in the boiling water bath, and as soon as
that it comes back up to boil we want to set our timer for the correct processing
time. It's important to start the processing time when the water comes to a boil. Jars should be processed for 10 minutes
when they're pint jars and 15 minutes when they're quart jars. After the processing
time has elapsed, removed the jars, set them upright, and allow them to cool.
When they're cool, of course, we're going to label. To raw pack, pack your clean
jars with unheated kraut and liquid, leaving a 1/2-inch headspace again. This
time you're going to start with cool water in your canner and bring the whole
thing to a boil. Start your processing time again. When the boil comes up, it
will process 20 minutes for pint jars and 25 minutes for quart jars.
If you have fermented your cabbage into sauerkraut using the quart-jar
method, you will pack it only using the hot-pack method. So we're going to remove
the brine-filled bag from the top that has held the kraut underneath the brine
during the fermentation process. I'm going to put it into a pan of cool water
up to the rim of the neck of the jar. We're covering that pot and putting it
on our heat source. We're going to bring that to a boil and boil it for 10
minutes. Alternately, if you wanted to take it out of the jar you could pour
the kraut into a container and put it on the heat source. Again, though, you want to
boil it for 10 minutes. This is different than what I told you about processing
with a hot pack for sauerkraut that had been processed or fermented in a
larger quantity. With the 1-quart jar method you need to have that added
measure of safety of boiling the liquid and the kraut together for 10
minutes before you place it into the jar. Then you will follow the hot-pack
procedure. So now we've gone over three methods of storing your sauerkraut. You
can either put it in the refrigerator in a tightly covered
container, store it in the freezer in a freezer-proof container, or make it shelf
stable by heat processing it and storing it on the shelf. When the canning process is complete and
your jars have cooled for 12 hours, check the seals by tapping the jar lids.
If some jars did not seal, reprocess the unsealed jar lids using a fresh jar lid.
Reprocessing must be completed within 24 hours. Alternatively, you may freeze the
contents of unsealed jars or refrigerate and use within a couple of days. Rings
may be removed from the jars when the cooling process is complete and you've
checked the seal. Label your jars with the date, the processing method, and
processing time, and, of course, it's good to put the product on there, too.
Sometimes when they sit on the shelves for a while, you may not remember what's
in each of those jars. Store your canned goods in a cool, dark place. For best
quality, use sauerkraut within a year. People often have questions about
spoilage in sauerkraut. Spoilage of sauerkraut is indicated by undesirable
color, off odors, and soft texture. If your kraut has spoiled, here are some
things that may have gone wrong. Soft sauerkraut may be due to
insufficient salt, uneven distribution of salt, or air pockets caused by improper
packing. Measure your salt accurately, mix it well with the cabbage to get rid of
those problems, and pack it carefully and be sure to weight it properly to get rid
of air pockets. Pink kraut is caused by the growth of certain types of yeast.
Usually it's on the surface of the kraut. These yeasts may grow if there is too
much salt, if there is an uneven distribution of salt, or if the kraut is
improperly covered or weighted during fermentation. Rotted kraut is usually
found at the surface where the cabbage has not been covered sufficiently to
exclude air during fermentation. Scum may also form on the surface. The
scum does not cause trouble as long as it's skimmed off before it stops the
fermentation process. Remove it every day or so. For spoilage which occurs on the
surface, you may be able to remove the spoiled kraut and use the rest. Molds that
grow on the surface of kraut can change the acidity, making it susceptible to
spoilage microorganisms that are harmful. Molds grow best when they get some air.
Try to keep the kraut container airtight. Check your kraut often for mold and
quickly remove any that you see. Darkness in kraut may be caused by improperly trimmed cabbage -- that's the darker green leaves that give a darker color in the kraut.
That's not bad but it also may be due to insufficient brine in the fermenting
cabbage. Exposure to air or a long storage period in the crock after
fermentation is complete may also result in darkened kraut. Another cause of
darkening may be high temperatures during the fermentation stage, processing
stage, or during storage. These are some ideas on what may have gone wrong with your sauerkraut if spoilage occurs.
