I picked a 10 lb cabbage from my garden (a project that my daughter brought home from school) and I would like to give kraut a try. I have no experience with fermenting. I've read the instructions in the Ball Complete book and I've searched here - finding bits of info, but I don't want to leave anything out. I'm particularly interested in Dave's method from a recent post - a mix of Bejay's 'in the jar' and Johns glove method.

If someone could walk me through or point me in the right direction, I would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks so much
~ Tracy

Small Quantity Sauerkraut
Weigh 10 lbs of finely shredded cabbage and mix it thoroughly with 4 ounces, or 7 Tablespoons, salt. Pack the kraut firmly into quart jars [I use half gallon jars], tamping it to draw out the juice. A quart jar will hold 2 lbs of shredded cabbage. Cover the kraut in each jar with rounds of cheesecloth and insert a wooden splint [broken popsicle sticks work] to hold the cabbage under the brine. Adjust the jar lids loosely and set the jars on a tray to catch any juice that might overflow during fermentation. Remove the scum as it forms each day and keep the jars at toom temperature (70 degrees F) for 10 days to 2 weeks.

To store, make a brine by dissolving 1 TBL salt in 3 cups water. Fill the jars to overflowing with the brine, seal, and store in the fridge. Add brine as needed.

Of course, use pickling salt. Since I make only about 1 half gallon, I find it requires about 5-7 lbs of cabbage and 3 1/2 TBL salt.

Good luck.

And that is what I normally use - 2 gallon jar packed with salted cabbage ( 3T salt to each 5 lbs of cabbage) leaving 3" headspace, fill a zip lock bag 1/2 full of brine (1T canning salt dissolved in 1 1/2 quarts water boiled then cooled), squeeze out the air and put that bag into another ziplock. Then use that double-bagged brine bag to stuff into the jar to weight down the cabbage and seal it off from air. Set the jar in a big bowl to catch the over flow, cover with a towel and place it somewhere out of the sun with a air temp of 70-75 degrees. In 2-3 weeks it is done and ready to be canned or put in the fridge. Just taste it at 2 weeks and see if it is done enough for you. If not give it another week.

So here is what I did with the experiment: shredded the cabbage and weighed it, mixed in the 3 T of salt for each 5 lbs. pack fill the pint and quart jars leaving 1" of headspace and snapped a glove on each jar. Set them someplace warm out of the light. By the next day the gloves begin to swell, by day 3 it is well puffed up (all 5 fingers saluting you), by day 5 it begins to deflate. We tasted on day 7 and loved it so we removed the gloves dumped it all into a pot to heat it up, canned it.

Hope this helps.

Dave

And, if you like really crisp kraut you can also use Pickle Crisp with it.

Dave

Tracy,

Poke a tiny, tiny hole in the top of a glove finger with a needle before putting the glove on the jar. If the glove expands too much some CO2 will escape. As the air pressure lessens the hole will seal up.

I just like the visual of what is going on. And I don't get scum since going to a closed system.

john

As long as I follow proper canning guidelines, it there anything 'special' I need to do to can kraut? Is the discoloration a concern or normal? Last question, I have some small cabbages that I picked over a week ago - how old is too old for making kraut?

Thanks so much for helping with my first batch of sauerkraut!!

~ Tracy

Dave

"Last question, I have some small cabbages that I picked over a week ago - how old is too old for making kraut?"

Thanks,
Michele

But soft with bad spots and much mold, I'd pass.

Dave

That's just what I wanted to hear ;)

Also, I do not have a crock, so will be using half gallon mason jars. I'm struggling with ways to keep the cabbage weighted. Can I fill the jar 3/4 of the way, then put in a bag of brine? Don't see how a bag will fit if I fill the jar any fuller. If I use the glove technique, is it necessary to weight the cabbage down under the brine?

Thanks for any help!