this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2025
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I've recently come into possession of a large number of Mason jars. Being a fan of sauerkraut and knowing of Lemmy's significant German/Czech populatuon, I'd like to ask how you make the best sauerkraut. What do you add beyond salt and cabbage? How do you store it?

I suppose this may also apply to kimchi and other pickled foods, too!

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

Our family recipe, but I don't remember the exact values especially for the caraway seed, so take it with a pinch of salt ;)

10 kg cabbage, sliced

200 g salt

1 kg carrots, cut into small slices (max 3 mm thick)

1 kg leek, cut into small slices (around 5 mm thick)

20 g caraway seeds

Correct sized stone for your jar, cleaned and cooked in boiling water for sterilization

  • Cut everything but keep 2 of the outer cabbage leafs per jar, select good looking leafs and just clean them

  • Mix everything in a big tube/vessel really well, so the salt starts extracting the liquid from the cabbage

  • Put the mixture into the jars and use your fist to make it compact

  • Important part 1: there needs to be at least 1 cm of salty liquid above the kraut at the end, if there isn't just add 10 g salt to 100 ml water and add enough of that solution as necessary

  • put the two leafs on top of the kraut to push it down and keep all the small bits from flowing around in the salt solution

  • place the stones (in middle Europe you can buy special ceramics like this for this purpose, but a simple stone of the right size or 2 is enough) on top of the leafs to push them down

  • close the jar and fill the groove with water

  • important point 2: the grooves has to be filled with water all the time to stop mold from forming

  • now place the jar for 2 weeks in a normal heated room. Check the water level in the groove. You will hear air bubbles flowing through the water trap, which tells you that the fermentation is proceeding nicely.

  • when no air bubbles are forming for a day, fermentation is over and you can eat it and place it in a cold room for better storage.

  • again: keep checking the water level in the groove

  • when you take out sauerkraut, always check that the walls above the water level are mostly clean and not to many loose parts are swimming through the salt water. Those are the regions where mold will start forming.

  • also refill the water level inside with the salt solution if too much evaporate.

  • always clear the solution with the leafs and put the stones on top and you will enjoy it for a long time (5 months are possible)

  • you can also freeze fermented sauerkraut to thaw it when needed and stop it from molding

[–] Saber_is_dead 5 points 4 days ago

so take it with a pinch of salt

...or 200 grams

[–] stoicmaverick 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

How the hell big is your family that you need 50000 carats of cabbage for sauerkraut?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

Why would you measure it in carat? XD

And to blow your mind even more: that is the partial recipe for how much we mix in one tub. In total we use 40 kg cabbage.

We divide it then between 6 different parts of the family. And it's not like it is eaten in one month. Sauerkraut is originally a way to store cabbage over the winter and have something to eat while nothing grows on the fields. We eat the sauerkraut over a period of up to 6 months, so on average its more like 500 g portion per person per week.