home made sauerkraut

[turkey buster]

it was time to harvest the cabbage patch today, so I decided to make my first batch of home made sauerkraut, my first head of cabbage weighed 10 3/4 lbs the biggest of the patch, anyway I shredded the cabbage by hand with a knife, sprinkled 3 tbl sp of kosher salt per 5 lbs of shredded cabbage, and then packed it down tight in the crock, it appears to be doing exactly what the recipe say,s it will do so we will see how it turns out, I put up a total of 4 heads of cabbage with a total weight of 34 lbs  shredded
chuck

[turkey buster]

sorry about the date on the pic's it is obviously wrong

[carpsniperg2]

glad someone likes that stuff not me. but that thing is huge

[rasbo]

I love it..never made it...do you put something on top of the cabbage,like weight or just push it down and cover.And how long does it say it takes

[turkey buster]

ya Rasbo I built a lid for my crock out of 3/8 lexan and put a gallon of water on top to keep it weighted down, the recipe says to let it brine for 5-6 wks and longer if kept in a cool location, so I will be puting it in my man cave down in the shop stay's about 55 deg's down their
chuck

[BigD]

My wife made some years ago, seemed like it took forever before we could eat it.

[rasbo]

ummmm thats sounding very good,bring on the brats

[NRA4LIFE]

Looks like the same crock I have.   Mine is 6 gallons. Same recipe I use too.  If you leave it at a warmer temperature, it'll ferment a lot faster.  At room temperature, you can have eye-watering kraut in 17-18 days or so.  A bit longer if you want it nuclear.

Mmmmm, time to procure some cabbage.  Didn't grow any this year.

[turkey buster]

NRA4LIFE how do you keep it when it is done ? do you presurecan it, waterbath, or just eat it so fast it dosnt have time to go bad, the recipe that I used says if you use a cooler fermentation for longer it will keep longer, what do you think
chuck

[turkey buster]

just an update, I just went down to the shop and checked on my kraut, this hot weather we have had really fired off the fermentation proses, that stuff is smelling very good rite now

[quadrafire]

My neighbors (korean), make Kimchee (sp?) kinda like that. I like it in small quantities, but has quite the odor. My wife wont' allow it in the kitchen fridge.

[runamuk]

I love kraut but am sort of scared to make it dont want to poison anyone by doing it wrong 

[Sumpnneedskillin]

Growing up mom made a batch of kraut one year and canned it.  I remember the crock sitting in the corner of the kitchen for a while.  Wasn't much of a kraut eater then.  After being stationed in Germany I love the stuff now.  I'll eat it like a side vegetable with dinner.  Wife and kids don't care for it....or me after I do that though.

Quadrafire, you bring back some memories.  For a while we had a guy that had been stationed in Korea as a neighbor.  His wife was Korean and he brought mom and dad over too.  Momma-san would have gallons of kimchi fermenting on the back porch.  She'd bring some over once in a while.  It'd be a fight over who'd eat it first, us boys or dad.  She used to feed my brother and I all sorts of stuff.  To this day I'm not sure what some it was.

[turkey buster]

I have loved sauerkraut since I was a little boy, I wish I had started making it sooner but like runamuck say's just a little scared of poisoning anyone, but I have done enough research and am going for it, it should be done in a few weeks, can I get any taste testers?

[NRA4LIFE]

TB,

My favorite way is to just freeze it.  If I'm having freezer space problems, I waterbath can it and keep those in the fridge.  Never have had any issues with storage like that.  Had several waterbathed jars lose their seal outside of the fridge one year.  I pressure canned some one time just to test it out and the kraut got too mushy.