Charis Cuisine

Making Sauerkraut
nutritional benefits of fermented foods
By Susan Oshel

Fermented foods are so nutritionally beneficial and safely stored for such long periods of time, they are commonly used around the world in areas where malnutrition is prevalent.   They're easier to digest and more nutritious.  During time of food shortage, things that are not normally eaten can be fermented to make them more palatable.  The strong taste of fermented foods is useful in adding flavor to diets that might otherwise be bland.  Wild fermentation involves creating conditions in which naturally occurring organisms thrive and proliferate. 

A variety of foods can be fermented.  This includes beverages (such as Kombucha), fruits, vegetables and grains.  Once fermented, these foods can be used as condiments, sauces, seasonings, side dishes or ingredients in main dishes.  

Foods contaminated with certain types of bacteria can cause diarrhea, which can lead to malnutrition.  Fermenting foods creates conditions that are unfriendly for these types of bacteria, killing unfriendly types and keeping others from contaminating these foods, making fermented foods less likely to cause food-borne illnesses.  These foods also have friendly bacteria, or probiotics, which help to prevent these types of infections.  These nutrients help to bolster the immune system against other illnesses as well.

One of the awesomely wonderful fermented foods is: sauerkraut!  It's so easy and fun to make that there's really no good excuse to buy it from a store.  Plus, home made sauerkraut is full of living microbes that are good for you.  Be aware that store bought sauerkraut is often not fermented -- it's just cabbage soaked in salty vinegar.   Even store bought brands of sauerkraut made from lacto-fermentation have usually been cooked to the point that they're no longer alive.   Making your own is easy and wonderful!!

References

United Nations University: The Benefits of Traditional Fermented Foods
Eden Foundation: Fermented Food -- Safer to Eat
Food and Agriculture Organization: The Benefits of Fermenting Fruits and Vegetables
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition: Probiotic Bacteria in Fermented Foods: Product Characteristics and Starter Organisms

Recipe to make Sauerkraut
Making Sauerkraut is Easy!

I make a 2-quart batch of sauerkraut from one head of cabbage.  Following are pictures from two different batches, one from red cabbage, one was green cabbage, both are great, and you can even use both in one batch. 

Tools and ingredients: 

Sharp knife
1/2-gallon stoneware fermenting crock
wooden lid for 1/2-gallon crock  (I use a plate that fits perfectly inside the crock)
scrubbed and boiled rock to weigh down wooden lid (or plate)
large bowl
cutting board
something to mash the cabbage down into the crock (I use a 1-quart mason jar, you can use your fist if you want)
1 head of cabbage (2 1/2 lbs)
salt (sea or kosher)

You don't need to buy a starter culture -- there are lactic acid bacteria floating around in the air ready to go to work on the cabbage.  I find that amazing.

Steps:

1. Chop or grate cabbage, finely or coarsely, with or without hearts, however you like it.  Put a handful in the bowl, sprinkle salt on the cabbage as you go.  Stir it up and repeat.  The salt pulls water out of the cabbage (through osmosis), and this creates the brine in which the cabbage can ferment and sour without rotting.  The salt also has the effect of keeping the cabbage crunchy, by inhibiting organisms and enzymes that soften it.  I never measure the salt;  I just sprinkle it on after every handful of chopped cabbage is placed in the bowl.  Use more salt in summer, less in winter.

You can add other vegetables.  Grate carrots for a coleslaw-like kraut.  Other vegetables you can add include onions, garlic, seaweed, greens, turnips, beets, and burdock roots.  You can also add fruits (apples, whole or sliced, are classic), and herbs and spices (caraway seeds, dill seeds, celery seeds, and juniper berries are classic, but anything you like will work.)  Experiment.

2. Put the salted cabbage (or vegetable mix) into the crock one handful at a time, mashing it down as you go along.  It's important to pack it as tightly as you can, because that way the salt will draw out the water from the cabbage so fermentation can occur.

3. When all the cabbage (or other vegetables) have been packed into the crock, put the wood cover on it.  If you don't have a wooden cover, try a plate that fits.  Pack just a bit into the crock at a time and tamp it down hard using your fists or any (other) sturdy kitchen implement.  (I use a mason jar, works like a charm!) The tamping packs the kraut tight in the crock and helps force water out of the cabbage.

4. Put a rock on top of the cover.  The idea is to keep the sauerkraut submerged under the brine, because lacto-fermentation is anaerobic.  If the cabbage is exposed to the air, the fermentation process will be stunted.  Cover it with a cloth and put the crock somewhere out of the way.  Once or twice a day, push on the rock to smash the cabbage down.   This weight is to force water out of the cabbage and then keep the cabbage submerged under the brine.

Allow it to ferment for up to 2-4 weeks, removing the rock and pressing the plate firmly down twice a day, squeezing water up a little at a time, replacing the rock.

Check the kraut every day or two.  The volume reduces as the fermentation proceeds.   The kraut itself is under the anaerobic protection of the brine.  Rinse off the plate and the weight.  Taste the kraut.  Generally it starts to be tangy after a few days, and the taste gets stronger as time passes.  In the cool temperatures of a cellar in winter, kraut can keep improving for months and months.  In the summer or in a heated room, its life cycle is more rapid. 

I have some at least once a day, it's delicious!!!

I generally scoop out a bowlful at a time and keep it in the fridge after 4 weeks of fermentation.  Start when the kraut is young and enjoy its evolving flavor over the course of a few weeks.  Try the sauerkraut juice that will be left in the bowl after the kraut is eaten.  Sauerkraut juice is a rare delicacy and unparalleled digestive tonic.   (One group of Amish ladies I know uses sauerkraut juice in the first trimester and highly affirms that it reduces morning sickness when nothing else would for them.)

Each time you scoop some kraut out of the crock, you have to repack it carefully.  Make sure the kraut is packed tight in the crock, the surface is level, and the cover and weight are clean.  Sometimes brine evaporates, so if the kraut is not submerged below brine just add salted water as necessary.  Some people preserve kraut by canning and heat-processing it.  This can be done; but so much of the power of sauerkraut is its aliveness and heating it will kill it!

Enjoy!!