I'm on a roll in the kitchen. I got the last of the cabbage out of the garden last week. I had 2 heads left and decided to try making kraut. I took a knife to it, salted it and broke it up in a big mixing bowl by hand until it started releasing all it's juice. I filled 3 quart jars with just the cabbage. I had some left, so I shaved and minced a big carrot and diced up a couple of radishes to fill out the 4th quart. It's been about 2 hours and it's already fermenting.

The kitchen has a definite fermenting cabbage odor. My wife called it Eau De Farts.

Hopefully it's worth the olfactory offenses.

quote hooky: "I'm on a roll in the kitchen. I got the last of the cabbage out of the garden last week. I had 2 heads left and decided to try making kraut. I took a knife to it, salted it and broke it up in a big mixing bowl by hand until it started releasing all it's juice. I filled 3 quart jars with just the cabbage. I had some left, so I shaved and minced a big carrot and diced up a couple of radishes to fill out the 4th quart. It's been about 2 hours and it's already fermenting.

The kitchen has a definite fermenting cabbage odor. My wife called it Eau De Farts.

Hopefully it's worth the olfactory offenses."

My father made my mom make it in the basement..with caraway seed..good stuff.

I forgot the caraway seed. I had it out on the counter and just spaced it.

I've never made sauerkraut by fermenting cabbage. I usually buy the jar kraut and add my pork,shredded potatoes and caraway seeds. I make it about 4 times a year. Serve it up with some buttered pumpernickel rye bread and a beer.......heavenly.

We roasted a whole hog in May for a graduation, stuffed it with kraut and potatoes. It's hard to beat kraut with all that rendered pork fat and the pulled pork mixed into it.

Makes you want to graduate someone once a month.

Kraut is probably ready to eat. We'll try it tomorrow. If it's ready, we may let some go a little longer just to experiment a little more.

Here's what it looked like on the 27th when it went into the jars.



Kind of blurry, sorry.

Now it looks like this



You see that the liquid level has risen and the bubbles from the fermentation are visible.

I've got some hot & sour, garlic dill pickles going too. :)

quote hooky: "Kraut is probably ready to eat. We'll try it tomorrow. If it's ready, we may let some go a little longer just to experiment a little more.


Here's what it looked like on the 27th when it went into the jars.




Kind of blurry, sorry.


Now it looks like this





Envious.


You see that the liquid level has risen and the bubbles from the fermentation are visible.


I've got some hot & sour, garlic dill pickles going too. :)"

I have saurkraut envy.

It's not quite ready, but it's awfully darn good already.

An update.

The kraut was fantastic. It's now gone. The 4th quart to which I added the carrot and radish was difficult to finish. Waaayyyy too much radish. I ended up using it in some sausage & vegetable soup.

The pickles are tasty, but using store bought cukes and without adding a grape leaf for tannins, they are a little mushy. If you can get past the texture, they're good. The garlic cloves in the pickles are to die for though. I may ferment a pint of jar full of garlic with some dill and a jalapeno next to see how it turns out.

Say no to Saurkraut...I like it...but it don't like me

I have a buddy at work who makes massive batches of kraut. As he always shares with me, I have never made it myself. Should try it, though.