Femented Veggies #1 : Sauerkraut

I received a comment in one of my posts asking me to share how to make fermented vegetables.

I meant to share the recipe earlier but when I made these ferments, I kept forgetting to take photos.

Sauerkraut is very easy to make. Traditionally all you need is cabbage and salt. But over time, people started to add all sorts of things like carrots, onions and even spices.

I used one small cabbage and one carrot. 

Peel of some of the outer leaves and cut the cabbage into quarters.

Then thinly slice the cabbage. 

Then peel and grate the carrot. As you can see, I also added a little bit of sliced onions. Don't put too much onions as that can be overwhelming.

You need to weigh the whole lot to know how much salt to add. Here I use my el cheapo scale which I bought via Shoppee. I put a bowl on the scale and pressed tare to zero it.

Then I dump the veggies into the bowl and the weight was 573g. Then I do some math. For the salt, it is 2.0% ie 2.0% x 573g which is 11.46g. Some recipes call for 2.5%. Either one is fine.

So I rounded the weight of the salt to 12g. 

Simply sprinkle the salt all over the veggies and toss and massage to get the salt to coat the veggies. Then let stand for about 30 minutes.

During this time, the salt will draw out the moisture from the cabbage. The water that is released will be used as the brine (fermenting liquid).

I used a recycled glass bottle to store the sauerkraut.

Then simply pack the veggies into the bottle including the water that was released.

Use a tamper (this was from my juicer) or clean spoon to press down and pack the veggies tightly into the bottle.

If you find that there is not enough brine, you may add just a bit of water to just barely cover the top of the veggies. Leave some head space (don't pack right up to the top) because the cabbage will continue to release moisture and the gas from the fermentation will push the veggies upwards.

To keep the veggies submerged, you may use a glass fermentation weight to weigh the veggies down. Some people just use one or two cabbage leaves and some say no need to use weights.

I didn't buy the glass weight but instead I recycled the cover of my favorite coffee hah..hah... I just removed the plastic part and voila! I have a glass weight.

So this is how it is done. Then just put on the lid and set the bottle aside at room temperature.

It is advisable to stand the bottle on a tray because this is a very active ferment. The bubbling of the carbon dioxide will cause the liquids to spill out of the bottle.

Everyday open the cover to release the gasses and push the veggies down to keep it submerged (make sure your hands are clean when you touch the glass weight, if using).

This is a photo of another ferment and I just want to show the bubbles. When you see bubbles, you know that the microbes are doing their job.

I let the sauerkraut ferment for 4-6 days, depending on how the brine tastes. If it is sour enough, I remove the glass weight and transfer the bottle into the fridge and let it ferment (yes, it still ferments in the fridge although the rate is slower) for another say, 7 days before I consume the sauerkraut.

Ah, I also fermented some jalapenos. I will share the recipe another time.