Sauerkraut

As part of my gap year between school and university I lived in Germany for 3 months. During this time I got a taste for German food which has influenced much of the cooking I now do (although I'm not sure my husband approves). As part of this culinary flowering I first tried sauerkraut, which I hated. I found it far too vinegary for my taste. Recently, however, I decided to try making it myself as I had heard that sauerkraut is good for you since the cabbage releases probiotic bacteria during the fermentation process which aid digestion. With this in mind, I set out using a recipe I found online.

Ingredients:
1 white cabbage
1 tbsp sea salt

Equipment:
food processor (not strictly necessary as the chopping can be done with a knife)
kilner jar (or any other heavy duty glass jar)
a wooden spoon


I started off by attaching one of the shredder attachments to the food processor. After removing the nasty looking outer leaves and reserving one of the nicer ones for later use, I then cut the cabbage in half, removing the tough stalk, and then cut those halves roughly into quarts so that they would fit into the food processor. I then fed these chunks of cabbage into the processor until the entire cabbage was finely shredded.

The cabbage

Once this was done, I put the shredded cabbage into a large bowl and added the sea salt. I chose Cornish sea salt for this recipe, not through any great sense that this type of salt is superior (although it is supposed to contain mineral residues which presumably add to the flavour) but because I didn't want to detract from the natural taste of the cabbage by using a poor quality salt.

The sea salt

The next step was the massage the salt into the cabbage. This draws out the water and begins the fermentation process. This is done by grabbing handfuls of cabbage and squashing it. Once it starts to go limp and release liquid you then start to squeeze the water out, much like wringing water out of wet clothes. This is a very odd sensation, made worse by the fact that I almost always have paper cuts from work. When the volume of cabbage has decreased and it has the same texture as when steamed, the process is complete. The liquid which has been released will pool at the bottom of the bowl. This should be reserved as it will be used later.

Cabbage  pre-massage

Cabbage post-massage

The next step was spoon the cabbage in the jar. After every few spoonfuls I squashed the cabbage down to remove any air pockets. I continued to pack the cabbage in this way until I had nearly reached the top of the jar. I then topped the jar up with the remaining liquid until all the cabbage was covered and folded the leaf which I had put to one side earlier in four to make a lid. Once this had been placed on top I screwed the lid on and left the jar out at room temperature for three days. During the fermentation process the cabbage gave off a lot of gas, meaning that once a day I had to unscrew the lid to relieve the pressure so that the jar didn't run the risk of exploding.

Day 0

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

After three days I did a taste test. As this was my first attempt at making sauerkraut I decided not to let the fermentation continue any longer, putting the jar in the fridge to halt the process. There it sits, waiting to be brought out the next time I make a German-inspired meal.