Sauerkraut
Ingredients: cabbage, salt
1)Wash your cabbage.
2)Take off the topmost 2 layers that aren’t gross & put aside for a moment.
3)Halve the cabbage down the vertical axis.
4)Cut out the cores of each half.
5)Cut the remaining cabbage into thin strips (thin = more surface area = faster, more even fermentation).
6)Dump those into a big bowl, massage in some salt (3 tablespoons?) and leave for an hour to sweat.
7)While you're waiting for the cabbage to sweat, grab a flattish river stone that’ll fit through the neck of your jar, wash it, boil it in water, and set aside.
8)After an hour, stuff the cabbage into the jar(s). Pack in as tightly as possible.
9)Cover the kraut with that topmost cabbage layer that you’ve been saving & weigh that down with the stone. Press the rock into the kraut.
10)If the stone isn’t submerged by the brine, add more brine (made by mixing 1.5 tablespoons of salt per pint of water) to cover the stone.
11)Cover the jar with the lid and then the band (without screwing the band on at all; this allows carbon dioxide to escape without blowing up the jar, but also keeps out bugs).
12)Let it sit on the countertop, in a warm, relatively dark space, for awhile, tasting occasionally to see how it’s doing. Each day, press down stone to force out carbon dioxide, which will bubble up and escape. If you don’t press out the CO2, the brine will spill out onto your countertop. When it’s fermented to your liking, you can stash it in the fridge for as long as it takes to wolf the whole thing down.
Ingredients: cabbage, salt
1)Wash your cabbage.
2)Take off the topmost 2 layers that aren’t gross & put aside for a moment.
3)Halve the cabbage down the vertical axis.
4)Cut out the cores of each half.
5)Cut the remaining cabbage into thin strips (thin = more surface area = faster, more even fermentation).
6)Dump those into a big bowl, massage in some salt (3 tablespoons?) and leave for an hour to sweat.
7)While you're waiting for the cabbage to sweat, grab a flattish river stone that’ll fit through the neck of your jar, wash it, boil it in water, and set aside.
8)After an hour, stuff the cabbage into the jar(s). Pack in as tightly as possible.
9)Cover the kraut with that topmost cabbage layer that you’ve been saving & weigh that down with the stone. Press the rock into the kraut.
10)If the stone isn’t submerged by the brine, add more brine (made by mixing 1.5 tablespoons of salt per pint of water) to cover the stone.
11)Cover the jar with the lid and then the band (without screwing the band on at all; this allows carbon dioxide to escape without blowing up the jar, but also keeps out bugs).
12)Let it sit on the countertop, in a warm, relatively dark space, for awhile, tasting occasionally to see how it’s doing. Each day, press down stone to force out carbon dioxide, which will bubble up and escape. If you don’t press out the CO2, the brine will spill out onto your countertop. When it’s fermented to your liking, you can stash it in the fridge for as long as it takes to wolf the whole thing down.
