Homemade Sauerkraut Recipe
This tasty sauerkraut recipe is a perfect side dish for your next gathering.
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 head of cabbage
- 1 Tablespoon sea salt (or non-iodized salt)
- 1 quart jar or 2 pint jars with lids and rings, sterilized
- Knife
- Food processor (optional)
Instructions
- Wash cabbage and remove outer, dirty leaves, reserving a large piece of leaf for a “cover leaf”
- But into wedges and slice using the slicer attachment of your food processor, or slice thinly with your knife.
- Transfer to a large, clean bowl, and sprinkle with salt
- Stir salt in, using clean hands if necessary to squeeze or bruise the cabbage, encouraging it to “sweat” or release its juices
- Once the cabbage seems to be sweating, start packing it into your jar.
- Pack the cabbage as hard as you can so that by the time you reach the top, you can press the cabbage down under the juice that has been released.
- Stuff your reserved cover leaf down onto your packed cabbage to keep the shredded, salted cabbage down under that juice.
- Wipe down rim and sides of jar
- Fit with ring and lid, screwing ring down until it’s secure, but still loose to let gasses escape as cabbage ferments
- Let sit, undisturbed out of direct sunlight for 5-8 days. Check in on it every day to make sure it’s not bubbling over (if it does, there’s nothing you can/should really do other than clean up the mess), or rotting (in which case, you’ll want to throw it out – I haven’t had this happen very often, but occasionally it does).
- Near the end of the fermenting process, lift up the cover leaf, and take a bit of cabbage out with a clean fork to taste. If it tastes like sauerkraut, put the lid back on, and store in the refrigerator until ready for use.
- Enjoy!