Making Sauerkraut

 Last nights task was to make Sauerkraut! Bryan likes to eat his Moose Hot Dogs with sauerkraut – and since it’s really easy to make, we keep a steady supply on hand.

First you go to the local farmer’s market and select a nice big home-grown head of cabbage. You need at least 5 pounds, so make sure you get one bigger than that so when you cut the core out you are left with enough cabbage to work with.

Then you slice it into uniformly thin slices, no thicker than a quarter of an inch. This can be done with a knife as shown here, although our knife was slightly on the dull side. A slicing machine would be best, but we don’t have one of those.

Then you add salt to the pile and let it rest for a good half hour, if not longer.

After the salt has had a chance to work its magic, you pack it tightly into jars. We have one hand-held wooden device specifically made for packing sauerkraut but have found that my wooden rolling pin works just as well. You really squish it in there and pack it tightly – but leave a good inch of headroom at the top. We have special weights that just fit inside a mason jar; these keep the cabbage down below the liquid so that it doesn’t mold. We also have special lids allow all the gas to escape so we don’t blow up the jars (you do not want that in your pantry, trust me on this).

Then set the jars in a pan to catch any liquids that might seep out along with the gasses – and put the whole thing in your cupboards so it can ferment. 6-8 weeks later, you have yummy Sauerkraut for dinner!