Bubbling Away

I've always been a fan of saurkraut (it's the German in me).  When I was a kid we ate it fairly regularly with sausage (another German staple) and it was just a meal I took for granted.  Things changed over time, though, and I realized we weren't eating kraut and sausage as often.  For one thing the kraut tasted funny, off a bit.  It wasn't the kraut of my youth, tangy and spicy with an earthy scent that blended with the sausage.  Now it was sharp and bitter and tended to clash with the taste of the sausage.  I  just figured my taste for these things were changing and over time gave it up altogether.

Then one day, I was reading an article on saurkraut and I discovered back in the 70s/80s companies that were making kraut transitioned from the old way of fermenting cabbage to make their kraut to simply dumping shredded cabbage in a vat of vinegar and letting it sit until the cabbage wilted, then canning it, labeling it kraut and sending it out the door.  Took a lot less time, hence cheaper, and they could get more out the door in a shorter amount of time, therefore more profit for less work.

Soooo...for several years I just went without saurkraut.  Since I've moved back home though, I've been wanting kraut and since I'm doing the "from scratch" thing nowdays I decided to give it a go on my own.  I wasn't expecting much, but figured the worst I could do was make some unique chicken food.

Ever since I saw one, I've been wanting a fermenting crock, so Sister got me one as a present.  This particular one is Polish and I have to admit it looks a lot nicer than the German ones.  The German ones are very utilitarian (imagine that, Germans-functional!) but not as artistically done as the Polish ones.

 



So I got myself a head of cabbage, and then decided, Why stop there?  I added sweet and hot peppers, garlic, onions and carrots.  I figure if I'm going to ferment, I should ferment in a big way.

 



 So I chopped it all up, mixed it with the required amount of salt, packed it into the crock, sealed the whole mess up and waited.

 

 



One thing I love about this crock is that it has a water seal lid.  Once you put the lid in place, you pour water in the small lip around the crock opening and it seals the lid on.  No air can get in to cause bacteria growth and it cuts down on the spoilage enormously.  (as long, of course, as you keep an eye on the lid and don't let it go dry)  The lid will occasionally burb however as the cabbage begins to ferment and outgasses.  That little bubble popping through the water tells you that everything is working as it should and all is right with the world.

So after the crock is packed, it's a waiting game.  The recommendation is two weeks minimum, but you can let it wait much, much longer if you've got the patience (I don't).  Longer waiting simply gives the kraut a tangyier bite, but won't hurt or ruin it at all.

So I waited, and waited, and waited.  Finally the two weeks arrived and the lid came off.  Oh my!  Was this stuff ever good!  The cabbage part was so much of my childhood coming back to me, and the other veggies were just a wonderful add on.  I'm especially fond of the carrots.  They are still crunchy and have a salty, sweet, soury kind of flavor.  I have to admit to not being overly impressed with the peppers and think I will leave them out in the future.  And since it is fermented food, it has tons of good probiotics in it which make you feel all good inside.

So now the pot is going non-stop and we'll be having kraut for forever.  It's super simple to make and just about any vegetable will ferment in there.  The problem is making the last batch last long enough to get the new batch through the initial fermentation.  I see more crocks in my future.