Homemade Sauerkraut
Make your own homemade sauerkraut. Crunchy and sour in equal measure, it's the perfect condiment topping for meat, sandwiches, eggs, and more!
Servings: 12 servings
Equipment
- plastic wrap
Ingredients
- 3 lb head of cabbage
- 1 oz kosher salt
- 2 tsp juniper berries
Brine
- 2 cups water
- 2 tsp kosher salt
Instructions
- Remove some of the outer leaves of the cabbage and put to one side (we’ll be using these later). Cut the entire cabbage head into quarters, and then remove what’s left of the core from each quarter.
- Shred the cabbage quarters with a large knife into thin pieces. Transfer shredded cabbage to a large bowl and toss lightly. Add kosher salt.
- With your hands, start to crush cabbage in order to work in the salt and break down the cabbage pieces. Knead it until you start to see water being released from the crushed cabbage.
- Add juniper berries, combining evenly
- Cover bowl with plastic wrap and leave for 20 minutes. Repeat kneading process again, and leave for a further 20 minutes. Repeat the process until you see standing water in the bowl, about 3 hours.
- When the cabbage is ready for fermentation, you’ll notice that it looks wet and has lost some of the bright green color that it has when fresh. When you pick up a handful of it and squeeze it, a good amount of liquid should drip out. Crucially, you should see liquid standing at the bottom of the bowl.
- For the fermentation, we need to add an extra salt-water solution. To make this, combine just 2 cups of water with 2 tsp of kosher salt. Stir to dissolve.
- Transfer cabbage to a mason jar, and pour salt-water solution on top. If the cabbage isn’t completely covered, you will need to make more solution. Make sure that you keep the 1 cup of water-to-1 tsp kosher salt ratio.
- Press the cabbage so that it’s submerged in the solution. Try to allow about half an inch of solution on top to ensure that the cabbage won’t be exposed to the air at all.
- Reach for the cabbage leaves we put aside earlier. Place these in the mason jar on top of the cabbage, acting as a barrier weight to keep the cabbage shreds submerged in the solution.
- Once the cabbage is fully submerged, screw the lid of the jar on. Store at room temperature (not in your refrigerator) out of the way of direct sunlight. After a couple of days you should see the process start, with pressure building within the jar. When this happens, loosen the lid slightly to let the gas out before tightening it again. Do this every 3-5 days.
- There is no hard and fast rule with how long fermentation can take. Allow at least 3 weeks, and then test to see how it suits your tastes. As long as the cabbage is always submerged and nothing weird has started to develop in the jar, you’re safe to try it.