Sauerkraut Culture?

[Batz]

Keep us posted Mike, I for one am really interested in this. I have heard that fermenting cabbage smells really bad :unsure: you will have to confirm this for us.

Batz

 

[Bribie G]

Bought a mandolin slicer yesterday for doing kilos of onions for my curry bases, came in handy today.

Kraut-chi

• Half a savoy cabbage thinly sliced
• quarter red cabbage thinly sliced
• 2 carrots julienned
• 2 chokos julienned thanks to next door neighbours' invading choko vine - invade I say invade
• 3 long green chillies chopped

a handful of the above mix put in blender with:

• a cup of water
• a cup of white wine
• pinch of the culture
• heaped teaspoon of garlic ginger paste

Whizzed up and mixed in with the main veggies, covered with water in a 4L plastic tub (it's the one I've been using for starters - will buy a new one)

I've put a plate on the top so it all stays under water, and I'll cling the whole lot same as when I brew - might be ready for Easter if I'm lucky.
Now I'll have to find a cool spot - it's still about 23 ambient in the garage but probably dip a couple of days after this spell of warm weather we're having.

 

[AndrewQLD]

Bribie, I would turn the plate over so you don't have an air pocket underneath, also try to make sure none of the vegetables are sticking out, they will attract mold.

 

[Bribie G]

Thanks, will re wrap

 

[Bribie G]

Two days in, the tub is in the corner of the garage next to the pushbike, ambient around 23 hereabouts.

Looks like something is happening, the veggie mass is rising and showing some nice blood red liquid which I guess comes from the red cabbage, so it's exuding.

mmmm - exuding :icon_drool2:

glad I put the plate on top, all under control at the moment. I gladdied it all and hopefully it should be immune from foreign organisms creeping in, as when beer brewing.

 

[Bribie G]

I'm glad I have it in a corner of the garage, which is now starting to smell like a sow-stall piggery. I hope this stuff isn't going to kill me :blink:

Of course there's always the possibility that there's a dead possum in the garage roof, wouldn't surprise me.

 

[Howlingdog]

Bribie, bury it in the ground for winter then dig it up in six months.

 

[punkin]

Lactic souring goes through a few distinct stages over a few days. I'll PM you a link to a site where they discuss illegal collection of steam that has a fantastic description of the lactic souring process. Within 5 days it should just smell like sweet sour milk. (that's after it's gone through the **** stage and the vomit stage )

 

[davo4772]

 

Thanks for the plug jurt!
 
I have a blog post on sauerkraut here. No need for starter cultures Bribie, the cabbage will have enough LAB cultures on there for it to ferment spontaneously, and given the salt levels and then the acidity created by the LAB cultures, nothing else gets a foothold. Keep temps low (18-20C) and the cabbage submerged below the brine and you'll be all good. 
 
There's also a post of doing vegetable ferments in vacuum sealed bags if you're looking for another use for the vacuum sealer!

 

What an excellent blog

 

[benno1973]

Thanks David! Still some experiments that I need to write up, but it's getting there slowly...

 

[Bribie G]

Punkin, got the link - thanks

 

[Bribie G]

It's done - wow what a flavour hit. I call it Kraut-Chi

Savoy and Red cabbage, carrot, choko, garlic, ginger and chillis with a lovely sour kick. Makes the canned Sauerkraut seem like baby food.

It's surprising how it's all shrunk down, got rid of at least a litre of surplus liquid. Of course a real man would swig that neat with some extra jalapenos before giving the Mrs a good seeing to.

I'm going to have some for afternoon snack with Knackwurst.

 

[Burchman82]

Dude thats awesome. Im keen to give it a go! Just need to find some jars big enough....


Was the stench really that bad? I dont have a shed I can put it in.... well i do, but its like 100 degrees in there.

 

[Bribie G]

This lot fermented out at around 24-27 as we had a heatwave for the time of year. The smell was really only for the first three days then settled down. On spooning it out into the storage jar it just smelled like store bought sauerkraut out of the jar.

The "fermenter" was just a 3L HDPE storage pail thing from the Reject Shop. The storage jar is a $7 polycarbonate jar from the Reject Shop as well but they have more conventional food preserving jars for $3.

 

[Bizier]

Savoy and Red cabbage, carrot, choko, garlic, ginger and chillis

I don't care how long you have been here, what you have done and what your legal position is.

Today Bribie, I recognise you as a true Australian.

 

[bradsbrew]

We had a choko vine as a kid. I will never put my kids through that trauma.

 

[Bribie G]

I don't care how long you have been here, what you have done and what your legal position is.

Today Bribie, I recognise you as a true Australian.

Hola, hombre, you refer to Chayote, the true Aztec vegetable that now grows wild in in Louisiana etc and was brought over to Australia by American migrants during the gold rushes and now graces many a fence. :lol:
Thanks anyway, the Choko is in the same category as Fosters Lager, the Fosters Bros also being from California.

Edit:

half Chinese Cabbage
a choko
teaspoon garlic paste
teaspoon ginger paste
3 rashers of bacon finely chopped
2 TBS veg oil
Sesame Oil
1 TSP oyster sauce

Finely shred the wombok, chinese cabbage
cut the choko in half lengthways and slice in madolin or using the single slice thing on one side of your box grater

Gently fry the bacon in large pan or wok to release the fat.
Add the wombok and choko which have been tossed together, plus the garlic and ginger and stir fry till tender.
When cooked, sprinkle with sesame oil and stir
drizzle with oyster sauce and fold in.

 

[of mice and gods]

G'day guys,

I had a bumper cabbage crop last spring and as we don't use much cabbage I decided to turn a bunch of it into sauerkraut for an upcoming German themed party. I never bothered with a culture as I believe there is enough occurring naturally on the cabbages and in the air (I also like sourdough bread!).

I believe you'll find due to Australian food standards, all the store bough jars/cans have been heat sterilized (which coks the kraut making it lose crunch and texture) or irradiated - This essentially kills all the biota in the food so you don't actually get any of the purported pro-biotic health benefits from commercial saurkraut. I do use it when I run out of my own, but the best way to have killer kraut and all the benefits is to make your own.

So, my method was;

take as many cabbages as you want (I had about 7 good sized round cabbages from the veggie patch spare), peel off the ****** leaves cut out the stalk and most of the core, rinse and slice them (as thick or thin as you like.. mine range between 2 - 6mm). You can use a mandolin but I just used a knife. As I had sliced each cabbage I put it into a large bowl and pounded it with a mortar (but any kind of knock-o-meter works) for a few minutes, this bruises the cabbage and helps it to start releasing some of it's natural juice. I sprinkled about 2-3 taplespoons of table salt over each time (which will also draw out more liquid) and a quick grind of black pepper. Every few cabbages I also sliced and added a leek from the garden. When all my cabbages and leeks were done I let the mixture sit over night covered with a tea towel.

One thing that freaked me out about the traditional method was where they often mentioned 'scraping the slime/crap/scum off the top of the kraut every few days. Now I don't have a traditional crockery krauting vessel but I did have a spare 25L black plastic fermenter which I thought was actually better. So I took my mixture of cabbage/leek/salt from the day before and poured it into my fermenter, I added a dried clove for every cabbage and a few diced garlic cloves and gave it a quick mix. Now, the cabbage should have produced a fair amount of it's own liquid but you'll probably have to top up with a little bit of water just to make it easier to actually submerge everything. At this point, I top the fermenter up with couple litres of water (with an extra tablespoon or salt), I give this a really good mix and then push all the cabbage down and to pack it in and submerge it.

I was a bit worried about the traditional methods continually mentioning 'scraping the scum off the top of the kraut every few days', so I filled a plastic food safe bag wth water and salt, tied a knot in it and used this to keep my cabbage submerged. The added benefit is if you use an appropriate sized bag when it sits on the surface it will form a perfect air tight seal, only releasing fermentation gases. No scum, no scraping, and if the bag bursts it's just extra brine. I still put the lid on the fermenter and whacked on the airlock just to be super sure.

4 weeks later with fairly minimal smell (I wouldn't put it in SWMBO's en suite though), we had kilo's and kilo's or killer kraut. We consumed vast quantities with beer and bratwurst (try grating an apple with your saurkraut and then grilling quickly with your brats), jarred the rest and put it in the fridge (again, just being cautious). I just found a jar the other day (6 months later) in the fridge and it was still crunchy and tastey.

So, I'm about to sow cabbage seeds in the veg patch again for this seasons krauting

Cheers,
Al

 

[Bizier]

Hola, hombre, you refer to Chayote, the true Aztec vegetable that now grows wild in in Louisiana etc and was brought over to Australia by American migrants during the gold rushes and now graces many a fence. :lol:
Thanks anyway, the Choko is in the same category as Fosters Lager, the Fosters Bros also being from California.

Exactly, chokos are as Australian as pampas grass and prickly pear.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

And cane toads