Sauerkraut Mk1

[Not For Horses]

I guess you could compare it to pitching a new brew onto a whole yeast cake. You don't get all the extra tasty bits from the growth phase.

 

[DeGarre]

A question: I had some salted cabbage left over because I ran out of jars. I ate the leftovers and it was very salty. I might've used more than often quoted 3 tbsp per big cabbage. Does the salt taste get mellower as fermenting starts and continues?

Thanks

 

[GalBrew]

A question: I had some salted cabbage left over because I ran out of jars. I ate the leftovers and it was very salty. I might've used more than often quoted 3 tbsp per big cabbage. Does the salt taste get mellower as fermenting starts and continues?

Thanks

Yes it does.

 

[DeGarre]

I may need some guidance here...so I had my jars at room temp around a week, now they have been in the fridge for a few days. I never got any mold, salty taste has decreased but I can't taste much funk ---just taste like raw cabbage in weak salt water. Which is nice but not what I wanted. I topped up the jars a bit to cover the cabbage but this is starting to look like what I had with my sourdough started from scratch --- nothing much doing.

 

[GalBrew]

I may need some guidance here...so I had my jars at room temp around a week, now they have been in the fridge for a few days. I never got any mold, salty taste has decreased but I can't taste much funk ---just taste like raw cabbage in weak salt water. Which is nice but not what I wanted. I topped up the jars a bit to cover the cabbage but this is starting to look like what I had with my sourdough started from scratch --- nothing much doing.

Take them back out of the fridge. I had mine at room temp for 3 weeks to get my desired sourness. I didn't get much funk though, just a clean sourness.

 

[TimT]

almost all veggies have enough bacteria to ferment.

The advice I've been getting about doing a lacto-ferment with malted grain - ie, sauergut - is pretty much leave the grain in water at the right temp and the ferment will happen. Now, thing is: during the kilning all of the bacteria that will have naturally been living on the grain will have been killed. And I wouldn't be surprised if after the kilning some malt makers take reasonable steps to keep the grain clean. So I conclude - often the bacteria that does the magic will introduce itself after it comes out of the bag! I guess many lacto-ferments happen in the same way: a bacteria just comes along, finds an environment it likes, and hey presto! Kraut!

 

[TimT]

A question: I had some salted cabbage left over because I ran out of jars. I ate the leftovers and it was very salty. I might've used more than often quoted 3 tbsp per big cabbage. Does the salt taste get mellower as fermenting starts and continues?

Thanks

Yes it does.

Interesting this. In general the salt seems to be a safety mechanism - you add it to inhibit the growth of some organisms you don't want. But it also changes the flavour in weird ways.

When you add salt to cheese curds that you're going to press and age you add more salt if you want the cheese to taste less salty; you add less salt if you want the cheese to taste more salty. It's because cheese develops its own distinctive salts and the addition of baking salt inhibits these. I'm guessing something analogous happens in the ageing of krauts.

 

[philmud]

almost all veggies have enough bacteria to ferment.

The advice I've been getting about doing a lacto-ferment with malted grain - ie, sauergut - is pretty much leave the grain in water at the right temp and the ferment will happen. Now, thing is: during the kilning all of the bacteria that will have naturally been living on the grain will have been killed. And I wouldn't be surprised if after the kilning some malt makers take reasonable steps to keep the grain clean. So I conclude - often the bacteria that does the magic will introduce itself after it comes out of the bag! I guess many lacto-ferments happen in the same way: a bacteria just comes along, finds an environment it likes, and hey presto! Kraut!

I think a key difference here is that vegetables don't generally undergo a kilning process. Of course some may have been washed in such a way to reduce the numbers of bacteria, but all of what I've read (ok, so that's pretty much just Katz, but the dude knows cabbage) says that lactobacillus are naturally present on the surface of most vegetables. I suppose at some point they established themselves there because the environment was right, but it seems to me that this was before we intervened.

 

[seehuusen]

I got a big yoghurt bucket (cleaned properly) and filled it with cabbage and a table spoon and a half of salt.
It has been covered with the lid sealed for 4 days and it has definitely expanded/bee. fermenting.

I followed not for horses recommendation, which I thought didn't include adding water at all??
There is some liquid in the bottom, but its definitely not covering the cabbage...
Any suggestions?

 

[GalBrew]

You need to 'massage' the salt into the cabbage in order to draw water out of the cabbage and form the brine. I also used 4 tablespoons of salt per cabbage and still had to weigh down the cabbage to keep it under the brine. It the cabbage is exposed to air it won't work and may get infected.

 

[philmud]

You also want to bruise up the cabbage to rupture cell walls and let more water (will become brine) out. You could still do this now and it would also allow you to massage the salt in. If the cabbage is above the brine surface for a day or two it won't matter, but if it's not submerged by then, add a small amount of boiled/cooled water (add salt to this if you want to)

 

[seehuusen]

no worries, thanks for the tips, I'll go and try that when I finish work

 

[TimT]

Yeah you usually get told you have to pummel the cabbage about a bit until you can cover it in its own water but usually we get to the 'can't be arsed' stage and just cover it with water. (Tank water - chlorine in the brine is a no-no).

 

[Aaron1.0]

Krausen ring!

 

[DeGarre]

OK, I took the sauerkraut out of the fridge and it went back into fridge only 2 days ago. All it needed was some room temperature. Tangy and sharp, still crunchy as I left it a bit coarser. I am trying to lose some weight so usually when I would have potatoes or pasta or bread, now I have sauerkraut instead. I even had it as a breakfast in a bowl by itself. Mrs not too happy though about the smells wafting around the house...

 

[Airgead]

Roasted a pork belly and some kipfler potatoes last night. Served it with some home made kraut warmed through with come chunks of apple in it. :icon_drool2: :icon_drool2:

 

[DeGarre]

I bought a jar of German Kuhne sauerkraut to compare my own one to it and ignoring the fact that I left my cabbage in bigger pieces and thus mine is crunchier, there's not much difference, mine is tad fresher perhaps.

I eat it everyday and sometimes even by itself as a late night snack. And I drink the brine afterwards. Delicious!

 

[DeGarre]

The big jar is almost empty, time to make a new batch. Today made also fermented carrots, 2% salt brine, one bay leaf, one garlic, half an onion.
Yesterday started to ferment chili hot sauce (sriracha), nicked from this

http://youtu.be/vgK3EpXROks

Good fun this fermenting malarkey.

 

[panzerd18]

I'm more of a Kimchi man than Sauerkraut. Love the spiciness of the Kimchi with rice.

 

[anthonyUK]

Anyone remotely interested in anything related to fermenting foods may like any of Sandor Katz's books particularly Art of Fermentation and Wild Fermentation.

http://www.amazon.com/Art-Fermentation--Depth-Exploration-Essential/dp/160358286X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411716870&sr=8-1&keywords=sandor+katz

I can highly recommend those two in particular.