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Making your own sauerkraut is satisfying and involves only 2 ingredients: Combine cabbage and salt and let it ferment!

However some extra equipment is also needed.

The details: You create an anaerobic environment by submerging fresh cabbage in a water and salt brine. There the salt prevents the growth of unwanted bacteria while allowing the lactic acid bacteria leuconostoc in the cabbage to ferment the sugars in the cabbage into lactic acid. That lactic acid helps preserve the cabbage and gives the sauerkraut its signature sour flavor.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The ratio of salt to cabbage must be 2.25% to 2.50%. More info about that and all things homemade sauerkraut can be found at: Preserve Today, Relish Tomorrow by UCCE Master Food Preservers of El Dorado County

Ingredients

• 2 5 lb bags of shredded green cabbage (I used First Street Coleslaw). You can, of course, use a head of cabbage and shred or chop it yourself.
• 72 gm non-iodized salt. If you use a head of cabbage, be sure to keep the salt ratio to 2.25% - 2.50% of the weight of the cabbage.

Equipment Needed

• A large bowl
• Fermentation jars: a Gallon jar, and / or large Wide Mouth canning jars
• An airlock, or other one way valve, for each jar you're fermenting in. I used these: Masontops Pickle Pipes - Wide Mouth Mason Jar Fermenter Cap They fit into a wide mouth canning jar, for the gallon jar I used, I cut a hole in the lid and put the nipple through that hole, pulling it tight against the inside of the lid.
• Cheesecloth
• You can also buy a sauerkraut or pickle Packer or Pounder to help pack the cabbage into the jars, but I just pressed it down with my fist.
• Canning jars, rings, and lids to repackage the sauerkraut for storage after the fermentation has completed.

Preparation

• In a large bowl, combine the cabbage and salt.
• Using your hands, squish the cabbage down to 1/4 of the initial volume. This causes the cabbage to release its water which creates a salt water brine.
• Pack the cabbage and brine mixture into the fermentation jar(s) filling it up to the bottom of the shoulder of the jar's neck.
• If there is not enough brine to cover the cabbage, make more brine by combining 2 cups of boiled water with 2 Tablespoons (8 grams) of non-iodized salt. Add enough brine to cover the cabbage.
• Cover the cabbage and brine mix with 8 layers of cheesecloth. Tuck the cheesecloth under the shoulders of the jars tight against the mixture.
• If the cheesecloth doesn't seem to be laying down tightly enough, you can place a zip sealed bag of water on top of the cheesecloth.
• If the seal of the lid doesn't seem tight enough to keep air out, you can cover the lid and upper part of the jar to with plastic cling wrap to create a better seal.
• Place the jar(s) in a low traffic, room temperature area.

Fermentation

• You should start seeing bubbles in the mixture. They will make their way up to the top and leave via the one way valve.
• Keep an eye of your jar(s).
• Add more brine as needed. Do not let brine level get below the top of the cabbage.
• Make sure the cheesecloth stays in place covering the mixture.
• Make sure the one way valve stays clean and working.
• When the bubbles, stop your sauerkraut is done fermenting. Bottle it in canning jars, label it with the date and ingredients, store it in the refrigerator, and enjoy!!

Variation: Apple Sauerkraut

I made a variation of the basic sauerkraut that included sticks of unpeeled Granny Smith apples.

Some people could taste a faint apple taste in the finished product, some could not. But all agreed that the Apple Sauerkraut was a bit mellower than the straight sauerkraut.

The ingredients are:

• 2 5 lb bags of shredded green cabbage (First Street Coleslaw)
• 72 gm non-iodized salt
• 5 medium Granny Smith apples
• 2 cups brine (2 cups water with 2 TBS non-iodized salt)

Everything is the same as the original recipe, but the unpeeled apples were sliced on the mandolin, cut into sticks, and then soaked in the 2 cups of brine. Then the apples and their brine are added to the cabbage mixture as you pack the fermentation jar(s).

Sauerkraut History

• Marcus Porcius Cato (234–149 BC) mentioned preserving cabbages and turnips with salt in his treatise On Agriculture (De agri cultura).
• Plinius the Elder (1st century A.D.) is credited as the first writer to describe the making of sauerkraut by preserving what the Romans called salt cabbage in earthen vessels.

Ingredients History

-- Cabbage History

Additionally, in his 1599 English work Gerard says: "There is also found a certaine kinde hereofwith the leaves wrapped together into a round head or globe, whole head is white of colour, especially toward Winter when it is ripe. The root is hard, and the stalkes of a wooddy substance. This is the great ordinarie Cabbage knowne everywhere, and as commonly eaten all over this kingdom."

-- Salt History

Bibliography

• Alcorn, Carly and Benehonig, Kungund. Lacto-Fermenting Sauerkraut. http://brewers.sca-caid.org/recipes-research/#Food
• Gerard, John. The Herbal or General History of Plants. The Complete 1633 Edition as Revised and Enlarged by Thomas Johnson. New York: Dover Publication, Inc. 1975 (a reprint of Gerard's 1633 revision of Gerard's 1599 work.)
• Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Various articles. https://www.wikipedia.org