Unveiling the Sauerkraut

Two  years ago, I attempted making  sauerkraut  (see April 27, 2010 entry).  The real stuff, not poured out of the jar I bought at the grocery store. I had a book called Putting Foods By,

Putting Foods By

 that had a brief and easy looking recipe to make your own. It seemed  a very scientific, no-nonsense approach to working in your kitchen preserving food. Everything happening in those canning jars could be traced to a step you took along the way. If you follow the instructions, you are going to be happy (and not sick) come the next year when you open those food containers.  My original sauerkraut results were  okay for a first attempt.  Even though the texture was very similar it didn’t taste like what I imagined it would  taste like.  There really was no bite. No tang. No Sauer likeness.

 Researching for any improvements I could make, I found out there was a  woman in Ohio, who is famous for her sauerkraut. Known as The Sauerkraut Lady,  she was appearing at  Lehman’s.  For those of you who don’t know, Lehman’s is a great store serving the Amish Community, who mainly rely on handmade, homemade way of life. I wanted a fresh  approach to what I was going to put in the jar.  So I recruited my Mom, my sister Fran and we went to Kidron, Ohio. I met the Sauerkraut Lady and learned plenty and tasted even more of her demo’s she had brought. I was too ashamed to show her what I made after tasting hers. I went home with a better understanding of what sauerkraut could taste like.  That’s when I switched recipe books to a new one I had found on Amazon, called Wild Fermentation.

Wild Fermentation

Very encouraging, even inspirational in his approach, I read his instructions over and over.   After reading Wild Fermentation I tucked it up under my arm, channeled the Sauerkraut Lady and made a second batch.

First batch.

neatly finished and stacked up

 

 Second batch.

Weighted top of sauerkraut

Ugh, are you sure this is right, my first batch never looked like this.

Under the weighted bag

 

Or smelled like this. Or made my house smell like this.

But the cucumbers I embedded in the cabbage before it was fermented did turn out firm, tangy, (really tangy).

pickles are the dark green in the middle of the kraut

So as long as I don’t get  sick tonight ( I only ate a mouth full) I may have been successful.

Thank you Sauerkraut Lady and Wild Fermentation guy. And Lehman’s, in Kidron Ohio.

Advertisement

Tags: Amazon, canning, fermentation, Fermentation Guy, homemade sauerkraut, Lehman's, putting foods by, sauerkraut, Sauerkraut Lady, wild fermentation