Preserving

September 12, 2011 By Annie

A few weeks ago, I wrote about our Cabbage harvest and using some of it to make Sauerkraut. You can read about the process of Sauerkraut here.

After leaving the kraut in the crock for a couple of weeks and checking it often, I scooped a bit out for the Gman to do a taste test. He found it to be delicious and mild, which he likes.

So it was then time to finish off the preserving of the Sauerkraut. We could just put the crock as is down in our Cold Room and use it as desired. We keep our Cold Room between 32 and 40F, and this temperature would be fine for the Sauerkraut.

We chose to can it instead – so should you if you cannot keep the crock in a cool enough place. Here’s how I did it:

Heat the Sauerkraut – you want it to gently simmer, don’t boil it. Add a bit of the juice. Make a brine, in case you don’t have enough juice in the crock.

You’re going to Hot Water Bath the Sauerkraut, so wash your jars and then set them into your boiling water canner and keep them there for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile you can get your seals and rings ready. Pour boiling water over them and let them sit until you need them. I’m using Tattler lids for some of the jars – I should have ordered more!

Use 1 1/2 tablespoons of salt for each 1 quart of water. Heat this brine on the stove.

Once you get your Sauerkraut warmed up, hot pack it into jars. I use pint jars but you can use quarts if you like.

Leave 1/2 inch of headroom in the jars. Add the warm liquid and use the brine, if you need to. Leave 1/2 inch of headroom and wipe the tops of each jar.

If you are using Tattler lids and seals, there is a slightly different process to follow and you can read it here. It is very important to let the contents vent during the processing.

Place your jars in the Boiling Water Bath and once the water comes back to a boil, set your timer for 15 minutes for pints. If I had used quarts, the processing time would be 25 minutes. I have to add 5 minutes because of our altitude (2800 ft). Make sure you always take your elevation into account when you do canning, it is very important.

Once the time is up, remove your jars and leave them alone for 24 hours. After that, you can wipe the jars down, remove the metal bands if you like, and place the jars on your pantry shelf.

I have a very handy Canning kit (Presto) that includes jar lifter, seal grabber, a funnel, a measuring gauge that allows you to easily figure out the headspace and more. These items are almost a necessity when canning. You can order one of these Canning kits here.

Enjoy your Sauerkraut! The Gman has already enjoyed one meal of Bratwurts and Sauerkraut along with Perogies, and is looking forward to many more.

We ended up with 17 pints of Sauerkraut using a 3 gallon crock, which held a total of 15 pounds of cabbage.

How to Make Sauerkraut

August 21, 2011 By Annie

Cabbage grows wonderfully here in the Cariboo – we often end up with heads over 10 pounds. We don’t seem to have many pest problems when growing Cabbage and I am not sure why, although I am grateful.

What to do with all this Cabbage? We can keep some heads in the Cold Room and they will easily keep down there until past Christmas.

We also eat a lot of Coleslaw in the Fall. We mix the red and green Cabbages together, grate some Carrot, add a few raisins or cranberries and put dressing all over it. We probably eat Coleslaw at least three times a week.

I don’t enjoy cooked Cabbage, actually I prefer almost all of my veggies either raw or very lightly steamed so they are still crunchy.

IMG 5000 225x300 How to Make Sauerkraut

The Gman does love Sauerkraut and since we have a 3 gallon crock, we usually make a batch of Kraut every year.

IMG 4998 300x225 How to Make Sauerkraut

For this recipe, I need 6 tablespoons of coarse pickling salt for every 10 pounds of cabbage. If you have a crock and don’t know how much it will hold, the general rule is 5 pounds of food for every 1 gallon of crock capacity, so my crock should hold 15 pounds of cabbage. So I measured out 9 tablespoons of the pickling salt.

Wash the Cabbage, taking off the looser outer leaves. Start with a nice tight head of Cabbage, then half the Cabbage and then quarter it and remove the core.

Slice it (or use your food processor to finely shred) very thin, weigh it and then put a layer in the crock.

I like to pat it down firmly with my hand to remove as much air as possible. On top of EACH layer, I sprinkle some of the pickling salt. Alternate Cabbage and the salt until your crock is almost full.

Once my layers started getting higher, I used the bottom of a coffee cup to firmly pack the Cabbage down. I want as little air in there as possible.

Once you’ve got your Cabbage and salt layered in the crock, tear some plastic wrap and place it on top, tightly tucking it down the sides if possible. I ended up tearing more plastic wrap and just jamming it around the edge of the crock.

Now take a plastic freezer bag 3/4 full of cold water and set that directly on top of the plastic wrap. The bag will find any open areas and sit on top of it, hopefully removing ALL air at the top.

Put the cover on your crock and leave it alone for a couple of weeks. Check it every few days – there should be no scum sitting on the top. If there is, take a spoon and carefully remove it. Make sure you put fresh plastic wrap on top. After it has stopped fermenting, it will be ready for canning (another post).

For fermenting, you want a temperature of 68 – 72F or 20 – 22C.

Try making some Sauerkraut for your family! If you don’t have a crock, you can use glass jars instead. Don’t use anything metal and never mix fresh cabbage in with cabbage already fermenting.

To read about canning this Sauerkraut after it has finished fermenting, please read here.