Lacto-Fermented Sauerkraut

[worth1]

Sure hope we end up liking sauerkraut as a friend is bringing us about 45 to 50 small to medium sized heads of cabbages tonight !! We do LIKE cabbage many ways, but yikes!! It is a sin to waste food though, so will have to experiment and try making the 'kraut. Maybe two batches, one with carrots and apples like worths above and one with cabbage, onions and caraway.

I used the carrots for a filler because I didn't have enough cabbage to fill up a half gallon jar.
Normally I use a sweet apple. cabbage and caraway seeds.
But it all comes out good in the end no matter what you do.
Good luck.

[JRinPA]

@Danny how did you like it?



So for the first time I planted proper cabbage starts and kept them watered and sprayed with BT. Now I don't know what to do with them. We eat some fresh but don't have a big storage fridge or cool room. I was planning on sauerkraut but never looked closely at the requirements. There is not a place in this house during the summer that stays consistent temp below 75F. Let alone 72F....ah that would be nice. The basement hovers around 80.

I am about to the point I want to build a cold room with an AC and couple temp controllers. Sort of like a coolbot was before they had to be smartphone controlled and $419 price tag. But alas I haven't pulled that trigger.

I do have a small fridge downstairs, a Magic Chef, like a dorm fridge. Sometimes used for bait or curing meat or extra fridge space. I'm thinking I could hook up one of my heat mat controllers in front of it. I have one that is heating and cooling. Put the lead through the door and into the crock, and set it to turn ON at 73 and OFF at 65. And plug in the fridge to the COOLING outlet.

Would it be better to keep a tighter tolerance, 72-68F?

My only real concern is damaging the fridge - will turning it off mid cycle and then back on be a problem?

[worth1]

@JRinPA
Why not just try the fermenting at what the normal temperature is as long as it doesn't get above 80F.
It will ferment faster and what have you got to lose.

[JRinPA]

I just cut the next head of Bravo, 12lb 2 oz, plus some baby heads. I'll probably use 3/4 of the head for my first run. I think I'll do it straight, maybe carrots or pears next time.

I'd rather not tempt mold in the humid, hot basement. Without a controller the fridge on warmest setting is around 55F.
The temp controller in front of the mini fridge seems to works great. I have tested for a few days with temp probe in a quart of water.
Set at 68/72 (68+4offset, on at 72 and off at 68) the water temp varies from 72 down to 65 but holds at the 65 for a long while. The thermal load dips it well below target.
I upped it to 70/72 so it ranges from 72 to 67.
I'll start the fermentation at the warmer range and then lower both target and offset to hold a lower range after that.

This thread has been very helpful; I just should have read it earlier. I had a knowledge source planned, but unexpected war drums in that marriage have cut me off. I know the grandfather made it in the fall, but that is about all I know for sure. I expect it was a big barrel in the basement.

[JRinPA]

The mini fridge at 70/72 is working well for a summer heat ferment. With the mass of the crock in there, it seems to hold about 69F to 72F. It has been 11 days and it is starting to taste pretty good. No sign of mold or anything. I checked it after 6 days but it was not progressed far.

[JRinPA]

That first sauerkraut was well done to my mouth after about 20+ days. Still hot downstairs so I'm doing round 2 the same way. This time instead of hand slicing I ran it through the slicer disc on the food processor. It is much finer, and I did a better job of distributing the salt.

At the end of the prep I ran some of the old sauerkraut juice through a coffee filter and added it the new batch. That seemed like the thing to do, to inoculate it. Does anyone else do that? Use some of the old brine as a starter?

[worth1]

It's called back slopping.
What happens is it bypasses the first lacto bacteria and moves directly to another bacteria that takes over in the later stages of fermentation.
This can change the flavor of the product.
I have a bottle of 3 month fermentation juice from a hot pepper fermentation in the refrigerator for such use.
20 days may or may not have been long enough for the other bacteria to take over.
Because it depends on the acidity where one dies out and the other takes over.

[JRinPA]

I pulled that crock out today. I think it was 18 days. Tastes good to me, I moved it to the regular fridge. The first batch was finished off last week.

I just pulled the last two of my summer cabbage, 10-12 lb each. Eating some fresh fried and coleslaw, but I might start some more sauerkraut downstairs in the mini fridge. I have a bunch more on the way for the fall...we're gonna need a bigger crock.

[worth1]

15 liters would be a good start.

[JRinPA]

Yeah... after coming out of the 7 qt crock stolen from crock pot it only makes 3 qt jars + a bit for a tupperware dish. And the crock pot of course is unusable at the time.

It would be nice to have a big dedicated crock for the cooler months.

[JRinPA]

I figured out I could just use a 5 gal food grade bucket. That promptly ended my search for a huge crock.

So, I used a bunch of heads from the fall cabbage for this last batch, #4 to fill near 5 gallons. I chopped 2 or 3 lb at a time and added the minimum salt. On top, I had cabbage leaves and a gallon ziplock filled with brine over the leaves. It came out really nice. I guess it is at least 6 weeks in....who writes these things down...times, dates, bah!

I know it was really cold when I started it and I put heat mat under it with the probe taped to the side 1/2 way up and set for 70F. Then a week later it was almost hot outside. The warmest we set the heat to is 68F. So it was probably running quite a bit warmer on the bottom to get 70F on the probe. It was on the heat at 70 for a week or so, then I dropped it to 68 for another week. After probably two weeks with supplemental heat I unplugged the heat mat but left the probe taped on the outside of the bucket. The reading generally fluctuates from 68 down to 64. I added some more brine at that time to make sure it was covered well, and put the towel back over it.

Tonight we needed some sauerkraut for reubens (my batch #3 ran out) so I removed the brine bag, and the leaves, and a single spot of mold on top and dug in...wow it is really good. More sour than batch 3 and less salty.

I removed about a gallon+ and filled 3 qt jars for the fridge and the rest into a tupperware for first use. I pitched the leaves and rinsed the brine bag and it seems like it is enough weight with just the bag to keep the liquid up. I might move the bucket downstairs where it is 55F - it seems good to go.

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[GoDawgs]

Good job, JR! It should keep well down in that 55 degrees.

[worth1]

Well it started out I was going to break out my food processor and make a very fine coleslaw.
That didn't last long.
After seeing the juicy cabbage and remembering I had raisins and caraway seeds I shifted gears.
Made a hard packed quart jars worth number one grade fine sauerkraut with lot's of cabbage juice.
Processor setting on 1.

One quart took 3/4th of a cabbage.
So I still have a little left for coleslaw.
Temperature will run 70 in the daytime and 66 at night.

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[JRinPA]

Raisins, huh, that looks good.

It is up to about 60 f in the basement and will heat up quickly from here on out. We finished off the stuff in the fridge so a few days back I brought the bucket upstairs and packed the rest of it in jars. The last 8 qts went into the fridge. I don't want to can it, and there is room right now. The good hot dogs are back at Redner's, and between them and reubens, that big bucket didn't last as long as I thought it would. Sometimes I just eat a straight bowl of kraut, too.

edit: Oh man, only 6 left after this weekend. They were supposed to be eating fresh trout, not my sauerkraut.

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[worth1]

My sauerkraut has gone volcanic.
Hopefully it'll go dormant soon.

[karstopography]

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My remaining sauerkraut from last year. 30 day room temp fermentation, then it went in as is into the zip bag. Had some last week and it’s delicious. Nothing added like vinegar and there’s been no sign of mold. No heating to kill the fermentation. The 33° beverage fridge seems to be the best place for this. Zip bag keeps the air out.

[worth1]

I kept a ton of it in zip bags before with no problems.
This batch is going to be two weeks, no more and I'm eating it.

[worth1]

Sauerkraut still kicking hard so I put my homemade plastic hold down cone inside to stop the flow of lava.

[worth1]

My sauerkraut is slowing down big time.
Not worried.
I have big plans for it this weekend.

[worth1]

It's been 2 long weeks but it was taste tested and put in a quart bag and in the refrigerator.
Salty sour sweet and crunchy.
Heavy caraway flavor.
Perfect for a hotdog or whatever your hearts desire.

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