Friday, January 30

Sauerkraut ist echt toll!

I've made my first foray into lacto-fermentation. I've made the sauerkraut according to the recipe in Nourishing Traditions. And natürlich, I took pictures.

  1. Gathered the salt, whey*, and caraway seeds (which I did not know I had)


  2. Prepared the cabbage for the food processor

  3. Food processed

  4. After 5 minutes of pounding with meat pounder. My arms and hands were very tired. I enlisted help.

  5. After 10 minutes of pounding, now putting in the quart jar. I did not think enough liquid had been released during the pounding until I got it in the jar and pressed on it with the wooden spoon. Then I saw the juices get released.

  6. I had to improvise in order to be able to pack the kraut into the jar so that liquid covered the top. The tea container was exactly the right size so I covered it in waxed paper and pressed away.

  7. Here is the jar and here it will sit until Monday evening.

*My whey has some white cloudiness that kind of swirls in it. If anyone knows that this is a sign of bad and not-to-be-used whey, please let me know. It smelled just as I would expect whey to smell. Kind of like sour milk.
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5 comments:

  1. AnonymousJanuary 30, 2009 at 7:58 PM

    Your whey sounds fine. There are a couple explanations for cloudy whey ranging from the whey still having milk solids in it to the way the whey was produced. Eventually whey does go bad, but it takes months.

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  2. SpinnerJanuary 30, 2009 at 8:09 PM

    FR,

    Thanks for answering my question! I'm relieved to know it's fine. Although it is pretty old whey. I made it before Christmas. That whey was made with low-temp past. non-homogenized milk, and I want to make another batch from raw milk anyway, so I might just replace it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJanuary 31, 2009 at 5:18 PM

    I love sauerkraut - though I haven't added caraway to mine. These foods are so tasty.

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  4. King's DaughterMay 10, 2011 at 4:39 PM

    Are the caraway seeds just for flavor? I can't stand caraway seeds!! I can't imagine that they would have any preserving quality but I'm an extreme newbie to fermenting. I love sauerkraut,but have only had the store-bought kind. How does the flavor of homemade sauerkraut compare to commercial? I'm sure much better, but is it a shocking difference?

    ReplyDelete
  5. SpinnerMay 12, 2011 at 7:52 AM

    Hello, King's Daughter! Interesting handle...

    The caraway is just for flavor, not for preserving. You can add dill, red pepper flakes, shredded carrots, radishes, etc. Or you can have just the cabbage. I like mine better than store bought, but it's not a radically new flavor.

    I'm gearing up to make another batch of pickled veggies which will be carrots, cabbage, onions and something else as well.

    Let me knmow how yours turns out!

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