Any fellow sauerkrauters here?

[CrealCritter]

$2.75 quart store bought sauerkraut (with 4.3 star rating) Ingredients: Cabbage, Water, Distilled Vinegar, Salt, Sodium Benzoate (preservative), Sodium Metabisulfite (preservative), Natural Flavors, Polysorbate 80. <--- city folk just don't know what's good, do they?

Link ---> https://www.walmart.com/ip/Vlasic-Old-Fashioned-Sauerkraut-32-fl-oz/10308963

The sauerkraut I'm making has 3 ingredients. Cabbage, water, salt and I can actually pronounce all of those ingredients -:lol

 

[Devonviolet]

! It really takes 9 weeks?

Mine doesn't take that long . . . a week, maybe a bit longer in winter, since we keep our house at 68° F. I use 1 gallon glass jars with air locks in the lids. The batch that I gave to @baymule was pink, but that was because I used purple cabbage.

Sodium Metabisulfite (preservative),

UGH! That stuff gives me an instant migraine! So, making my own sauerkraut is even more necessary.

The added benefit of natural probiotics is priceless. Those bad boys kill off the bad bacteria & build up the immune system.

When I get a cold, I increase my intake of my homemade sauerkraut, kefir & Kombucha, in addition to taking my homemade Elderberry Syrup, & the cold is gone before I know it. Those virus bugs don't stand a chance against my natural arsenal!

 

[CrealCritter]

Mine doesn't take that long . . . a week, maybe a bit longer in winter, since we keep our house at 68° F. I use 1 gallon glass jars with air locks in the lids. The batch that I gave to @baymule was pink, but that was because I used purple cabbage.

UGH! That stuff gives me an instant migraine! So, making my own sauerkraut is even more necessary. The added benefit of natural probiotics is priceless. Those bad boys kill off the bad bacteria & build up the immune system. When I get a cold, I increase my intake of my homemade sauerkraut, kefir & Kombucha, in addition to taking my homemade Elderberry Syrup, & the cold is gone before I know it. Those virus bugs don't stand a chance against my natural arsenal!

I figure if I can't pronounce it - I really probably shouldn't be eating it. I'm sure I eat enough of this sort of crap anyways without intentionally adding it to my diet.

Knock on wood... I ain't been sick for just a little over 3 years. Occasional allergies in the spring but nothing so bad I needed to do anything special. The last time I got sick in beginning of Nov 2014 - I was sick bad... bad sick. Per my doctor's strong advise I take 5000 ICU of vitamin D3 every night along with 1 tsp of Bragg's organic ACV Nov through April. It's really helped me not only regulate my body temperature (used to be cold all the time) but also fend off cold/flu/crud. Of course I continue to try and eat at least one naturally fermented food I make here at home everyday - I know the probiotics in naturally fermented foods are great for me also.

 

[CrealCritter]

It's time to can, can & can this batch turned out good - it's ok to leave in the buckets after it's done fermenting and until you have time to can it. Just make sure it stays under the brine, air = spoilage

Empty bucket

Quarts in water bather

Quarts already water bathed

More quarts waiting to go in the water bather.

We got plenty of sauerkraut now. I would say a good two years worth including giving some away for family & friends. The stuff is like candy to me.

 

[baymule]

Ok, I planted 61 cabbage plants March 9, that I started from free seed I got from Baker Creek. I am reviving this thread because I want to make sauerkraut and I figured I'd best go to the master, here.

Everything I have read said that water bath and canning kills the probiotics in the sauerkraut. So my question is, can you make a batch of sauerkraut, keep some in the refrigerator (live bacteria) and can the rest, keeping the juice from the raw sauerkraut to "jump start" a jar of canned sauerkraut when you open it, to replace the good bacteria?

Can I slice it 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick? I like the look and texture of shreds.

Page one of this thread is 80 pounds of cabbage to make two 5-gallon buckets of fermenting cabbage. How many cabbages was that? @CrealCritter have you any idea what I might expect from my 61 cabbage plants? That is barring insects, varmits, hail, tornadoes and a pine tree falling on them. I also set out 60 kale plants, blue lacinato kale plants. Can I use these in the sauerkraut also? Kale is supposed to be all that, good for you and blah, blah, blah. I have no freaking idea why I planted so much kale, I don't even know if I like it or not. But I bet the sheep will! LOL

I am trying to get ahead of the 8 ball. Normally I am up to my armpits in whatever before I think, "Hey! I need to do something!" Any advice you have, I will be delighted to hear it.

 

[Britesea]

sometimes it's just a matter of re-educating your taste buds. If you eat something often, it eventually becomes something you like, even perhaps a comfort food. The opposite is true as well, which is why I don't crave sweets as much as I used to

 

[The Porch]

Very interesting, never thought of it this way. I suppose it is like when you are starting to feed solids to a baby, keep trying!

I tried to find you a quote yesterday, from my book , Sandor Katz,
From what I know, when you make kraut in a warm environment and if ferments quickly the more sour it will be,
in a cool house, 60 degrees, with will take longer and be less sour.

 

[Britesea]

if it goes OVER 75 though, apparently the bad bacteria that are competing for dominance have an advantage at warmer temps

 

[Britesea]

The red color tells you there's more minerals in it, as well as anthocyanins. I prefer red cabbage when I roast with pork; it seems to have a richer flavor.

Your taste buds age, and eventually can't sense some of the more delicate nuances. Some people (like me!) start enjoying spicy foods like curries more than when they were young-- the spicy taste still gets through. Others simply eat less because they derive less enjoyment from food.

I know that when I lost my sense of taste last month because of Covid, I drank more Campbell's soups, because the inordinate amount of salt they have in them what pretty much all I could taste. Everything pretty much was like chewing on cardboard. (DH lost 10 pounds because he got no real enjoyment from food)

 

[Marie2020]

I got the kraut put in jars, tastes great!!
View attachment 17080

I'm going to start mine off today and pickle some beetroot.