Sauerkraut

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I have Alton cook book(Good eats 2 the middle years and used the recipe. It says to fill a plastic bag with water and 1 1/2 t. PICKLING salt this is important ladies you cannot use just any old Salt. Anyway old recipes call for a piece of muslin so I used a cotton square on top of the cabbage and the plastic bag which sealed it completely and when I was ready to process it there was no undesirable layer to be removed it used it all! The results were perfect. My daughter did the same but used a layer of good old plastic wrap then the bag. Same results. I put the kraut up in pint jars with water bath method 20 min. processing time.

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This recipe is very good. Some of the reviewers said they used trash bags with water to weigh down the cabbage. The plastic bags need to be food grade which trash bags are not. Also instead of plain water a brine solution would be better in case of leaks the cabbage will not be diluted.

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I used this recipe in a 15 Qt crock. I did allow the fermentation to go longer than 4 weeks and kept tasting it until it was the kraut sourness I was looking for. I did can it up in pint and quart jars following a cold pack, hot bath method so i could easily ship as Christmas gifts.
The most difficult part of this recipe is the prep of the cabbage. The rest was very easy and I look forward to cabbage season to arrive again so we can make more. My list of friends and family waiting on more gifts has grown, perhaps 30 Qts next time.
Enjoy!

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Using this exact recipe I made a 10 pound batch a few months ago using a large plastic food container from Walmart. Tasted great. The container had a tight lid on it. I shaped a piece of a poly cutting board to slip down inside to push the cabbage down and keep it submerged. Used a heavy weight, not a messy bag of water . If you mash it and weigh it down, the entire thing will be submerged in it's own water within 2 hours if you use fresh, heavy cabbage.

Made another batch, 25 pounds this time, 10 in the same plastic container, 15 in a proper crock. I see, and taste, no difference in either. Don't know why someone would say a crock is "much better" except it just feels good to have a proper crock.

I don't think it needs to be rinsed, heated and sealed to kill bacteria. Rinsing it seems to me to be rinsing some of the flavor away unnecessarily. Guess it wouldn't hurt but I am not sure what bacteria are in there, at the end of the process, that needs killing!

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You can use a plastic bucket, but a crock works much better even if it is an old-fashioned bean pot. Make sure that it is covered very well and weighted down. It does take a while depending on how much cabbage you are using. When you remove it, it needs to be rinsed and then packed into a jar or jars and should then be heated to seal the jars and kill the bacteria. Be careful, because refridgeration doesn't kill the bacteria nor does the heating in a skillet because it is not at a high enough temperature

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Homemade sauerkraut is the best! I left out the juniper berries, cause frankly I dont like them. had trouble getting enough liquid out of my cabbage so i added a weak salt brine solution to the cabbage and it worked perfectly to cover it with some room to spare. I should have let it ferment a little longer to increase the sourness, but i was so excited after 3 weeks, i couldnt wait to jar it up and share with friends. Delicious none the less

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Wow it really worked! I was a little hesitant about this recipe. I thought I'd be throwing it out, I was for sure it would just be a rotted mess. I used a big white bucket and like other reviewers, made sure I really packed it down and used a trash bag filled with water- that really is the trick, you don't want any air to get in it. I let it sit for 4 weeks in the basement, it was probably between 50-60 degrees. For the first few days I would peak at it to see if it was making the scum- but there was nothing-probably needed longer since it was cooler than the recipe. Then I just left it alone and forgot about it. I threw out the top layer- didn't smell too good- but underneath, yummy kraut!

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just put a batch of cabbage on using this recipe. hope it comes out as good as everyone says. a friend of mine from slovakia said that if you use a big crock submerge whole heads of cabbage that have been cored and do it whole along with the shredded cabbage. they make the best cabbage rolls. i tried it and its wonderful!!! thanks alton for the recipe

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My grandfather used to make sauerkraut ever since I can remember and we have continued the tradition with one change: He used to use a big wooden disc with weights to press down on the top of the crock. However, the 'souring' of the cabbage relies on an anaerobic process (you want to keep the air out! so we now use tripled-up trash bags filled with water to the top of the crock, directly on top of the cabbage, which is effective in sealing against the sides of the crock.

So, to apply the same to Alton's recipe, during the fermenting step when instructed to put something on top to press down, use a water-tight plastic bag to seal the sides and prevent air from contacting the kraut. I'd recommend doubling, or tripling the bag to ensure excess water doesn't leak into the kraut. Of course, it would also help to place a weight on top of the bags filled with water to help press them against the sides.

When we make it we use a ~30 gallon crock, start after harvesting the cabbage in the fall, and sometimes leave it to ferment until Thanksgiving or Christmas. It really depends on your ambient temperature (we live in NE Ohio and the degree of 'sourness' you desire, so remove a side of the bag and check it periodically until you're happy. Often, we'll can it at various stages of sourness.

In any case, you should not have to remove any scum, just the top layer of kraut after fermentation. The waste is much less with this approach.

Happy krauting!

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It took me 3 tries, with the last one actually using a pickeling crock instead of a plastic container as in the episode (got lucky and found a 4 Gallon one on craig's list for $40. Also, I think that Alton was "too nice" to the cabbage on the show, I really needed to punch down hard on the cabbage to get enough liquid out of the cabbage (or on both previous tries my cabbage was not fresh enough? I think I was being too nice. This was well worth the persistance as the sauerkraut is simply amazing. Another example of how store bought is not representative of what the real thing should taste like (see AB's Good Eats Chilie Powder for another prime example. Can't wait to make Choucroute Garnie this weekend, this sauerkraut is what I have been waiting for!