Sauerkraut

Sauerkraut – literally translated, means “sour cabbage”, and that is exactly what it is. I’ve heard some refer to it as ‘pickled’ cabbage, but to be clear – it is fermented, not pickled. What’s the difference? Well, I’ll admit they may be similar in taste and features perhaps, but it is in the process by which that sour taste is achieved, that we find the difference. Pickling for example, is a method of preserving foods in acidic liquid like vinegar. One type of fermentation is the process of using naturally occurring good bacteria to produce lactic acid, which in turn breaks down the sugars or starches in a food turning them into acid. This is the fermentation used in common foods such as sauerkraut, kimchi, yogurt and even sour dough bread.

Why do we care? Fermentation produces PRObiotics, which support the body in building and maintaining healthy bacteria and other helpful organisms in the intestinal tract. This beneficial bacteria promotes a healthy gut and good digestion, which ensures we get the best from the foods we consume. PREbiotics are a source of food for your gut’s healthy bacteria. Both are necessary for good health. It starts to get very complicated but the process of making sauerkraut is super easy, and since the benefit of eating fermented foods is good health, we really should try to add more of them to our diet.

Although one most often thinks of sauerkraut with eastern European foods like Ukrainian, Russian or German, the lactic acid process of fermentation actually originated in Asia with something very similar – Kimchi. When we (in my house), first made sauerkraut many years ago, we followed a process of layering finely shredded cabbage with pickling salt and pushing it down to produce liquid which the salt drew from the fresh cabbage. I have since learned that a little bit of patience mixed with the same ingredients, allows the salt to do its thing with a lot less manpower. And when we first made sauerkraut we did a big batch – like we did everything in those days. When you have a big family, big batches of everything becomes the habit. But as life went on and family dynamics have changed, I’ve fallen in love with small batch preserving when its to my benefit. Since cabbage is in season from late summer through early winter, it is easy to make up a single quart here and there. The key is ‘patience’. The #1 rule with sour dough is “don’t try to rush the sourdough“. And the same principle applies to fermentation of any type. Don’t try to rush it. Don’t forget about it, but don’t rush it.

Health Benefits

Fermentation multiplies nutrition and health benefits far beyond those of fresh cabbage. Cabbage is already a good source of vitamins C and K, but the fermentation which transforms it into sauerkraut increases the bioavailability of nutrients, making it even more nutritious than the original cabbage. Fermentation is a process during which microorganisms on the cabbage digest its natural sugars, converting them into carbon dioxide and organic acids. It starts when yeast and bacteria that are naturally present in the air, the cabbage itself, and even your clean hands, come into contact with the sugars in the cabbage. Sauerkraut fermentation creates conditions that promotes the growth of beneficial probiotics – good bacteria that provide powerful health benefits. Probiotics also help make foods more digestible, increasing your gut’s ability to absorb vitamins and minerals.

Maintaining healthy gut helps prevent the growth of harmful bacteria improving our immune system. Its a natural way of putting your body in the best position possible to fight disease.

It is a good source of calcium and magnesium and an excellent source of dietary fiber, folate, iron, potassium, copper and manganese. Although you can preserve it in a hot water canner, the heat damages the vitamin C and naturally occurring enzymes as well as the live lactobacilli. Since it will last months in the fridge – it is my preference to simply refrigerate it and use it throughout the winter.

Top reasons to eat Sauerkraut
1 – improves digestion by introducing healthy bacteria important to proper gut function
2- excellent source of vitamins and minerals including fragile ones like Vitamin C
3 – low in calories
4 – high in soluble fibre
5 – it tastes great and is very versatile to incorporate into meals

Store bought vs homemade:
Now don’t get me wrong. I appreciate having healthy foods available commercially. And certainly, store bought versions are often the only way many people will get them. But, as with most things, store bought sauerkraut is considered to be less nutritious compared to homemade sauerkraut – mostly due to the necessary processing. Store bought sauerkraut has to be preserved somehow of course, and so must undergo a pasteurization during canning. This eliminates live probiotic content – which is one of its main benefits.
Store bought benefits: availability, shelf stable, still low calorie, still a good source of soluble fibre and non water soluble vitamins and minerals. Tastes good.
Homemade benefits: easy to make, will last in fridge for a long time, still low calorie, still a good source of soluble fibre and ALL original vitamins and minerals (including VC). Rich in antioxidants and live enzyme probiotics. Tastes better.

Eating sauerkraut played an important role in preventing scurvy in the early days of sea travel. Scurvy – the scourge of the seas in its day, resulted from an absence of vitamin C in the diet. Symptoms begin after a month, and the only prevention and cure for it is Vitamin C. It was the primary cause of deaths between 1500 and 1800 — on sailing ships around the world. Long before it was understood ‘why’, it was discovered that sauerkraut prevented scurvy. Scottish naval surgeon James Lind noticed that scurvy was linked to a diet which was severely limited. He began testing various foods and noted that citrus fruits provided the quickest and most effective cure for the disease. However, citrus fruits were not readily available in Europe, and it was impossible to keep fresh fruit on a sailing ship for months at a time.

Experiments using different types of food on sailing expeditions began in earnest, and famed Captain James Cook drew the lucky straw with sauerkraut in 1768. He was outfitted with almost 8000 pounds of the fermented cabbage, each man being rationed two pounds a week, and at the end of his three years’ journey, returned without a single death attributed to scurvy. An incredulous first! It literally changed the world! The number of lives that were saved with this discovery is unimaginable. A century later, during the American Civil War, physician John Jay Terrell began using sauerkraut to treat the same disease. In times when Vitamin C – the “fresh fruit vitamin”, is not so easy to come by, sauerkraut is a practical and healthful solution.

Let me just stop here for a moment and bask in the wonder of all this. It is amazing to me that ancient people could figure out how to harness the fermentation process and make it work for them. Without the knowledge of vitamins, bacteria or gut health, they came across a food that quite literally not only preserved their lives in winter times of no fresh fruits or vegetables, but preserved their health, enabling them to better digest foods, increasing their body’s ability to absorb important nutrients. And this, in a common farm house of illiterate people. If you are a believing person as I am, this is nothing short of a miracle – Evidence that a loving Father in Heaven cares intently about the affairs of his children.

making it

Making sauerkraut is embarrassingly easy, and I’m convinced when you discover just HOW easy it is, you’ll be making it frequently. It requires no special equipment. Yes, there are things traditionally used, like a crock and a wooden pounder, but you can also make it in a bowl with a potato masher, and stuff it into a glass jar with a lid. And yes, you can use a food processor, but I do not. I prefer to use a large knife and slice it thinly myself. Yes, if you make a lot, you might want to can it, but if you make less, you can store it for months in your fridge, so I prefer not to can mine – to take advantage of the full nutritional benefit. Its another example of how eating seasonally is best.

So equipment? Okay I lied. You do need some things.
Get a large, sharp knife for slicing the cabbage. A cutting board on which to cut it. A large enough bowl to hold the shredded cabbage while you toss it. A container to store it in: wide mouth glass jar or a crock of some sort . . . . I prefer glass or pottery. EVERYTHING SHOULD BE VERY CLEAN OF COURSE. I do not sterilize everything I use, but it is very clean, and cleaned continually as needed, throughout the process.

Ingredients:
cabbage and salt. That’s it! Really. That’s it. If you’ve got a good sized head of cabbage – medium large (approximately 5 pounds), you’ll use 3 heaping tablespoons of salt. NOT table salt which contains iodine, but pickling salt, or sea salt. I prefer coarse salt.
The SALT has a very important job – it draws the moisture out of the cabbage, helping to form the BRINE, it causes the cabbage to release fermentable sugars. Salt is also a natural preservative, inhibiting the growth of undesirable yeasts, molds, and bacteria. Through the miracle of nature, the bacteria needed for safe fermentation tolerates high concentrations of salt. Submerged in this brine for a week or more, the cabbage slowly ferments into the crunchy, delightfully sour – sauerkraut.

Some people add dill seed or caraway seed or even use purple cabbage. I think these are great ideas, and one day I might try a single jar of purple cabbage or even dill seed. But I hate caraway seed so that’s never gonna happen.

What causes this transformation called lacto-fermentation?
There is beneficial bacteria naturally present on the surface of all fruits and vegetables.  Lactobacillus is one of those bacteria, which bytheway, is the same bacteria found in yogurt. When submerged in a brine, the bacteria begins to convert sugars in the cabbage into lactic acid; this is a natural preservative that inhibits the growth of harmful bacteria.

Since this process is anaerobic – which means ‘without out oxygen‘, the cabbage much remain completely submerged in its liquid during fermentation. This is accomplished by packing it down firmly, and then placing some kind of weight on top. I have used a heavy rock (cleaned and in a plastic bag), plates, smaller glass jars . . . be creative. Find something that you can sufficiently clean, to set on top of your sauerkraut to keep it submerged. The cabbage near the surface wants to float, so I find it useful to place a large outer leaf of the cabbage over the surface to hold it down. Of course you want to ensure the jar or crock is covered at all times with a clean cloth. This allows airflow, and protects the surface.

How long does it take?

It could take days or weeks – depends on you, your personal preference, and the temperature of the room you’re storing it in. The cooler the room, the longer the time. I suggest tasting it anytime after 4 or 5 days. When you like it, simply put it into the fridge. It will continue to ferment in the fridge too, but at a much slower rate.

In a glass jar, you may see bubbles, foam, or white scum on the surface of the sauerkraut. You won’t see them in a crock, but they’ll be there. All signs of normal, healthy fermentation. The white scum on top can be skimmed off as you see it, in both glass jar or crock. It’s possible that the brine might bubble over during the fermentation process, so best not to pack your containers too full, and have them sitting on a cloth to absorb excess moisture, or a plate to catch it. You should be checking the progress every couple of days anyway. This helps you trouble shoot. If you see white scum, remove it. Taste it frequently with a clean fork to test for doneness. NEVER RETURN THE FORK TO THE SAUERKRAUT ONCE YOU’VE PUT IT IN YOUR MOUTH. GET A CLEAN ONE. Ensure the cabbage continues to be covered by the brine.

We have in the past found mold growing on the surface of the sauerkraut. Don’t panic. This is not rare, as mold typically forms when the cabbage isn’t fully submerged. Simply remove the offending pieces and re-ensure the rest is submerged. The sauerkraut is still fine being preserved by the lactic acid. Be smart though. Yes, a little mold that you can easily remove is not bad news, but a lotta mold that is affecting an inch or two into your sauerkraut is bad news. That would only happen if you’ve run out of brine. Perhaps your container was too full, and the bubble-over, took away too much of the liquid to keep the cabbage completely covered. Or perhaps it’s evaporated. Be proactive, if you’re running out of liquid, better to remove some cabbage to allow the remaining cabbage be fully submerged. You can always use the mild sauerkraut you’ve removed. Better that, than to risk harm to the batch with reduced liquid.

Recipe:

1) Remove the ugly outer leaves and discard into the compost. Remove another leaf or two and set aside to use later. I begin by cutting the cabbage in half, then in half again. Remove the core from each quarter, and slice. Slice thinly as you would for coleslaw. Scoop all the sliced cabbage into a large bowl or kitchen tub.

2) Sprinkle your salt over top and gently toss to fully incorporate. I use my hands, its just easier. I massage the cabbage with my hands for about five minutes. Salt: I use 3 heaping tablespoons for a medium large cabbage. It seems like it won’t be enough for that amount, but trust me, it is. As you toss the cabbage, you’ll see within the first minute that moisture is already beginning to be drawn out of the cabbage. Gently squeeze handfuls of cabbage as you’re massaging it.

3) At this point, you can cover the cabbage loosely with a cloth and set aside for about half an hour or more. This gives the salt time to work. When you come back, gently toss it by hand and again, and you’ll be surprised by how much liquid you’ll see.

4) Begin packing the cabbage into your jar (or other container) by the handful. I use a canning funnel to make this less messy. If you’re using a jar, this is when you’ll be glad you chose a wide mouth jar, because you’re may want to put your hand in to tamp down the cabbage with your fist. Pour whatever liquid was produced into the jar with the cabbage.
If you have a wooden pounder (isn’t that a descriptive name?) it will come in handy now to pack the cabbage in easier. Don’t take the name literally and go pounding it. You’ll damage the cabbage. Treat it as gently with the wooden pounder as you would using your own hand. You’ll see more liquid start to form throughout this process. Keep it up till you’ve got at least an inch covering the cabbage. Don’t fill your jar too full. Give it plenty of room to bubble-up later. How much? I dunno. Depends on the size of your container. I’d say two to three inches in a jar, probably six to eight inches in a large crock. Whatever you choose will probably not be enough, but then you’ll learn for next time, right?

5) Take one of the outer leaves you’ve set aside, fold to fit into the jar, and place on top of the sauerkraut. This will help keep small pieces from floating to the surface and causing your grief later.

6) Put your weight on top. For a glass jar, consider using a rock (in a plastic bag) or marbles (in a plastic bag), or a small empty jar. For a crock, use a plate with a rock on top (in a plastic bag of course). In a large crock, we filled a plastic bag with water and placed on top to keep everything down. It worked well.

7) Cover with cloth to protect, and allow airflow. Secure.

It is important to keep everything clean throughout the process. Taste frequently over the next few days, up to a couple of weeks. Never return a used utensil back into the sauerkraut. When you decide its as sour as you want it, simply refrigerate. It should keep fine for three or four months in the fridge, ESPECIALLY as you ensure it stays clean. Never put a fork into your mouth and then back into the jar.

Enjoy.

I’d love to hear your sauerkraut experiences, and ways you use it.

Cindy Suelzle