Sauerkraut

This was sauerkraut weekend. My friend Jane loaned me a huge crock. It looked like 7 gallons, but it turned out to be over 10. After being chopped a 20 gallon trash bag of cabbage only filled it half full. 7 more large heads brought it up to ¾ full. That was enough chopping.

The process is to wash the cabbage and cut off any damaged parts. Deer and rabbits munched on some of the heads. The places where they had bitten were sheared off. Then the heads were chopped until a large bowl was filled. ½ carrot and 1 spring onion were chopped fine and thrown in the bowl along with a single clove of garlic, also chopped small. About 2 or three tablespoons of salt were added and mixed in. A little bit of caraway seed was sprinkled on top and the whole bowl was dumped in the crock and tamped with my fist. This is done until the crock if full or the chopper gets too tired or until there is no more cabbage.

A follower of some sort needs to be put on the cabbage to keep everything down (we used a pot lid) A half gallon of water is put on this for weight. The crock should be checked every 2 or 3 hours to make sure that the kraut is still down. Within 24 hours if the water hasn’t risen enough to cover all of the cabbage, salt water should be added to bring the level above the follower.



David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://davidsegrest.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/