Last weekend, I revolted by making sauerkraut. Not much of a revolt, I know, but I had this head of cabbage that was in desperate need of use, so I used a quick sauerkraut recipe I'd read a while back. All I had to do was shred the cabbage, pack it into glass jars, add a little salt and a little sugar, and top it all off with boiling water. Easy enough, but after I'd made my sauerkraut my friend Amy posted about wild fermentation. Clearly I'm not an expert on these things, and Amy's wisdom shows me I have a lot to learn. Still, my brief venture into the world of fermentation -- even if it now feels like cheating -- was sort of empowering. Over the next couple of weeks, I'm adding "check sauerkraut" to my Saturday to-do list. And when I have the time, I look forward to trying things Amy's way.
Quick, easy and shameless sauerkraut
Ingredients
1 head cabbage
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
Salt and pepper, to taste (optional)
Shred cabbage (I use a food processor).
Pack cabbage into a large glass jar.
Add salt, pepper and sugar.
Fill jar with boiling water.
Allow to ferment four to six weeks.
From here, recipes differ. Some end. Some say do a water bath. I will be sure to address this in a couple weeks when my kraut is finished.
4 comments:
Is it blasphemy to say this?
I'm glad you did it the American Grandma way.... The 'wildcraft' way looks gross - I think people ate moldy, fermented food in days-gone-by because they didn't have refrigerators or nice clean jars and boiling water, so they couldn't keep things fresh and had to preserve them as best they could, usually in really dirty environments. (If you put enough salt, vinegar and pepper oils on something, it won't rot enough to kill you.) I really wouldn't be into eating something that fermented from the bacteria growing on my hands, most of which probably came from the subway.
Yes, that felt like blasphemy.
I am the new American Grandma.
We are all in that frantic pickling mode.....got even more of it from a few hours with Jessica Prentice (she wrote Full Moon Feast), I tasted one she made with rosemary and kale, it was genious! The flavor really develops well in those "Gartopf" crocks, plan to make and post more before we're out of local cabbage!
Thanks for the mention!
Amy -- You are an inspiration!
Post a Comment