Kraut Katastrophe

[FrankZ]

We had a kraut katastrophe tonight. I made the yaeger schnitzel for dinner again since it was such a big hit last week and Kathleen asked nicely. The plan was to grab some more kraut from the crock in the basement.

When I opened the crock we have mold blooms everywhere inside. And the smell.. oh my.. UGH. Horrible. So the rest of that crock is now in the garbage but we are, to say the least, disappointed.

I think what happened is this. The crock has a water lock. You pour some water into the rim and it covers the bottom of the lid. There are two small vent holes in the lid that are covered, but they burp if need be. When we got the kraut out the other night we noticed the water lock ring was a bit slimy. Before we put the lid back on we cleaned out the water in there and and got rid of the slime (probably dust mixed with the water). I suspect we contaminated the crock with that water somehow. We use some long tongs to pull the kraut out, though I have pull up the weight stones by hand. They stayed in the crock so I know they were not contaminated by sitting them down somewhere that they could pick up something.

The upside is we were down to the last bit. I might have gotten two more meals (big ones) or three small meals. Just a couple of pounds left out of the 8ish that we put in. The downside is it was really getting a nice deep flavor.

I suppose it is time to pick up more cabbage now.

[Andy M.]

That's a shame. At least you enjoyed most of it before this happened.

[FrankZ]

We really did enjoy it, and this incident will not stop us from having another go at it. We were discussing it last night and I think we will make another crock, and when it is ready can it up, then start the next crock to have it fresh.