Making sauerkraut

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abby

Assistant Cook
Joined
Jul 7, 2008
Messages
46
I have a few heads of cabbage in my garden & would like to make kraut. Have any of you got a recipe that has ginger or caraway seed in it? I don't really like kraut but thought if I could spice it up I might like it better. Thanks.
 
Interesting that you don't like sauerkraut but want to make lots of it. I've never seen any recipes where such items are added to the cabbage at the time it is brining. To me that might interfere with or contaminate the sauerkraut making process. I would add such items after the sauerkraut has completed the fermentation process.
 
I don't really want to make a lot of kraut I just mostly want to experiment. After much Google searching I did find a few recipes that added caraway seed, juniper berries & even an apple during the fermentation process. Thanks for your reply.
 
I dont like kraut so much as just stewing it. It's very versatile that way: sweet/sour, sweet/salty, or sour/hot...lots of possibilities there.
 
I make sauerkraut in a 5 gallon stoneware crock. And I use caraway seed. Easy to do, just clean the crock thoroughly and chop the cabbage. I then layer cabbage a couple inches deep, sprinkle caraway and Kosher salt, and repeat until the crock is nearly full. Then I cover with a piece of cotton twill just slightly larger than the top of the crock, and insert the lid, a round wooden lid that fits inside the crock. I then top with a clean rock. Let sit in a cool, dark place. Every day, I remove the lid and the cloth, wipe down the exposed interior of the crock, rinse and wring the cloth, rinse and wipe the lid and re-assemble. Ten days or so, and the best kraut in town. Lots of it. I jar and refrigerate, and eat raw, to get the benefit of all the enzymes. This is how the German and Polish women made kraut back in Philadelphia when I was a kid, except they generally served it cooked. Some people just let it sit in the crock, rather than transferring to jars. It was winter food, but now I'm in southern California, where there is no winter to speak of, just summer or rain.
 
Thanks everyone! gadzooks, do you ever add sugar to your kraut? When I cook kraut I always add sugar & wonder if it would be ok to add it during fermentation. Thanks.
 
Save the sugar for after the fermentation process is completed. You can reduce much of the natural sour taste by just rinsing your kraut in water before eating/cooking it.
 
I do not add sugar, but I agree with mcnerd...after fermentation, else you are making cabbage wine.
 
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