Yes, raw (cold pack) 20 minutes from the time it starts boiling. 1/2 inch head space. I usually press the sauerkraut down with the back of a spoon, and the liquid goes to 1/2 inch below the edge.
I'm sorry I didn't see your post until now! I was hiding in the basement, tornado warning and storms tonight. Good luck with the canning. I hope it turns out great.
You mean me and my sauerkraut is less important than your safety ??? Need to check your priorities
Hope you, your family and everything else is ok. It's rare that I post something hear what I need an immediate answer anyway. Thanks for you reply, I appreciate it.
Last time I did it it worked out perfectly. We finished our last jar last week. I made a new batch that's sitting in the fridge, and I want to can it to extend its shelf life. Hopefully in a few months Ill be making homemade sauerkraut from home grown cabbages.
Tornado story:
Years ago, I was at a BBQ at someone from work's house. I dragged the kids along, and needless to say they were being a pain in the A$$. " Is it time to leave yet? , When are we going home? Im bored ..., There's nothing to do ....". I had recently gotten an I phone and told them if they shut up, I'll let them play with my phone. They agreed. A few hours later, when it's time to leave, I get my phone back and notice. 1) They changed the background to a shirtless Nicholas Cage ( still there today), The also downloaded 69 additional photos of Nicholas Cage ( bizarre pictures, like a guinea pig with his face superimposed, and they changed my name in the phone so it now recognized me as a offensive name which I don't ding appropriate to post here. Every time I use Siri, it addresses me as that name. I thought all of it was funny, and still have it on my phone today.
Fast forward to a few years ago, we were doing a cross country road trip to see my son in Montana. I never drive straight through on road trips. I find unique, fun and strange things to do on the way to keep us interested and busy. I like having a memory from each state we pass through. We hit Kanasa, and how can you not visit the Wizard of OZ museum in Kansas ( also wanted to go to the Evil Kinieval museum too, but it was closed). The museum was nostalgic, hit the gift shop and got a pair of witches legs to put under the Christmas tree and moved on. Our next stop was Monument Rock. It's a rock formation that is in the middle of nowhere. Its actually kinda cool, and was used as the backdrop for a pick up truck commercial ( didn't know this until I was watching TV one day , saw it, and said to myself " I know where that is". It is located on private property, miles into the property on dirt roads and Barron land. We drive in, the formation was cool but the atmosphere was kinda creepy. Felt like someone was gonna catch us, dismember us, and we'd Neve be found again.
Ok, now that I set the tone, here's the good stuff. The sunny blue sky started turning very dark. But not the whole sky, only a portion. An ominous cloud was forming in the distance. The winds started to pick up. Tumble weeds and crap were blowing around. There were cows in the distance, we couldn't see but all of a sudden we heard them , for lack of better words " screaming". My wife looked at me and said, I don't feel comfortable, let's get out of here. I agreed and we got back into the rental car and started to make our way back to civilization on the dirt road. While driving down the dirt road, I tried plugging the next stop my phones GPS , and sure enough, like any other horror movie, no signal. I handed the phone to my wife and asked her to figure it out, and the second she grabbed the phone ( which was plugged into the car, and the screen was on the cars display window ( rather large display window) its starts flashing " Warning Warning , #$%&@, #$%&@" and making a screeching noise while doing so. The screen lit up bright red, and it kept repeating itself. I turn to my wife and said " what the hell button did you push , we need to punch in the next address quickly before we get lost", She said, " I didn't do anything, it just happened by itself!!!!". Eventually it let us know it was a Tornado Warning, ( In Kansas, right after visiting the Wizard of Oz Museum, go figure). We make our way back to the main road , I knew I had to make a right ( and did) but that's all I knew. So were in the middle of Kansas, lost, No phone signal, a non functioning GPS, threats of a tornado, no shelter in site. I look in my rear view mirror, and see this car coming up on me fast. My wife looked like a prairie dog. She kind popped up on here knees kinda looking all around ( in fear) to see if she could locate the tornado. Although nervous, it was kinda cool and I was hoping to see one. Anyway, my wife is like " what should we do?". I said " I'm going to let this guy pass me ( he was going really really fast) , Im going to look at his plates, if he is from around here, Im just going to follow him", sure enough he passes me ( doing well over 80), I see he is from Kansas, and I just floored it. We never caught up with him, but we ,made it to a War-mart a few miles away, and sheltered in there with a bunch of other locals. About 20 minutes later, we went outside, bright sunny was popping , Dark clouds in the distance with blue sky taking over, and a beautiful rainbow extending from horizon to horizon. Perfect way to spend time in Kansas. The total Wizard of Oz experience . * never got to see the largest ball of twine though, maybe next time.
Sorry for boring you guys with a long winded story, but nothing else to do at 4:30am I've enclosed various pics to back up my story, as unbelievable as it sounds.
