Serious Efforts: Sauerkraut fermentation
Following the instructions in the Ball Blue Book as far as weights, quantities and technique, I've got a bunch of kraut fermenting. Or at least it was fermenting. It was quite active for about two weeks, and now it doesn't seem to be doing anything at all.
According to the instructions, it's done when it stops bubbling. I tasted it, and it's on its way to being kraut, but it's not there yet.
So...does anyone have any helpful tips for me? Should I just leave it alone and hope it springs back to life? Should I pack it up now and have a less-sour-kraut? Is there some trick to jump-starting the stalled fermenting? Have I killed it?
Gah. It's 25 pounds of shredded cabbage. And I bought a big new crock just for this. I really don't want to have to start over, but I don't want to poison anyone...
...help?
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14 Comments:
I don't have any knowledge about making kraut, but just recently a saw an episode of "Good Eats", and AB was doing homemade kraut. Perhaps a visit to the foodtv website would be useful. The show aired within about the past 2 weeks, so it's probably that it might still be in their schedule cycle for another viewing.
dmcavanagh at 8:09PM on 11/03/09
I'm afraid I don't know either db--but I wish you luck. Sounds like you've put in a lot of work!
BananaMonkey at 8:25PM on 11/03/09
Not sure either. Try your university county extension office. Many times they can guide you.
Blue Book might have na 800 number too. If they do, call them.
Let us know how this progresses.
CJ McD at 9:29PM on 11/03/09
I don't have any experience either, but I looked up some papers (sorry I'm a microbiology nerd).
according to one paper,
"Under normal conditions, the fermentation is essentially complete within 2 weeks,"
My guess is that the bacteria used up fermentable carbon source before reaching the correct ripeness. and from the same paper,
"Glucose and fructose were the primary fermentable sugars in the cabbage (the concentrations were between 1.5 and 2.2%, respectively) (Table 1). Sucrose accounted for only a small amount of the fermentable sugars (less than 0.2% of the cabbage by weight)"
so in theory, adding glucose and fructose (I think the most accessible source is corn syrup) may revive fermentation.
if it doesn't work, I'd buy a small amount of fresh deli-made sauerkraut to add to the cabbage, to supply more bacteria.
good luck!
hmw0029 at 10:09PM on 11/03/09
This is something I've always wanted to do, but no one else in my entire family eats it, including those who have more German genes than I do. It seems hardly worth the time and effort to make a batch just for me. Explain how they eat coleslaw and can devour sour pickles but won't touch sauerkraut...I don't get it.
I'm really interested in learning how this turned out. Could you keep us updated?
betteirene at 11:10PM on 11/03/09
Well, my first thought was that maybe the salt concentration got too high because so much water evaporated. Dry climate here, and I lost a couple inches of liquid in the two weeks. It was still covering the cabbage, but not by much so I added some water to see if that does any good, and I'll give it another day to see what happens.
This whole project started when I brought home some kraut from a guy at the farmer's market. This stuff was so much better than any store brand, and it seemed like such a simple process.
And everything else in my house ferments so well...the vinegars are going strong, sourdough is a slam-dunk...so how hard is it to let some cabbage sit around and go funky? Yeah, sure.
@hmw0029, do you think I should mix some corn syrup with water and just pour it over the top, or do you think I need to mix it in and stir things up? The cabbage kind of gets compressed as it goes into the crock and then you weight it to keep it under the liquid, so maybe it's gotten too tightly packed?
Aaargh. This was supposed to be easy. Just let it sit and ferment. Uh huh.
I'll keep you guys posted, but if anyone has any bright ideas, let me know.
dbcurrie at 12:38AM on 11/04/09
You might find some useful info here: How to make sauerkraut video. The first part explains how to go about fermenting generally and the sauerkraut section starts at 8min.
Sauerkraut is a traditional food in some parts of France and you might find this site (in French, but with pictures) of interest.
Boone chance!
Frenchie at 4:41AM on 11/04/09
To ensure that it is properly fermenting, a good note for your next kraut batch is to add a little bit more of the ingredient liquid, while fermenting it will evaporate slowly, but not to a point to where you have to reopen the cotainer to replenish it, this can cause it to spoil, usually once the fermanting process has completed, you should have enough liquid in it still to drain, keep it in a cool damp place, like a basement, or a cabinet, try not to get light into the area, I live about 12 kilometer from a village in Bavaria Germany call Unterpleichfeld, I buy my Sauerkrats from them, and it's one of only a few places I get my Sauerkaut, good luck und Guten Apetit.!
AL at 5:22AM on 11/04/09
I haven't made kraut but make fermented pickles, and find it's incredibly forgiving. Though next time you might try smaller batches - I ferment as few as 3 cucumbers at a time, and then - even though it's never failed me - I don't lose a big batch.
I've spiked my pickles a couple of times with liquid from the previous batch, when they didn't seem to work as fast as I'd like. I think you may be right that you lost too much liquid, but rather than adding corn syrup I'd just add bottled water with a proportion of pickling salt. The trouble with just adding water is that unless you stirred it you have not decreased the salinity at the top to a potentially dangerous level.
Faced with your dilemma I'd get some fresh sauerkraut from the health food store or that farmer and use the liquid to spike your kraut, knowing it has the right lactobacilli, and add water and salt at the rate of 1/4 cup pickling salt to every 8 cups water.
lemonfair at 7:20AM on 11/04/09
sigh - that should read "you have now decreased the salinity," not "not."
lemonfair at 7:30AM on 11/04/09
Eugenia Bone has written Well-Preserved, a cookbook on canning and preserving that includes a chapter on making sauerkraut as well as recipes to use it with. She also blogs for the Denver Post, and might be able to answer your question. I've yet to try making sauerkraut though I've got a nice head of cabbage from the farmers market that I plan to use. I know that she specifies a two week ferment in her recipe as well.
Does your recipe use pickling salt only and no other seasoning? That's Eugenia's recipe but I'm tempted to jazz it up with mustard seeds or carraway or something even though it will be my first attempt. What do serious eaters think?
Otabenga at 9:16AM on 11/04/09
does it taste too salty? too much salt most likely makes bacteria sick, but those pickling bacteria are supposed to be salt-tolerant.
anyway, can you take a small amount out and divide into 3 containers: 1) add more cabbage 2) add sugars 3) add sugars and already-made kraut (or just the liquid) from the market and see which works in a couple of days?
I'd be nervous to experiment on the whole batch..
hmw0029 at 9:28AM on 11/04/09
@hmw, I don't have containers large enough to split it three ways, but maybe I'll take grab a some and put them into quart jars and see if I can get one of the quarts to restart fermenting. Then I can put that back into the crock.
@lemon, the only reason I went with this big of a batch was that a couple different sources noted that with sauerkraut, this is about the minimum amount you want to work with. Twenty-five pounds of cabbage sounds like a lot, but once it's in the container, it's not that huge.
@Otabenga, I like caraway in kraut, but not for every recipe, and it's easy enough to add it later, like when you get to canning it or cooking it. None of the recipes I looked at included spices during the fermenting stage, and most of them were just cabbage and salt, with liquid added only if the cabbage didn't produce enough of its own after salting. So I figured that for a first effort I was better off not adding anything extra that could mess up the fermenting.
As far as fermenting time, every book I looked at had different ideas of how long it would take, but they all said that it's pretty variable, depending on temperature, among other things. And the books recommended different temps, ranging from 60-75 degrees, which leads me to believe that it should be a pretty forgiving process. The guy at the farmer's market said that his kraut aged for a minimum of 90 days, which was much longer than any of the books. He suggested that I don't touch the kraut at all in that time, where the books mostly said to skim the surface as the crud built up.
I'll fiddle with it later today and see what happens. I guess having it go awry is more interesting than having it work flawlessly the first time. At least I'm learning something.
dbcurrie at 11:56AM on 11/04/09
We make kraut every year, (unless struck with lazyness), in relatively small batches, so here are some instructions that are pretty well complete for future reference.
In your case I'd say remove the top inch or so, add fresh kraut, a bit of brine - say a cup of water mixed with a tbsp of salt or so, and leave it for a bit. Even if the process doesn't seem active, slow fermentation will continue, and hope for the best.
First, you want a winter cabbage - the kind that appears in farmers markets in October(?) - the storage kind. An early (summer) variety will not be crunchy but soggy.
Wash and peel the outer leaves of the cabbage and reserve. Shred the cabbage finely (used to do this by hand, now we use a food processor), and add up to 1/4 shredded carrots by weight. (Other possible additions - whole or quartered apple, thyme, cranberries, whole hot pepper).
Scald the fermenting container with boiling water before making kraut, best made in a wooden barrel, but glass, earthenware, etc. works too.
Mix in your barrel or bowl with NON-iodized salt until the cabbage starts to release water. Pack it firmly into a jar/barrel, leaving a bit of room at the top, say 2 inches for a jar, 8 inches for a barrel, lay the reserved cabbage leaves on top, and cover loosely with some cheesecloth or kitchen towel. We often use a (clean) heavy can of tomatoes as weight to keep the cabbage submerged.
Keep at room temperature (no less than 60F), and as soon as foam starts to appear on top, use a skewer to poke several holes in the kraut, all the way to the bottom, daily. Remove the foam daily also, bacteria can start breeding in it. After the first few days, the cabbage will release a ton of juice, and it should be removed into a clean glass/cup/jar and add back to the cabbage if it starts to dry out. Fermentation will take 12-20 days, and is over when the liquid is clear and there's no more foam. It will continue to intensify in flavor with time though, and in the old days would be extremely strong by spring, which is where rinsing it would be helpfu.
Kraut will store great closer to fridge temperature in the fridge, root cellar, cool basement pretty much forever, although any foam/scum should be removed periodically. It should only be loosely covered in a barrel, and can have a lid on it in a glass jar. The lid and rim of the jar can be rinsed in a heavily salted solution to disinfect them every so often.
The proportions we use are:
3 quart jar
6.5 lbs cabbage
6-8 medium carrots (optional, should be weighed)
3 tbsp salt
1 tsp sugar (optional)
Enjoy! Despite the detailed instructions it takes about 30 min. to prepare and 2 min daily maintenance. The payoff is awesome, as it's not only tasty, but quite nutritious as well.
tatianak at 2:53PM on 11/04/09