I have to say when I opened today’s batch of sauerkraut, I felt pretty excited. The kind of excited I imagine some women feel when they buy an expensive purse. I get that same giddiness opening a fermentation project…man Jeremy’s lucky. 😉
This was my 7th batch of homemade fermented sauerkraut to magically ferment in our 5 liter crock which happens to turn a year old later this month. You can tell I’ve been pretty consistent with cranking out the batches. After making so many batches that revolved around cabbage, carrots, and onion, I have finally deviated from that trifecta with the last two batches. Last month I opened a straight cabbage batch and today a wonderful new blend of red cabbage, apple, onion and pickling spice. It’s been a fun and rewarding deviation from our old standard.
LOOKS – This has an almost unreal vibrant color, it is so unabashedly magenta. It looks smashing in our bold fiestaware.
TASTE – Let’s talk about taste. On our first bite we noticed that it wasn’t as salty as our previous batches. This is neither good nor bad – it just is. I purposefully left out 1-2 tablespoons because I was curious how the apple would taste and I hoped to taste more of it by cutting down on the savoriness that salt can add. I can’t say that I’ve been able to detect the apples specifically but they definitely add a subtle sweetness to the flavor. I also noticed that they released quite a bit of liquid during the ferment; more so than what I noticed when opening previous batches.
The pickling spice seems to be just right, enough to give it flavor but not dominate. I wondered how the pickling spice would turn out texture wise too. With pickles, the spices would just settle to the bottom but in a batch of sauerkraut they get caught up in the net of cabbage leaving peppercorns and pieces of hardy leaves to roam free. So far? Not an issue. I don’t think very much that you’d want to ferment for 4 weeks with cheesecloth bound spices; that just seems strange but if you have any suggestions, please leave them in the comments.
This batch made 6 quarts!
I finally gave in and bought a case of wide mouth quart jars because they are large, easy to fill and great for drinking water and green smoothies out of.
I used to loathe pink in high school but now if it’s like this or paired with black or skulls…I love it!
I put on my pink lipstick (which is actually red but turns pink once applied – rolls eyes) for the special occasion and that I’m trying to wear my two bold lipsticks more often. Practice. Practice. Practice. 😉
Opening Our 7th Batch of Sauerkraut
This will fill a 5 liter crock at the very edge of comfortably full.
Ingredients
- 4 small heads of organic red cabbage (about 7 lb), quartered and thinly sliced)
- 5 organic apples (about 2 lb) - I used 3 granny smith and 2 Tokyo Rose, core removed and shredded
- 1 large organic red onion, thinly sliced
- 4 tablespoons kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons pickling spice - I used a variety made/sold in bulk by a local farm
Instructions
- Follow instructions given here.
- Ferment 4-6 weeks (I went 4 weeks), keep gutter of crock filled with water to keep the air-tight seal intact.
- When it's time to open, transfer kraut and brine to lidded mason jars for storage in the fridge.
- Enjoy!
Sauerkraut bouquet!
Have you been inspired to start fermenting? What have you made?
I love making sauerkraut – it reminds my of my old Grandmas’ cooking. I just opened my latest batch of plain white, but was looking for new ideas – so red with apple and some spices is next! What do you do with the drained-off juice? I pack the kraut tight into wide-mouth quart jars like yours with a pestle, then bottle the juice for use in cooking or seasoning. An extra gift! Thanks for the recipes. Great pics, and love your passion for this delicacy too.
Thank you John! i just started 3 batches at once – oh my – and I was reading about reserving the brine similar to what you do and use it as a salt replacer for future batches. I think it’s 1 TB of brine to 1 pint of vegetables. Happy fermenting!
Hi! I just went through a class on fermenting at Hippocrates Health Inst in Florida and the sauerkraut they made looked a lot like yours!
TIP: They put apples in the bottom to speed up the fermenting process. We took the apples, sliced and dehydrated them. Sooo good. I think you’d like!
Hi, any recommendations on scaling this recipe down? I was hoping to make a quart of this. I have a head of red cabbage. Thoughts?
Hi Anja – I would try 1 cabbage, 1 apple, 1/4 onion, and 1-2 teaspoons pickling spice. Weigh ingredients and use the rule 3 tablespoons salt to 5 pounds of veg. I’m guessing it will probably be 1 tablespoon of salt or less. Cheers!
Thanks so much – I’ll give it a try!
Thank you very much for this interesting post.
How long will such a sauerkraut last if it is stored in a real cellar from the beginning? Is it the same length than with one prepared only with cabbages? What is the maximum proportion of apples that it is possible to use?
If I decide to store the apples separately also using lacto-fermentation, how long can I save them also in the cellar? What would be the best way to prepare these fruits for long-term storage in this case? Would it be to cut or to grate them?