hello and welcome to nachschlag! winter ist coming and the cabbage harvest is under way. everywhere you look, there's nice cabbage. to make the cabbage last a long time, we will make a nice sauerkraut. for that we need: a nice head of cabbage, salt, a preserving jar and beer to taste. to make the cabbage head fit nicely into the glass,
we de-stalk it and cut it into fine strips. we keep a few of the big leaves, and put them aside. now the cabbage is salted. 2% of its weight. thats 20g on 1kg of cabbage. just put the salt over the cabbage. and now mix it well. and now we put the cabbage into the glass.
a few handful. one... two... three... has to be enough. now we pound it. i use my daddys old kraut-pounder. the pounding destroys the cell structure and releases the cabbage juice. now we only have to consume beer to taste. and continue pounding.
and add more cabbage. and pound add more pound and pound if the cabbage runs out, just cut a bit more. don't forget the salt. 2%
don't forget to hydrate. add a little more it's done when it's completely covered in liquid. now take the whole leaves and cover it up with them. very important: the cabbage has to be covered totally by its liquid. if only a bit of it dries out, it goes bad.
to make sure the fermentation gases don't lift the leaves, it has to be weighed down. i use the little black one. bowl to weigh it down now the rest of the beer. and close it up. in three to six weeks it's done. sauerkraut is very healthy.
especially in winter and on long sea voyages it prevents: a cold, the flu and scurvy when you take out some kraut, make sure it is covered by the leaves after. if needed, fill up with salt water. little tipp at the end: you have to work very clean.
that means: boil the glasses before. so only lactic acid fermentation is happening inside. dig in!