1/16/2018 – Bought a head of white cabbage from Hong Kong Market. This ferment worked well and had a distinct mustard tone from the ground seeds. Next time use only yellow mustard to avoid the dark “clouds” in the ferment from the brown mustard seeds.
Weight after coring was 2117 gm. Cut it up small by hand and added:
- 35 juniper berries – This was 5 more for this weight of cabbage or about 15% more than used in earlier ferments.
- Caraway seeds, 6 gm
- Brown mustard seeds, 10 gms
- Yellow mustard seeds, 10 grams –
- 30 gm of canning salt that was 1.4% salt for 2117+6+10+10 total weight
Ground the caraway seeds into pieces then ground the mustard seeds into very small pieces and mixed into the salted cabbage. Pounded it down with the meat mallet and left it for about 3 hours. Made only a little brine.
Put into two 1/2-gallon mason jars with the glass weight. The brine only came up about a 1/3rd of the future kraut. Mixed a 1.4% solution of salt water and added it to each jar to cover the glass weight. As the winter temps are low I put them in the garage after a week in the guest bath. The finely ground seeds give the brine a brown tone in places–that worries Mary.
Next time use only yellow mustard to avoid the dark “clouds” in the ferment from the brown mustard seeds.
1/24/2018 – Tasted it and it was crunchy with good flavor and a mild but distinctive mustard tone.
2/4/2018 – Divided one of the partially full 1/2-gallon jars into a full quart and a full pint. It tastes good but not as crunchy as before. Ground seeds are evident as a brown tone to the ferment and parts of the seeds in the kraut.
2/17/2018 – Distinctive mustard flavor and the rough ground seeds are evident. Not too much mustard but clearly there. Nice crunch to the kraut.
