Turned out well other than a little too salty. Went by the advice here and this page at Mr. T’s web site. A bit salty and analyzed here.
1/21/2017, 1 pm – Shredded 1882 gms of cabbage (one large head) and added 47 gms (2.5%) kosher salt as we layered it into the small Briner tub. Laid the large outer leaves over it and set the Briner’s inner lid to be pressing down firmly. Put the lid on the Briner and put it on the floor in the pantry. Now, wait for the juice.
1/22/2017 – The cabbage is wet but no juice. Mixed a quart of 2% brine using filtered tap water and kosher salt. Needed all of it to cover.
1/28/2017 – Smells right. Tastes a bit salty, crunchy and very mild compared to the very finely cut store bought kraut.
2/5/2017 – Checked at the 2-week mark. Opened the Briner and noted the fermenting smell that was a bit sour but not alarming. We agreed the color is more of white-slightly-yellow tint of store bought kraut. The taste is milder than at week 1, a bit too salty with a firm crunchy texture but softer. Will let it ferment one more week before bottling.
2/12/2017 – Sunday Lunch – Made a Rueben sandwich with my first ever Corned Beef and our first ever Russian Dressing made yesterday and this kraut that has been fermenting for three weeks. The kraut was good although very mild compared to commercial. By itself, it was mildly tart, almost pure white, but not as salty as the last sample on 2/5 above. Will leave it to ferment at least another week sitting on the floor in the pantry in the small Briner.
3/5/2017 – Put the kraut into mason jars to store in the refer to not destroy the probiotics. Still tastes salty but maybe not as much as before. Still crunchy with a milder taste. No tartness at all. The one large cabbage made 2 quarts and one full pink.
[Found at Mr. T’s page that it is very important that air not to be allowed to enter fermentation chamber the first three days. In this case the lid was snapped in place but there was a lot of air space between the liquid and the lid for seven days.]
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/133850/fermenting-kraut-part-2-follow-up-7-30-14 – Has a lot of info on temps, times and processes used by different folks. See post there about the oldtimer that fermented in a 5-gallon bucket with a tube tight in the lid and running into a jar of water to create an air gap. The bucket would have had a larger air space like this try had.
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/252409/sauerkraut
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/97465/sauerkraut-2010-step-by-step-w-qview
SALT Analysis as it is too salty. Not way too salty but more than we liked.
- Added 1 qt water (946 gm) with a 2% salt solution to the 1882 gms of cabbage that had a 2.5% salt added. I ended up with a 2.33% solution that was too salty.
- Mr. T. responded to my question about how much salt with the response – “Got my info from the following. I highly recommend the book. It says that a 0.8 to 1.5 % salt per total weight of the vegetables will result in a tasty and long-lived product. http://www.amazon.com/Making-Sauerkraut-Pickled-Vegetables-Home/dp/155312037
3/25/2017 – Had it on hot dogs and it was very good. Not to salty in that use.
