3/23/2020 – We have a lot of Early Jersey Wakefield cabbage so making kraut in the large briner tub that is food grade. What we prepared was based on the amount of grated carrot left from yesterday’s preparation. This turned out great. Much easier preparation to ferment and then easy to bottle it.
- Carrot – 636 gm left from yesterday
- Cabbage at 7:1 so 7 x 636 = 4,452 gm
- Canning salt at 1.7% of 636+4452 = 87.5 gm
- Lemon at 1 tbsp per 900 gms = 6 tbsp
- Dill seed at 1 gm per 400 grams cabbage+carrots = 12 gms
Mary mixed in the carrots, dill seed, and salt as I chopped the cabbages and dumped them into the bucket. Once it was all there she mixed it well with her hands. Surprisingly, it began collapsing almost immediately.
The Briner Bucket has an inner lid that holds the meat down in the brine. It did not appear it would work the same for the chopped cabbage so we filled two one-gallon ziplocks with water and positioned them to hold the cabbage below the brine.
Based on the amount made yesterday, almost 2,800 gms, that correctly filled 2 half-gallon jars, we should have 3.6 jars if it packs the same fermented as it did when fresh*. But, we will not be beating it down with the mallet…we do not think…so wait and see.
4/5/2020 – We opened the bucket for the second time. There is no mold and everything looks like it did but with that great kraut smell. The kraut tastes good.
We ladled the kraut into 1/2-gallon jars. We lightly mash it down with the handle of the meat tenderizer mallet as the jar was fill. It perfectly filled three of them with enough brine to cover. The jars were closed up with the white plastic lids.
* Note that when fermented the volume taken up was less than what I projected based on how much volume was used for cabbage before it was fermented.
