How to Make Your Own Homemade Sauerkraut

May 10, 2023

Sauerkraut has been one of my go-to fermented foods since I learned to do it myself. I did not have the capacity to buy it so I'll do the labor instead and hubhy buys the cabbage.

We've been trying to eat healthy as much as we can, with the very little budget that we have. Since many health problems come from the gut, solution must have something to do with the gut. Sauerkraut is one of them. It also does not break the budget as much as others do (like kimchi).

We live in the city. The best we can do is buy from the market. Choose one that is heavy for it's size. Don't wait too long before you prep it. The best time is when it's been freshly harvested.

Always start with clean everything.

This was bought yesterday. Outer peel has to be discarded.

Then save the next layer for covering. (You will understand later.)

Then cut the cabbage in half and separate the core halves. You'll need those later (I only used one half of the core this time, though.)

Slice the cabbage halves lengthwise.

Set it aside.

You need a clean bottle. This is a one-liter bottle I saved from the raw honey I bought. (I intentionally bought the particular raw honey because of the bottle.) It has to be weighed. (At this point the bottle was wet so I had to drip it dry.)

With a dry bottle get those cabbage strips in it and push them down until there is just enough space left for the cover (second layer after the discarded layer) and the core half. I used the end of my rolling pin to push down the strips.

Fold the cover layer and put it in next. The purpose of this is to hold down the strips so they will not float. They have to be under water. No air. It (the cover) will be discarded during harvest time.

Cut the core half in a way it will fit in the bottle horizontally and keep the rest down. It serves as a lock so nothing else floats.

Keep the rest of the cabbage for something else. The container must be empty, rinsed with filtered water (just so no tap water gets in).

Fill the bottle with filtered water. Try to get the air out by pressing into the cabbage down. I still used the end of my rolling pin.

Weigh the whole thing.

The current weight less the bottle weight earlier is the basis for how much salt to use.

Only 2-2.5% of the base weight will be the weight of the salt.

For this example, it is 21 grams of salt.

As for the salt, it should be pure salt. No other ingredient like potassium iodate. Check ingredients. Himalayan salt is fine but is also expensive. I can no longer trust those sold in the market because salt farmers here are actually complaining that they are mandated to process the salt so it gets iodized. Iodized salt ruins the fermentation.

Take out the water and mix in the salt.