Sauerkraut

Today I packed the sauerkraut from the gallon jar into smaller jars to place in the fridge. Being on GAPS, we eat a lot of sauerkraut around here. When we started GAPS, we did full GAPS willy nilly and didn't really implement a lot of the things that I've come to now feel are mandatory on GAPS. We only did broth and fermented vegetables occasionally. When went back to do GAPS intro nine months ago, we started on sauerkraut juice and worked our way up to eating the sauerkraut itself. Ever since then, we've been having sauerkraut with every solid meal. We eat about two small meals during the day and a larger meal for dinner, with about a tablespoon or two of sauerkraut per meal. This amounts to a lot of sauerkraut.

My sauerkraut making method is something I fell into all on my own. Most recipes call for pounding the cabbage. However, I am way too lazy for that, and I like my sauerkraut really crunchy. I found that if you use fresh cabbage, and mix and scrunch them up with the salt and fermenting cultures and then let them sit for a bit, they release plenty of liquid. I also like to cut up the cabbage by hand, much like someone would cut up lettuce for shredded lettuce salad. The pieces stay very crunchy, even though I usually let the sauerkraut ferment for over a week at room temperature.

Here's my sauerkraut recipe:
http://www.wholetraditions.com/recipes/117-sauerkraut

The jar and pyrex that I use for weighing down the cabbage are listed here:
http://www.wholetraditions.com/what-sara-uses/9-fermentation-supplies

The only thing I've been doing differently lately is to use one extra medium cabbage or use two large cabbages instead of three medium. This fills up my gallon jar about 2/3 to 3/4 full, leaving enough headroom for the weight and for the liquid to rise as the ferment gets going. It yields about three packed quarts of sauerkraut. I also like to throw extra juice from a previous batch of sauerkraut on the top. This ensures that my sauerkraut stays submerged even if anaerobic activity causes it to rise, and everything stays mold free and crunchy. If I haven't mentioned this already, the crunch is very important to me! I also often forget my ferment or am too lazy to pack it away, so my sauerkraut ends up going for more like 8 to 10 days at room temperature.

I find myself making sauerkraut about once a month. I usually use at least one red cabbage. Red cabbage is crunchier, and using a red cabbage makes it easier to tell when the sauerkraut is done. You can see from the pictures that when I start the sauerkraut (last photo), you can easily distinguish the green cabbage from the red, but as it ferments, it turns into one homogenous bright purple/red/hot pink color (shade depends on how many red cabbages I use). The end product (first photo) is really attractive and appealing and makes a lovely adornment on the dinner plate.