Sauerkraut! Well, Almost - 10 Days into Fermentation

I decided to make pork chops for dinner and what would go better than a little kraut?  If nothing else it gave me a good excuse to break into the crock for a look-see.  Ok, I opened it for the first time since I sealed it 10 days ago.  I was expecting a sauerkraut smell, but to my pleasant surprise there really wasn't much of any.  I pulled out the weights and scooped out a bowl full.  It looks great!  There is still a slight amount of green color.  Of course I had to sample some right out of the crock.  Well, it wasn't quite what I expected. The salt taste was most dominate followed by a slight tang and a little of the caraway seed flavor, but then again, it's only been 10 days.  What I hope is the salt taste will diminish as it ferments more. It seems strange that it came out salty as I followed the minimum amount for the poundage of cabbage.  The texture is very good.  Nice crunch.  The bottom line, it needs more time, so, the lid is back on and I'll leave it for at least another ten days.

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The Results of My 2nd Container of Fermented Vegetables

For lunch this afternoon I finally opened the larger container.  This one has convinced me I will continue to make my own pickles.  The first word that came to mind with my first taste is wow!   This is far better than I had hoped for, slight salt taste, nice tang with a little bite of heat as the finish with no after taste. The crispiness of the cauliflower is prefect.

 

When I put this mix of vegetables together in this lager container I wanted to include some cucumber.  Unfortunately the only thing I could find was in the local grocery store.  It was a nice looking cucumber, however, like most grocery store produce it was wax coated. It thought I’d just cut the skin off and take the seed out of the cucumber.  However good my intentions, this was a poor idea.  The cucumber taste good but really lacks any form of crispness.  It has the texture of a wet piece of bread. One more lesson learned.

Both the jalapeño and yellow wax pepper came out great.  Good flavor, color and texture.  I’m sure I’ll be making some batches of just peppers in the near future.

 Take a look at this photo and how the cauliflower took on the pink hew from the cabbage leaf.

Here is a close up of the cauliflower and cucumber. The cauliflower is wonderful while the cucumber didn't have the right texture even though it still taste good.

I'll post more as I make my next batch of fermented pickles.  Thanks for looking and happy pickling!!

Four Days of Fermentation & The Taste Test!

It is four days since I bottled my first batch of fermentation. I wanted to let you see how the contents have changed.  One of the interesting things that has occurred is the red - pink color from the red cabbage leaves I placed on the top to hold the rest of the vegetables under the brine.  I believe I'll be doing a taste test a little later today.  I will report back if they are edible or not.

Ok, this is the look after four days of fermentation.

This again is right after I added the vegetable.

 Four days in to fermentation.

And this was what it looked like right after being capped.

There was a lot of bubbling the second day.  This is the CO² that the fermentation process develops while the lactic acid is being generated.  It is the lactic acid that give the pickled products their tangy taste.  I sure hope these taste as good as they look.

I couldn’t wait any longer.  The jar with the screw top was the first I tasted.  When opening the lid there is a smell of cabbage or sauerkraut.  This is normal from what I have read.  It diminished quickly.  I really could not smell much of anything after that.  The top of the container is clean and clear, none of the scum or mold that some folks get.  Even if there were, this doesn’t mean you have a bad end product from what I read.  If you should have mold or scum they tell you to spoon it off and any dark or discolored products. I’m glad I didn’t have this issue.

The first thing I did was to remove and discard the red cabbage leaves. Below was a red/pink color of the cauliflower.  The cauliflower took on a slight translucent appearance too.

Ok, the moment I’ve been wait for! The taste test! I put a piece of the cauliflower in my mouth.  It has a slight salty flavor followed by a tangy zing.  Interesting!  Not the best pickled cauliflower I’ve ever had, but it is in no way bad.  In fact, on a scale of say 1 to 10, 10 being excellent, 1 being bad, I’d give it a solid 8.  I’m a little surprised, primarily because I had a fairly hot jalapeño in the jar, that didn't flavor the cauliflower at all. I didn’t cut the jalapeño up, I kept it whole.  This may have not been the right thing to do.  The second larger container I sliced the jalapeño up. It will be interesting to see if this one has more heat.  I decided to let it ferment one more day and I’ll give it a taste test sometime tomorrow. More to come tomorrow!  

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The Fermentation Experiment Continues

Here is my latest experiment in fermented vegetables. If this works the way the websites I’ve visited, my book, The Joy of Pickling, by Linda Ziedrich, explains and a dozen or more youtube videos I watched, I should have some good tasting pickled cauliflower in three to seven days.

This is the start of my first jar.  The jars are cleaned and sterilized with boiling water, and the vegetables are rinsed.  You can’t overly clean the vegetables or risk not having them ferment properly.  The good bacteria that are on the vegetables can be damaged if washed too much.  The ingredients included coriander and mustard seed, fresh dill and garlic cloves.  In the middle is one whole jalapeño.  I packed the remainder of the jar with cauliflower.  Wish I would have remembered to put in a few pepper corns.  On the top of the cauliflower I added one whole leaf of red cabbage.  The cabbage leaf has a large amount of the good bacteria to help kick-start the fermentation. With about an inch left from the rim of the jar, I filled the jar with brine made up of one tablespoon of pickling salt to two cups of water.

This is my first jar with the lid on.  The jar is setting in a bowl just in case the fermentation causes it to overflow the jar.  Once in the morning and evening for the next three to seven days I have to loosen the cap to allow any pressure out. At the end of fermentation the jar will keep in the refrigerator for up to 6 months.

This is the second jar. This jar has sliced Hungarian yellow wax peppers, sliced jalapeño, cucumber, cauliflower, coriander and mustard seed, fresh dill and garlic cloves. It is topped with the red cabbage and brine like the first jar.

Here is one other view of the jar.  I think it looks pretty special!! Well, lets hope it taste at least as good!  


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It Has Started to Ferment!

I'm just about to head off to bed when I hear a blurp type noise.  It seems that the cabbage has actively started its fermentation process.  Right now I hear it let out CO² about every 20 minutes or so.  Time 10:41 PM.

My First Ever Sauerkraut Project

Today, September 18, 2011, I made my first batch of sauerkraut, or should I say my first bunch of cut-up cabbage that I hope turns into extremely good tasting sauerkraut.  I picked up two farm grown heads of cabbage, both over 7.5 lbs each.   They were picked this morning.  With fresh cut cabbage the hope is there will be a lot of juice making up the brine that the cabbage will ferment in.  Some store purchased cabbage that may have sat around long might require brine to be added once it is in the fermentation crock.

Ok, here are the details for this first batch:

1. Two 7.5 lbs for a total of 15 lbs of cabbage.
2. Formula for canning salt, 3 tablespoons per 5 lbs of cabbage
3. Caraway seeds, 2 teaspoons per 5 lbs of cabbage

I worked with one cabbage at a time, or 7.5 lbs, so I had to convert to these quantities:

1. Salt for one shredded cabbage head, 7.5 lbs, equaled 4.5 tablespoons
2. Caraway seeds 3 teaspoons.

 This photo shows the size of these two cabbages.  Not the best however in that they both had gaps in the leaf structure compared to some that are solid with no gaps.  Some of the instructions I read suggest removing all of the green leafs so that the kraut final color is consistent. I really don't care if the color varies some. 

Here is just an other picture of the cabbage. The clear bin on the right of the photo is what I use to mix the sliced cabbage with the salt and caraway seeds.









This is the first cabbage cut in half.  Notice the air gaps.  The second head had more gaps than this one.  The cabbage is quartered and the core is sliced out.  I read some instructions that state that some people will slice even the core up and add it to the crock.  I choose not to.

On the left shows the head of cabbage as I'm slicing it by hand.  On the right is one head of cabbage sliced and ready to have salt and caraway seeds added.  After adding the salt and caraway I hand mix it with the cabbage for about five minutes.  Then I let it stand for about 10 more minutes while the salt starts to reduce the volume and it starts to release its juices.

The photo on the left shows the salt, caraway seeds, the measuring spoons and the measured amount of salt and seeds to sprinkle over the top of the chopped cabbage.  Once sprinkled on the cabbage I mixed it all together and allow it to set for about 10 to 15 minutes before placing in the crock.  On the right shows the crock after washing it and then added boiling water to sterilize it.  After sterilizing (about 20 minutes) the water is removed and the crock is allowed to return to room temperature.

This is after the last sliced head of cabbage is added to the crock.  The yellow looking piece in the right of the photo is the tamper.  The tamper is used to pack the cabbage into the crock and working the moisture out enough to cover the cabbage.

This is a close-up of the filled crock.  I could have added about another 3 to 4 lbs of cabbage, but I think 15 lbs will be enough for my first batch.  There are a set of half moon looking weights that are placed on top of the kraut to hold it down and allow it to stay covered with the brine. Sorry, forgot to take of photo if them.

This is where the crock will stay for the next 4 to 5 weeks as the transformation from cabbage to sauerkraut happens.  The crock weights about 46 lbs total with the 15 lbs of cabbage in it.

This photo shows the crock with the lid in place and the water around the lid.  This water makes an air tight seal but allows the escape of the carbon dioxide that the fermentation generates.  This air tight seal is important to allow the fermentation to occur and to keep oxygen from getting in which can allow mold and other unwanted things from growing with the kraut.  To kraut makers, they call it scum.  This is the primary reason I decided to get this type of crock.  Even though they say it is harmless, I just didn't want to deal with scum!!

I'll post an update as time goes by.  If things go as planned, I should have kraut on October 16, 2011.  We shall see!!