Sauerkraut

1 serving


Heads for fermentation select dense, strong, white, late varieties. Those who take cabbage, already caught by the first frosts, are right. We cut the heads into halves, remove the head, and then chop with a heavy sharp knife or shinkuy on a special choppy grater. We don't rub the crushed cabbage much with salt on the table or in a wooden trough. This procedure is extremely important for the quality of future sauerkraut. In order for the whole mass to be evenly salted, you cannot crush it too much - it will turn out to be tasteless. Then mix the cabbage with carrots grated on a large vegetable grater. A barrel or tub filled to the top, in which layers of cabbage are sprinkled into quarters, or even whole Antonov apples, cranberries or lingonberries, juniper berries, pepper peas, laurel leaves, thoroughly ramming, covering on top with cabbage leaves, clean fabric, a wooden mug, on top of which we put a load. It should be heavy enough that the top layer is filled with brine, which would cover the cabbage for the entire shelf life. If there is little brine, add Cargo: cabbage will compress and release juice. In the first days, foam appears on the surface of the brine - the result of fermentation that has begun. Therefore, we pierce cabbage 3-4 times a day with a clean stick to the bottom of the barrel: tsp will gradually come out, the foam will disappear, cabbage, as they say, will "die out. " By the way, the disappearance of foam is a sign that it is time to transfer the barrel to the cellar, there we break it 30-40 cm into the ground. Now it remains to monitor the level of brine and. so that there is no mold. Some like to sauté cabbage heads whole. For this, they are cut cross-shaped and placed in different layers of cabbage, like apples.