Sauerkraut -i

1 serving


Heads for fermentation select dense, strong, white, late varieties. Often villagers prefer cabbage, which has already been grabbed by the first frost. Heads are cut in half, the poker is removed, and then chopped with a heavy sharp knife or chopped on a special choppy grater. Such graters are now in sufficient quantities on sale. Crushed cabbage is strained with salt with palms on a table or in a wooden trough. This procedure is extremely important for the quality of future cabbage. Making sure that the mass of cabbage is evenly salted, you should not crush it too much. Then cabbages are mixed with grated carrots. A barrel filled to the top or a tub of cabbage is carefully compacted, covered on top with cabbage leaves, clean fabric, a wooden mug, on top of which they lay a bend. It is necessary that the cabbage is covered with brine and remains in this state all the time of storage. If there is little brine, yoke is added: the cabbage will compact and release juice. In the first days of fermentation, foam appears on the surface of the brine, so cabbage must be pierced 3-4 times a day with a stick to the bottom of the barrel. Gases will come out and the foam will disappear. After that, we advise you to rinse the fabric, circle and bend again. The disappearance of foam is a sign that it is time to transfer a barrel of cabbage to a cold place. If you have a cellar in your country, you can dig a barrel 30-40 cm into the ground. Now it remains to monitor the level of brine and ensure that there is no mold. To make cabbage tastier, various additives are used in different villages of Russia. Some prefer Antonov apples, others - cranberries or lingonberries, others - cumin, fragrant peppers, bay leaf. They put in sauerkraut and whole or cut heads in half. Whole ones are cut crosswise and sprinkled with salt. Both of them are laid in cabbage layer by layer.