Sauerkraut occupies a special place in Russian cuisine. Without it, real Russian cabbage soup cannot be cooked and pies cannot be baked. Its benefits and high nutritional value have been known since ancient times. Harvested sauerkraut is harvested in almost every village house for the winter. In a city apartment, this is also easy to do.
Pick your recipe
You will need
-
- fresh cabbage - 10 kg;
- carrots - 300 g;
- salt - 250 g;
- bay leaf - 15 g;
- black pepper peas - optional.
Instruction manual
1
Peel the cabbage from the top dirty and damaged leaves. Cut each in half or in four and remove the stump. Finely chop the prepared cabbage, the width of the strips should be no more than 5 mm.
2
Wash and peel the carrots, then cut it into strips. Mix the cabbage with carrots and small table salt and remember it slightly until the juice is highlighted.
3
In the prepared container, put whole cabbage leaves on the bottom. Then put cabbage on them in layers of 10 cm, which you ram with your hands. On each layer, place bay leaves and peppercorns if you want. Thus, fill the pan to the top, leaving 5-6 cm to the edge.
4
On top, also cover the cabbage with whole cabbage leaves. Put a clean white cotton napkin on them, then a wooden circle or a large flat plate. Put oppression on the circle - granite cobblestone, cleanly washed and scalded with boiling water. A large bottle of water can serve as oppression. Leave the cabbage at room temperature for 3-5 days.
5
In the morning and in the evening, pierce the cabbage to the bottom with a pointed stick so that the gases escape, and remove the foam released during fermentation. Then rinse the napkin, circle and bend. If brine is released too much - drain. Enough if it comes to the edges of a wooden mug. After intensive fermentation stops, take the cabbage out in the cold or refrigerate. It is ready for use in 15-20 days.
note
The most delicious cabbage is obtained in an oak barrel, which is prepared for pickling in a certain way so that the cabbage does not have a bitter taste.
Useful advice
It is customary to sour cabbage in October-November; winter grades are taken for this. But at home, in small quantities, you can ferment it all winter.
It is best to ferment cabbage at the beginning of the lunar month with the growing moon on the 5-6th day. It turns out crispy and during storage does not lose its taste and useful properties for a long time.
Cabbage can be leavened with apples, cranberries, lingonberries, beets, bell peppers. When sauerkraut is often used caraway seeds.