great recipes, thank you - i copied both
my main question: where do you get champagne vinegar? Local grocery store did not have it
will white wine vinegar be Ok to substitute?

thanks
Olya

U get my chanpagne vineger from Publix and sometimes I order it online. You can use rice vunegar so that it will not be so acidic

You guys ever tried fermented cabbage (aka young sauercraut) ??. It is a Russian/German staple and very good for cleansing the system. If anyone wants a recipe, just post here. I just made a tall glass jar of it Saturday, yammy! And oh, btw, it cost, accordint to the save-a-lot receipt, it cost me about $.90 for a huge jar.

yuliana,

Can you please post your recipe? I would love it!

Yes, Yuliana, I tried it :) I am from Belarus - where are you from?
Please share your recipe...I need to dig out my recipe for making a faster version of sauerkraut, but it is not as healthy (involves hot water - speeds up the making of the sauerkraut)

Mmmm, sauerkraut with onions and some olive oil/sunflower seeds oil, and yummy potatoes on a side. Tasty
Olya

Olya, and all, I am from Russia, Moscow. Became an American in 1993. This is my home, here. But, some traditions still stay, especially with my mom still alive and well, and keeping these recipes flowing. Anyway, here goes:

Get a glass jar, something that you can fit your fist through, or if not a jar, then some other glass container

Get enough cabbage to fill that jar or container to the top
Get two carrots per head of cabbage

Shred the cabbage and grate carrots

Put both into a large bowl and start crushing it with your hands so that juice comes out. Add little by little one tablespoon of salt, non-iodized, preferably kosher sea salt to the mixture while you're crushing it. The idea here is to get juice going. One tablespoon of salt per 8-inch diameter cabbage. Don't add too much salt, because it will hinder fermenting. You might add some pickling spice if you'd like.

Once you have juice coming out, start filling the jar. I add green apples, cored and sliced too. Put a layer of cabbage, then press it with your fist so that juice covers the layer. Add 2-3 slices of apples, then cover with a layer of cabbage and press again. You need to have juice covering the layers of cabbage. Once filled to the top, give it a final press, then make a hole with the blunt end of a spoon all the way to the bottom so that gasses can come up. If you made this in a wide-mouth container, you might put a saucer on the top and then a gallon of water to keep it pressed. I usually make mine in one of these pickle jars, about a foot tall, and don't put press on it, but rather press it down with the spoon a couple of times a day.

Leave it on the counter for 3 days or so. You will have juice overflowing and that's good; it shows that fermenting is doing well. Keep poking the hole all the way down to have gasses escape. Once it stops gassing, around third day, it's done. It can stay in the fridge now for quite a while (if you have will power not to eat it :)).

To mix, add diced onion and some vegetable oil. My mother adds green parsley and dill, that's optional.

That simple. If you google it up, you'll find that fermented cabbage inhibits cancer, improves immune system and is high in vitamin C.

Yummy...My mom makes it in a similar fashion, minus the apples...She adds fresh cranberries though