Although I haven't tried yet with my sauerkraut I wouldn't hesitate to use grated carrots. Onions I do add along with Granny Smith apples, caraway seeds, bay leaves and juniper berries.

John: I know this will be hard to answer without a "taste", but:
* Do you add all these ingredients at one time? or, various ingredients at one time or another?
* How do they change the flavor of the Sauerkraut, subtly or stronger?

westelle,

All at once. I ferment my kraut in quart jars and once I start the ferment & cap the jar it isn't opened until finished. The juniper berries are a bit strong and would be easy to overdo. I especially hate it when I don't spot a whole berry in a forkful of kraut and crunch down on it. Yikes!

I've only used one recipe (except for minor changes such as adding hot peppers) so really don't know about subtle changes the ingredients make. All I know is that I am very happy with the results.

jt

Maybe crushing up a few of the juniper berries would be a better way to go, or place in a small coffee grinder (blender type). In this way they would distribute their flavor better and you won't get that juniper 'rush'. I agree that they can become too much as I made the mistake of adding to some pork sausages and they had a faint taste of chlorine bleach, which I thought was a bit odd. The juniper was mixed with black pepper, coriander, and sage, so the taste was off a bit. Caraway seed, if you like it, is one of the most common herbs added to a kraut.

> Maybe crushing up a few of the juniper berries would be a better way to go...

Ken,

I think I will try dehydrating some and try to use like dried peppercorns in my pepper grinder. Just 3 of them (whole) is enough for a quart of kraut and am guessing that maybe 1/4 of a dried and ground up berry will be enough. In fact, think would take even less per quart.

There is nothing else that I ferment that I use the berries for. Ebayed several lifetimes supply last year and have way more than will ever use. Anyone wants some just let me know.

jt

Actually the Juniper berries are usually quite dry already and are about double the size of a peppercorn. If you have one of those small coffee grinders (blender type), it can really chop up the berries quite fine. Because of their big size, they may not go through a pepper mill. I even have some allspice that are also big round berries, but these are not useful in a kraut. My jar is about 6 ounces of them, and they keep forever too.
When I buy those big plastic spices you see at BJs, Sams, and Costco, I usually save the empty plastic jars and screw on lids. To remove the old labels, I fill them with very hot water, and the adhesive usually softens enough so you can peel off the whole original labels. Sometimes there is also a bit of leftover adhesive. I use "Goo Gone" as a solvent and the sticky adhesive wipes right off. They get a quick wash and rinse after that, and then can be filled with my many pounds of mustard seeds, coriander, dill, and celery seed, etc.. The contents is easily shaken out of the caps holes if you remove the cardboard disk underneath the lids.

Its very common around here for folks to add sliced jalapeño peppers to the 'kraut.

Dave,

As much as I like hot peppers, there are some ferments that I actually like better w/o the pods or at least on the mild side. I've been using habaneros and most of them are just too 'peachy' tasting too. Red ripe jals just might be worth trying. A Texas chile-head sent me a few pounds of Mexican-grown ones a couple weeks ago that were incredibly sweet and hot. I powdered most of them. And green jals have a distinctive taste of their own and might go well with fermented cabbage. BTW, I've never used other than red cabbage.

If only kraut didn't take so long to make. I have 7 pint jars in the 45° fridge that should be ready middle of April.

jt

Any veg. can be krouted. My granny did it with turnips one time and it was just like with cabbage.

kmatcek writes: > Any veg. can be krouted. My granny did it with turnips one time and it was just like with cabbage.

Oh my! I do so love turnips. Ever since I fell off the turnip truck as a youngster and even before. Great addition to soups and stews.

jt