I have been making this recipe from Anne Seranne's The Complete Book of Home Preserving since the 60s. Never had a failure.

Small Quantity Sauerkraut
Weigh 10 lbs of finely shredded cabbage and mix it thoroughly with 4 ounces, or 7 Tablespoons, salt. Pack the kraut firmly into quart jars [I use half gallon jars], tamping it to draw out the juice. A quart jar will hold 2 lbs of shredded cabbage. Cover the kraut in each jar with rounds of cheesecloth and insert a wooden splint [broken popsicle sticks work] to hold the cabbage under the brine. Adjust the jar lids loosely and set the jars on a tray to catch any juice that might overflow during fermentation. Remove the scum as it forms each day and keep the jars at toom temperature (70 degrees F) for 10 days to 2 weeks.

To store, make a brine by dissolving 1 TBL salt in 3 cups water. Fill the jars to overflowing with the brine, seal, and store in the fridge. Add brine as needed.

Of course, use pickling salt. Since I make only about 1 half gallon, I find it requires about 5-7 lbs of cabbage and 3 1/2 TBL salt.

Good luck.

Hi Joy - first point, the gloves (food grade plastic) work great on small jars if you want to do a pint at a time, they will work on quart jars but it is VERY close to blowing the glove. On a 2 gallon jar it would definitely blow up. So if you want to do it in the 2 gallon jar stick with the plastic bag of brine to seal it off not the gloves.

And that is what I normally use - 2 gallon jar packed with salted cabbage ( 3T salt to each 5 lbs of cabbage) leaving 3" headspace, fill a zip lock bag 1/2 full of brine (1T canning salt dissolved in 1 1/2 quarts water boiled then cooled), squeeze out the air and put that bag into another ziplock. Then use that double-bagged brine bag to stuff into the jar to weight down the cabbage and seal it off from air. Set the jar in a big bowl to catch the over flow, cover with a towel and place it somewhere out of the sun with a air temp of 70-75 degrees. In 2-3 weeks it is done and ready to be canned or put in the fridge. Just taste it at 2 weeks and see if it is done enough for you. If not give it another week.

So here is what I did with the experiment: shredded the cabbage and weighed it, mixed in the 3 T of salt for each 5 lbs. pack fill the pint and quart jars leaving 1" of headspace and snapped a glove on each jar. Set them someplace warm out of the light. By the next day the gloves begin to swell, by day 3 it is well puffed up (all 5 fingers saluting you), by day 5 it begins to deflate. We tasted on day 7 and loved it so we removed the gloves dumped it all into a pot to heat it up, canned it.

Hope this helps.

Dave

I forgot to add that we add just a smidge of sugar to our kraut too before packing into the jars because we like the sweeter German kraut. We add 1 T to the 2 gallon jar.

And, if you like really crisp kraut you can also use Pickle Crisp with it.

Dave

Thank you both! That's exactly what I needed to know. I'll let you know how it turns out.
~ Tracy

I like apple, onion and a bit of caraway seed. I'll have to try the bit of sugar. Sounds good.
Thinking about trying Kim Chee for the time, before it gets hot. I'll probably do about a gallon.

Dave writes: "Hi Joy - first point, the gloves (food grade plastic) work great on small jars if you want to do a pint at a time, they will work on quart jars but it is VERY close to blowing the glove. On a 2 gallon jar it would definitely blow up. So if you want to do it in the 2 gallon jar stick with the plastic bag of brine to seal it off not the gloves."

Tracy,

Poke a tiny, tiny hole in the top of a glove finger with a needle before putting the glove on the jar. If the glove expands too much some CO2 will escape. As the air pressure lessens the hole will seal up.

I just like the visual of what is going on. And I don't get scum since going to a closed system.

john

OK - it's been three weeks. The top layer is slightly discolored, but there is no 'off' smell - smells like kraut, so I gave it a try. Tastes pretty good! After removing the brine filled baggie and tasting the kraut, the juice no longer covered the top, so I poured a little of the brine from the baggie to cover (hope I was supposed to do that). I have put the whole thing in the fridge for now, but think I will can it tomorrow as I'm the only one who eats it and I don't think it's very good for my Coumadin levels :-(

As long as I follow proper canning guidelines, it there anything 'special' I need to do to can kraut? Is the discoloration a concern or normal? Last question, I have some small cabbages that I picked over a week ago - how old is too old for making kraut?

Thanks so much for helping with my first batch of sauerkraut!!

~ Tracy

Before I can this today I wanted to check in and make sure I've not made a mistake. When I put the kraut in the fridge last night, I poured the brine from the baggie in it to cover all the kraut. I'm not used to fermenting, and now wonder if I 'diluted' the kraut too much to be safely canned. (I understand topping off the brine while still fermenting, but now that I topped it off and then put it in the fridge, I'm afraid I may have messed up the pH or something like that). What do the experts think? Thanks!

No problems as long as it was brine rather than plain water but I would use hot pack on this batch rather than raw pack. In the future making some fresh brine would be better if you want to use raw pack. Just can and process per the standard directions for kraut.

Dave

Thank you! Going to can it right now.

I'm wondering what the answer to Tracy's question is:

"Last question, I have some small cabbages that I picked over a week ago - how old is too old for making kraut?"

Thanks,
Michele

As long as the heads, when peeled, are still fresh appearing (not moldy) and firm I see no problems with using it. Cabbage stores for weeks in the fridge with no issues.

But soft with bad spots and much mold, I'd pass.

Dave

Thanks Dave!

That's just what I wanted to hear ;)

I have 3 red cabbages that just split, so I picked them all and plan on making a small batch of kraut. Has anybody used red cabbage before? I realize the color might not be all that appealing when finished, but I don't care about that.

Also, I do not have a crock, so will be using half gallon mason jars. I'm struggling with ways to keep the cabbage weighted. Can I fill the jar 3/4 of the way, then put in a bag of brine? Don't see how a bag will fit if I fill the jar any fuller. If I use the glove technique, is it necessary to weight the cabbage down under the brine?

Thanks for any help!

Sure, you can use red cabbage for sauerkraut. Check out the link.
When I have made small batch kraut, I have used a small food-grade plastic lid (think sour cream or yogurt containers) that I cut to fit just inside the shoulders of the jar I am using. A paper pattern helps if you make that first as a guide. Then make a cut from the outside of the circle to the center. This allows you to squeeze the disk to fit inside the jar. It will then pop back to a flat disk. Place a small clean glass (shot glass works well) or jar on top of the plastic to keep it under the brine and thus keep your kraut submerged, then put the glove on top.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pictures of red sauerkraut

Thank you Coffeehaus! My kraut turned out great! It was so simple to do - seemed a little too simple to actually turn out good. The jar was about 2/3 full after pressing the cabbage down, and I used a bag full of brine to keep the cabbage down. I do like your idea of the plastic lids to hold it down with the shot glass on top, and I would like to try the glove technique next time. All I can say is that I will be making kraut again, and I'm sorry I didn't start making it sooner!

Beautiful! Looks good enough to eat.
It is stupidly easy, isn't it? Just follow a few simple rules and through the magic of our little bacterial friends, we end up with a delicious product. Once you feel comfortable with kraut, you will be looking for more things to ferment. When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.