I use 3 tablespoons of salt per 5 lbs. cabbage. You may have used too much salt. It should be fine if you rinse it a few times before cooking.

My mom makes great saurkraut and this year I made it for the first time. It is great. This is how she makes it.

Put 1 tsp salt in bottom of quart jar. Fill halfway with chopped cabbage. Add 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp vinegar and 1/4 tsp alum. Fill up with chopped cabbage and add 1 tsp salt on top. Fill with water. Then sit the jars in a tub of cold water which you will need to change in a few days and each day after that as the cabbage ferments it will work its way out of the jar into the clean water. The alum keeps it crisp and white and in 10 days you have the best saurkraut ever. Then you can put it on your shelves and its ready to eat. She makes a ton of this and its great.

I also make sauerkraut every year, the most I've ever made was 55 quarts.

I use the same ratio as Shirley does, 3 tablespoons of salt to 5 pounds of grated cabbage. At 76F it should ferment in 3-4 weeks but watch it carefully, above 75F it spoils and/or molds more easily.

After it's fermented to my taste I can it in a hot water bath but it's nearly always too salty for me. I always rinse it before using it.

Annie

Thanks for the info everyone. I tasted the kraut again today. Whereas the saltiness was nearly inedible at 9 days, at 18 days it seems about normal. I'm really jazzed about this! I'll definitely do this again in a slightly larger quantity.

I do have one question. I had removed some of the kraut at 9 days, and simply pushed the plastic bags in to top the remainder. There was a tiny bit of mold on the side of the jar where the bag was and a tiny bit in the kraut. I removed the mold and wiped out the inside top of the jar. At that point I couldn't smell or taste any mold. As a precaution, I boiled the kraut for a few minutes, then stuffed in a new jar and refrigerated.

Did this boiling kill the beneficial lactibacillus bacteria? I'm trying to find more foods besides yogurt/kefir with probiotics. And, is is still safe to keep the kraut in the fridge long term, even after it's been boiled?

To my way of thinking 78 deg. F is WAY too warm to try fermenting your sauerkraut.

As for making your sauerkraut in a small jar, I've seen numerous recommendations not to do small batches like that because it's very hard to control the mold.

As for the boiling of your kraut...

Yes. The lacobacillus is LONG gone.

Lactobacillus as a bactieral class (there are many members) dies VERY rapidly once the temperature gets above 160 deg. F.

Given that you boiled your kraut for a few minutes, I'd say that the only bacteria in it now are bad bacteria.

Sorry.

Thanks kframe!

I used 2 tablespoons instead of 2 teaspoons for a total of 10 tablespoons of salt for 2 heads of cabbage. Can I save it? Should I add more cabbage or can I completely rinse the cabbage and start over? I hate to loose all that work.It has been fermenting 2 1/2 days now.
Thanks for your time!
Hopeful,
Gloria Striker

After 2 days I don't see why you can't add more cabbage.

It will take a little longer to finish fermenting but it should be absolutely fine.