making sauerkraut

We eat sauerkraut every night with dinner. Everyone eats it- with the exception of Mason (obviously) and it was getting pretty expensive to buy when a jar costs almost $6. I've decided to try and make some of my own and see if that will save us some money while still giving us the benefits of the fermented vegetable.

I took the recipe from the Nourishing Traditions Book and adapted it a little.

First, I cored and chopped my cabbage. I started with one head because I was unsure of how much sauerkraut it would make. My one head weighed 1lb 5oz.

Next, I put it into a bowl and added 2 Tbsp of sea salt. Do not use iodized salt because it does something weird in the process.

Then I started mashing. NT said to mash for 10 minutes. I didn't have exactly the right tools to do the job. I always prefer to use wood over stainless steel but my big wood spoon was not cutting it for this job so I turned to the potato masher.

I mashed and mashed and mashed- that was the longest 10 minutes of my life. I then put it into a quart sized, wide mouth mason jar and used a wooden spoon to press it down.

You want all of the cabbage to be pressed down firmly and all of the brine to have risen to the top. Your brine should cover the cabbage in order to keep the cabbage from rotting.

If your brine does not adequately cover the cabbage you can add a mixture of 1 cup water to 1 Tbsp sea salt. After I snapped this photo I thought I'd better add a little water so I used 1/2c water to 1/2 Tbsp salt- just to make sure everything was covered. The more salt you use though, the longer it takes to ferment.
I'll go back and check the cabbage in a day or two and check on it's progress!