The German word sauerkraut literally means "sour cabbage" and is the word used most often in the west for cabbage that has been pickled. To know sauerkraut, one must know something about its main ingredient, the humble and ever dependable cabbage. The cultivation of cabbage goes back 4000 years. Horsemen from China and Mongolia learned to preserve this vegetable in brine and it became the main nourishment of the builders of the Great Wall of China in the third century BC. Later, pickled cabbage arrived in Europe from the East, carried by Hun and Mongol cavalcades.

While these horsemen introduced a new conservation method and Barbarian flavor to Europe, cabbage had long been the favorite vegetable of an entire continent, particularly until the introduction of the potato. In fact, the Celts may have introduced cabbage to the British Isles as early as the 4th century BC.

For centuries, cabbage was a staple that sustained European populations during great famines. During the Hundred Years War, battles were won or lost depending on whether fresh provisions of cabbage had arrived at the soldiers' camps. Similarly, when General Lee took possession of Chambersburg on his way to Gettysburg, among the first things he demanded for his army was twenty-five barrels of sauerkraut. More recently, during WWII, sauerkraut, despite its German name, was considered a patriotic food in the US. Citizens were encouraged to make their own as a way of contributing to the war effort.

Sandorkraut's Sauerkraut Recipe
Most of today's commercially available sauerkraut is clinically "dead" which is how most people prefer their food. Not the kitchen gardener. If kitchen gardeners grow and cook their own, it's because they want to experience food in all its vitality. The solution for enjoying sauerkraut that is alive and tangy is simple: make it yourself. By making your own unpasteurized kraut, you take in all the beneficial bacterial cultures that make it so good for us.

This recipe and the images on this page come courtesy of Sandor Ellix Katz (aka Sandorkraut) and his great book "Wild Fermentation" (Chelsea Green). If you're interested in exploring the wild world of home fermentation, please check out his site and buy his book. He knows of what he speaks.

Timeframe: 1-4 weeks (or more)

Special Equipment:-large ceramic crock or food-grade plastic bucket
-Plate that fits inside crock or bucket
-One-gallon jug filled with water
-Cloth cover (like a pillowcase or towel)

Ingredients (for 1 gallon):-5 pounds cabbage
-3 tablespoons sea salt

Process:
1. Chop or grate cabbage, finely or coarsely, with or without hearts, however you like it. I love to mix green and red cabbage to end up with bright pink kraut. Place cabbage in a large bowl as you chop it.
2. Sprinkle salt on the cabbage as you go. The salt pulls water out of the cabbage (through osmosis), and this creates the brine in which the cabbage can ferment and sour without rotting. The salt also has the effect of keeping the cabbage crunchy, by inhibiting organisms and enzymes that soften it. 3 tablespoons of salt is a rough guideline for 5 pounds of cabbage. I never measure the salt; I just shake some on after I chop up each cabbage. I use more salt in summer, less in winter.
3. Add other vegetables. Grate carrots for a coleslaw-like kraut. Other vegetables I ve added include onions, garlic, seaweed, greens, Brussels sprouts, small whole heads of cabbage, turnips, beets, and burdock roots. You can also add fruits (apples, whole or sliced, are classic), and herbs and spices (garlic, bay leaf, caraway seeds, dill seeds, celery seeds, and juniper berries are classic, but anything you like will work). Experiment.
4. Mix ingredients together and pack into crock. Pack just a bit into the crock at a time and tamp it down hard using your fists or any (other) sturdy kitchen implement. The tamping packs the kraut tight in the crock and helps force water out of the cabbage.
5. Cover kraut with a plate or some other lid that fits snugly inside the crock. Place a clean weight (a glass jug filled with water) on the cover. This weight is to force water out of the cabbage and then keep the cabbage submerged under the brine. Cover the whole thing with a cloth to keep dust and flies out.
6. Press down on the weight to add pressure to the cabbage and help force water out of it. Continue doing this periodically (as often as you think of it, every few hours), until the brine rises above the cover. This can take up to about 24 hours, as the salt draws water out of the cabbage slowly. Some cabbage, particularly if it is old, simply
contains less water. If the brine does not rise above the plate level by the next day, add enough salt water to bring the brine level above the plate. Add about a teaspoon of salt to a cup of water and stir until it s completely dissolved.
7. Leave the crock to ferment. I generally store the crock in an unobtrusive corner of the kitchen where I won t forget about it, but where it won t be in anybody s way. You could also store it in a cool basement if you want a slower fermentation that will preserve for longer.
8. Check the kraut every day or two. The volume reduces as the fermentation proceeds. Sometimes mold appears on the surface. Many books refer to this mold as scum, but I prefer to think of it as a bloom. Skim what you can off of the surface; it will break up and you will probably not be able to remove all of it. Don t worry about this. It s just a surface phenomenon, a result of contact with the air. The kraut itself is under the anaerobic protection of the brine. Rinse off the plate and the weight. Taste the kraut. Generally it starts to be tangy after a few days, and the taste gets stronger as time passes. In the cool temperatures of a cellar in winter, kraut can keep improving for months and months. In the summer or in a heated room, its life cycle is more rapid. Eventually it becomes soft and the flavor turns less pleasant.
9. Enjoy. I generally scoop out a bowl- or jarful at a time and keep it in the fridge. I start when the kraut is young and enjoy its evolving flavor over the course of a few weeks. Try the sauerkraut juice that will be left in the bowl after the kraut is eaten. Sauerkraut juice is a rare delicacy and unparalleled digestive tonic. Each time you scoop some kraut out of the crock, you have to repack it carefully. Make sure the kraut is packed tight in the crock, the surface is level, and the cover and weight are clean. Sometimes brine evaporates, so if the kraut is not submerged below brine just add salted water as necessary. Some people preserve kraut by canning and heat-processing it. This can be done; but so much of the power of sauerkraut is its aliveness that I wonder: Why kill it?
10. Develop a rhythm. I try to start a new batch before the previous batch runs out. I remove the remaining kraut from the crock, repack it with fresh salted cabbage, then pour the old kraut and its juices over the new kraut. This gives the new batch a boost with an active culture starter.

Enjoying your Feast
In addition to being good for you, sauerkraut is just plain good. A nourishing, peasant food at heart, pickled cabbage has earned its way to international culinary respectability by offering a versatile canvas for diverse flavors and spices. A few of its most loved manifestations are "choucroute garni" (Alsace), "kimchi" (Korea),
sauerkraut soup (Eastern Europe), and the Reuben Sandwich (US). Below you'll find links to a few of its best known and loved incarnations:

Choucroute Garnie l'Alsacienne

Choucroute Garnie l'Alsacienne (2)

Austrian Kucherlkraut (Beef and Sauerkraut)

Polish Pierogies with Sauerkraut and Mushrooms

German-style Beer-braised sauerkraut with Sausage

James Beard's Choucroute with Champagne

Slovak Sauerkraut Christmas Soup

Japanese-style Pickled Cabbage

Pickled Cabbage El Salvador Style

Korean Kimchi

Georgian Pickled Cabbage with Beets

Classic Reuben Sandwich