Kraut Dog
My Style. Quality dogs from Prather Brother’s, grilled on the barbie, my own fermented kraut, my own fermented pickle, and TJ’s organic yellow mustard.
Yum.
That is all. Go eat.
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Free The Animal is an eclectic writing project about everything since November 2003. 23 years, 5,500 posts, 5 million words.
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Perfect timing! I just crammed 8 big Alaskan cabbages into a 3 gallon crock. I usually sneak a sample after a week–might not make it that long this year!
Tim
I’m on day three of my first sauerkraut ferment. How long do you ferment your kraut? Would love to see a couple posts on fermenting veggies!
As I recall, that was 3-4 days at room, then I moved to the fridge. There it can stay indefinitely. Not sure how long it keeps if you leave it out, which of course was the whole original reason for fermenting. There is a new book out by someone, published by the Victory Belt folks who do most of the Paleoish books. They sent it to me but I haven’t looked yet. But I will and will probably review this one.
I’ve made a batch every summer for about 7 years now. I started with a 1 gallon crock, but up-sized to a 3 gallon a couple years ago. Also bought a real nice kraut slicer, looks really old-fashioned and works like a champ. The recipe I use calls for 1/4 cup of salt per gallon. When making 3 gallons, I always start with 1/2 cup, but end up with quite a bit left over–I don’t like it very salty and I never have trouble getting it to ferment.
I layer the cabbage in the crock, putting a sprinkle of salt every 2-3″ of cabbage thickness. When crock is about half full, I start ‘smooshing’ it down with my fists. It is totally amazing how the cabbage packs in so tightly.
Once I have as much as I can get in there, I fit a big plastic bowl over the top of the crock and put a gallon sized jug of water in the bowl, this keeps a tight seal on the crock. After about 12 hours at room temp (high 70’s) it will start to bubble out of the crock and make a mess. I put the whole thing in a big pan to catch the overflow and clean it out every night.
After a week, I take a taste, and usually leave it another week. The warmer it is the quicker it gets done.
I pack it in quart sized seal-a-meal bags, seal and freeze. 12qts lasts a year if I don’t give any away.