Any experience with somthing like this.....?

[farnfam]

I am longing for the taste of the wonderful sauerkraut you could get at the hotdogs stands in my old stomping grounds by NYC. Nathans makes pretty good one, but a little hard to find in the Great White North. So I was wondering, dare I delve into this and hope to find my quest

http://www.noveleats.com/rawfood/how-to-...auerkraut/

What do you think, oh my Sensi and many great Mentors?

[DFen911]

I'm lucky as I have a good german deli near me. I've always wanted to make my own, but I am no help here.

[cjs]

Oh Cis, you'll never be sorry if you make your own sauerkraut. We used to make it (wow, it was in the 70s - Mother Earth days ) in a crock and the recipe I used was from Kerr canning book from the sixties. We lovd it and I don't know why we got away from making it. Well, we were raising the cabbage in those days too, so no wonder we made it then.

We've tasted sauerkraut made in jars (quarts), but I don't think it gets as good a 'sauer' on it that way. I apologize, I didn't look at the method of your referenced site - I'll go back in a minute and read it completely.

Here's what we did - from Kerr Home Canning Book (the price was 15 cents - that tell you how old it is? )

Use good, sound heads of mature cabbage. 1 lb. of salt with 40 lbs. of cabbage; 2 oz. (3 1/2 T.) with 5 lbs. of cabbage. One pound fills 1 pint glass jar.

Remove outside green and dirty leaves. Quarter the head and slice off the core. Shred the cabbage finely and put 5 lbs. of cabbage and 2 oz. of salt into a large pan and mix with the hands. Pack gently into the crock with a potto masher. Repeat until crock is nearly full.

Cover with a cloth, plate and weight. During the curing process, kraut requires daily attention. Remove scum as it forms and wash and scald the cloth often to keep it free form scum and mold. Fermentation will be complete in 10 to 12 days.

As soon as kraut is thoroughly cured, pack into clean KERR ( of course) jars, adding enough of the kraut juice, or a weak brine made by dissolving 2 T. salt to a quart of water, to fill jars to within 1/2" of top of jar. Put on cap, screwing the band tight. Process in water bath for 15 minutes.

I have a note on the page that the last time I made it was '93 and I tried the "Made in Jars" method and we didn't like it as well.

Have fun with this. Crap, now you've got me going....

[luvnit]

I want to try this jar! Looks cool. Thanks for posting this.

[cjs]

I just read it over and I think the only thing I would do differently is -

"Pour in water to the top of the jar (I used filtered water), then place the small lid in the top of the jar and upside-down."

I would use the brine as mentioned in the Kerr method instead of just water, imo only.

[Gourmet_Mom]

Since I haven't really acquired a taste for it, I haven't felt the need. But I have been told that if I had homemade, I'd love it. I like all the ingredients. I'm thinking that if we put some cabbage in the garden, I'd be more likely to give it a try. I'd love to know what you think, if you try it.

[luvnit]

But Jean, there is already salt that was added to the cabbage. Do you salt AND brine. Am I missing something?

I have never made it before. My MIL does and give me some of it. This has normally filled our need for sauerkraut, but MIL may not be around forever.

She adds dill and green peppers to hers. It's pretty tasty.

[farnfam]

Thanks for your opinions. I think I'm going to go ahead and order this cool jar, it seems pretty fool proof. I wish I could pin point what it is that is sooooo good about the hotdog stand sauerkraut. I think maybe it's like with yogurt, or cheese, the renet or the starter is what makes the taste. Anyway, my plan is to keep in the jar in the fridge and hope the "taste" gets stronger with time. Then I think I'll add a 1/2 C or so of the brine to the next batch since it should have the beneficial bacteria in it already.
Secondly, my SIL loves sauerkraut and I think I'll buy him one for his birthday too

[piano226]

Here is the Russian version

<a href="ttp://mansurovs.com/recipes/category/pickled" >ttp://mansurovs.com/recipes/category/pickled</a>

[labradors]

You left out the "h" at the beginning of that link.

For anyone else: copy and paste the link, then go back to the beginning of it and enter an "h" so the link starts with "http" correctly.