The Best Fermented Cabbage (My Secrets)

Many people (including myself) have issues with making good batches of sauerkraut.  Over the years i have tried and failed many times.   This recipe has taken me years to perfect, but i've finally figured out the golden ratios to make the best Kraut i've ever had.   Sauerkraut is something where the ratios need to be exact, so a kitchen scale is absolutely necessary For this recipe.

i will be making beetroot kraut, but you can replace the beetroot with whatever shredded vegetable you want.  

Ingredients:

Cabbage

Beetroot

Garlic

Salt (Must be Non-iodized, i use Himalayan rock salt)

Kitchen scale

Large glass jar with lid

Recipe:

Cabbage:   100%

Multiply your shredded cabbage weight by the following percentages to determine how much of each ingredient you need

Beets  32%  ( so if i had 300 g of cabbage: 300x .32 = 96g of beets)

Garlic  1.3%  (so if I had 300 g of cabbage: 300x .013 = 3.9 g of garlic)

Next add up your shredded cabbage weight along with the beetroot and garlic weight to get a total ingredient weight.  

The Salt will be 2% of total ingredient weight. So lets pretend i had 1000 g total weight of all my vegetables, i would multiply 1000x .02 = 20 g of salt

Clean cabbage and remove the outer leaves (save for later)  Shred cabbage as thin as possible and try to make all the slices uniform.  Once completely shredded weigh your cabbage and write down your weight.  It is best if you can do this in grams as it is more precise.  

Multiply your weight in cabbage by each percentage to figure out the rest of your ingredients. Be sure to write it all down.   Finally add up all the weights together to get a total ingredient weight.  Multiply that number by 2% and that's how much salt you need.

Shred the beets and dice the garlic.

Combine all your ingredients in a container and mix well.  Let it sit there for one hour as this will help in releasing some of the water from the cabbage.  After 1 hour transfer your sauerkraut mixture in a fermenting container (I like to use a gallon glass jug) and really compact it down.  Add any juice that was left behind in your bowl, add it to the cabbage. and place your whole cabbage leaves on top of you shredded cabbage with some sort of weight (I like to use glass jars) You want to keep everything under the brine.  Place a lid on your jar and set it in a room where the temp is between 65 and 75 F.   After 24 hours check the kraut to make sure that enough brine has developed to cover the sauerkraut.  throughout the fermentation process the water should completely cover the vegetables, to prevent mold from growing.

After 14 days it is fully active and ready to eat!! Put in the refrigerator 12 hours before consumption.