Making delicious sauerkraut to keep it crispy is a real art. To do this, you need to know some of the subtleties and secrets of salting. You can buy this product at the supermarket any time of the year. But it is better to make the blanks to your taste - after all, someone likes it sour, someone sweeter, someone with additives, and someone without them. And so you need to practice with salting and pickling, not being afraid to experiment.
The subtleties of cooking delicious sauerkraut
To make crispy sauerkraut, you need to follow some mandatory rules. With the nuances, everyone experiments to their own taste. Perhaps the most important thing is to choose a variety of white vegetable. Only medium-late and late-ripening varieties are suitable for salting. The most common is "Glory". In addition to him, there are "Atria-F1", "Gift", "Dobrovodskaya", "Megaton-F1", "Merchant's wife" and others. If there is no knowledge of this, then it is easier to ask the seller.
Cabbage can be salted gradually, not in very large portions throughout the entire autumn-winter period. Just be careful, because supermarkets often sell very tough Polish vegetables that are not suitable for pickling.
Often, in the description of sauerkraut recipes, it is said that iodized salt should not be used. Indeed, coarse salt is best suited for salting. But not always and not in all stores you can buy it. It should be borne in mind that iodine evaporates some time after opening the pack, and you can work with such "stale" salt.
How much salt is needed for pickling cabbage? There is no unequivocal answer - salt can also be different, and it is problematic to weigh already chopped cabbage. Many people use salt "by eye" - so that the cabbage tastes a little more salty than a salad. You can use the rule that salt in relation to cabbage should be about 2%, i.e. 20 grams of salt per kilogram of cabbage without cabbage.
Containers for the preparation of sauerkraut crispy cabbage can be glass, enameled, wooden, but not aluminum. Enamelware should be chip-free.
To salt the cabbage, it is enough for itself and salt, but many add a little sugar. The most common sauerkraut recipe is with the addition of carrots. Often they put dill and caraway seeds, bay leaves, juniper berries. Apples, cranberries, lingonberries are also added. Carrots or berries should be about 4% of the total mass.
When is it better to ferment cabbage
It is worth deciding on the time of salting. The required lunar phases are implied. If the attitude towards this is skeptical, then it is worth remembering the most vivid example - the ebb and flow. Yes, the Moon affects everything that contains water (the human body is no exception), and there is no need to prove that there is a lot of liquid in cabbage.
When is the best time to salt or ferment cabbage? These are the days of the new moon or the days of the waxing moon. Cabbage cooked at a different time can turn out to be soft and then it will be useful only as a filling for pies or in borscht. Worse, it can simply sour and deteriorate. Someone claims that men salt cabbage on Monday and Thursday (men's days), and women on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday (women's days).
Crispy Sauerkraut Recipe
- 10 kg of white cabbage;
- 400 g of carrots;
- 180 g of salt;
- sugar (optional and to taste);
- Dill seeds.
1. Cabbage is shredded using any tools. You should not turn this work into jewelry, since finely chopped cabbage will not be juicy.
2. In a large bowl or directly on the table, portions of chopped cabbage should be mash with hands until juice is released, mixed with carrots, salt, sugar, dill and put, tamped, in a dish prepared in advance.
3. On top of the cabbage, put a plate or a wooden circle on which to put oppression - a jar of water, a dumbbell or any other weight. The oppression should not be heavy, as the cabbage may be dry. The ideal weight is 1 to 10. For 10 kg of workpieces, 1 kg of load is enough.
4. In the process of pickling, cabbage should be pierced to the bottom twice a day in order to release gases.
5. How many days to salt cabbage? 3 - 5 days if the cabbage is stored at temperatures below 0. And 2 days is quite enough if it will be stored in the refrigerator. The fact is that in the cold the fermentation process slows down, but does not stop completely, so the cabbage continues to ferment.
The secret way to make crispy sauerkraut
It happens that, for some unknown reason, salted cabbage turns out to be soft or, even worse, deteriorates. Try to salt the cabbage with dry mustard. This is a win-win. Mustard powder is poured onto the bottom of the dishes, then cabbage is laid, and a cloth dipped in diluted mustard is placed on top of it. Then a circle and a load. The mustard leaves no chance for putrefactive bacteria, and the cabbage will turn out delicious and crispy.
How to store sauerkraut? The finished product can be stored for 8 months at temperatures up to +5 degrees - in a cellar or refrigerator. In a city apartment, with a large volume of blanks, you can take out a container with cabbage to the balcony in winter. Frost will not affect the taste in any way, vitamins will also be preserved. It is most convenient to pack salted cabbage in bags and put it in a large saucepan or bucket.
Making crispy sauerkraut is easy, you just need to practice and gain experience. And it's even better to experiment with small volumes. And if there is a need to make many blanks at once, then it is better to use classic recipes.
