There are many options for pickling cabbage, and when you use each of them, you end up with a snack with its own "twist". However, in order to salt the vegetable and not spoil the dish, it is important to know what can be added when pickling it, and what not.
Often, housewives who decide to ferment cabbage for the first time are interested in the question of whether it is necessary to put sugar in the preparation, how this seasoning will affect the taste of the cabbage. So right away it is worth noting that there are a great many recipes for pickling cabbage, among which options with the addition of sugar are often found, however, in the classic recipe, the components of the blank are cabbage, carrots and salt.
As for sugar and other herbal spices, their addition is optional, this is a matter of everyone's taste. After all, most of the spices do not at all affect the fermentation of the vegetable and the timing of its subsequent storage, however, it affects the taste of the finished dish very noticeably. For example, thyme, cloves, bay leaves and sugar, which are successfully used by many housewives when picking cabbage, add spice and sweetness to the dish. If such cabbage is used for food exclusively in the form of a salad, then adding all of the above will only come in handy, but if cabbage is planned to be added to soups, then sugar can negatively affect the finished first course.
From the above, we can conclude that sugar can be put into cabbage when pickling it, it will not affect the safety of the product, but only affect its taste. But if you do not know what you will do with cabbage in the future, then it is better to refuse sugar. For your information - it can always be added to ready-made sauerkraut and its taste will be no different from the one to which sugar was added at the beginning of the fermentation.
