Not every housewife can ferment cabbage so that the vegetable is tasty. Even the exact adherence to the recipe does not give full confidence that the workpiece will not disappoint. Often, even experienced housewives have cabbage that turns out to be soft, or during the fermentation period it becomes not very pleasant consistency. There may be several reasons for this.
Most often, cabbage turns out to be soft and mucus appears on it for the reason that an unsuitable vegetable variety, unripe heads of cabbage have been selected for harvesting. Therefore, if it is important for you to prepare not only tasty cabbage, but also so that it is stored for a long time, you should use exclusively ripe vegetables, juicy, of a certain variety. In the case of using purchased heads of cabbage for fermentation, special attention should be paid to their choice: they should be light, dense, slightly flattened.
If the variety of cabbage is chosen correctly, then the reason for the spoilage of cabbage is non-compliance with the recipe. When fermenting, it is necessary to use at least 2% salt by weight of cabbage (with a smaller amount, the vegetable may not give the proper amount of juice), thoroughly knead the mass before tamping it into a jar / pan, pierce the fermented composition in time to get rid of gases, keep warm until the end of the fermentation. Failure to comply with the last point most often leads to spoilage of the cabbage, which makes it soft and slippery. It is not difficult to understand that the workpiece is ready to be moved into the cold: foam ceases to form abundantly on the surface of the brine, the cabbage itself acquires a sour-salty taste and has a crunchy texture, and the latter properties will remain for a long time.
Many housewives believe that cabbage becomes slimy and soft due to the addition of various fillers, for example, apples, cranberries or lingonberries. In fact, these fruits and berries contain acids, which, on the contrary, inhibit the growth of unnecessary bacteria in cabbage, while not preventing the formation of lactic acid. Therefore, if you love these supplements, then do not neglect them.
