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You can sour at the table, you can sour under the table. The Germans make sauerkraut, and then prepare a delicious beer snack from it, flavoring a simple stew with their signature sausages. In the Czech Republic, they also don’t mind sour and stew, mostly beer, but they don’t forget about cabbage either. Let’s sip a little…
Homemade sauerkraut is a great appetizer for vodka, as well as a highly demanded component of dishes for beer and other alcoholic drinks. So, for example, stewed sauerkraut with pork or poultry serves as a beer snack in the Czech Republic, in Germany sauerkraut is served with delicious local sausages and sausages. Yes, and where without bigos – a traditional dish of Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. However, you need to start, of course, with the sauerkraut recipe itself!
In the classic recipe for sauerkraut, whole cabbage leaves were placed at the bottom of the barrel, after which the chopped cabbage, mixed with grated carrots and salt, was tightly packed into the barrel and covered with whole leaves on top. Next, the barrel was covered with a cloth and the mass was pressed down with a wooden circle along the diameter of the barrel, oppression was placed on top. Fermentation lasted about a week at room temperature, during this time the mass was pierced several times with a knife to the very bottom, and at the end of fermentation the cask was taken out to a cold place without removing the oppression.
The modern recipe for small containers practically does not differ from the above, and cabbage in an ordinary jar, with a certain skill, will turn out to be no less crispy and tasty.
The classic recipe for sauerkraut in its own juice (with photo)
You can cook crispy and juicy cabbage according to different recipes: with and without brine, with sugar or honey, vinegar and various additives. Recipes are passed down from generation to generation, and the closest to the “barrel” is the version without sugar, brine and vinegar.
Ingredients:
- Cabbage – 3 kg
- Carrots – 1-2 pieces (about 0,5 kg)
- Salt – about 70 grams
Preparation:
Cut the head of cabbage into a convenient number of parts and chop with a knife or special tools (grater, shredder, combine, etc.). Peel and grate the carrots on a large-medium grater (you can use a Korean carrot grater).
Mix cabbage, carrots and salt in a large bowl. Start packing the resulting mass tightly into a glass jar or pan, periodically lightly tamping the mass with a rolling pin or pressing it with your hands (a sufficient amount of juice should stand out in the process).
You can first mash the cabbage in a bowl, using, for example, a strong jar.
If you sour in a saucepan, then you should cover it with a plate on top and put oppression (a stone, a jar of water), if in a jar, you can simply cover it with gauze or a clean cloth, but you should make sure that the top layer does not peek out of the juice.
As oppression, you can use a small jar.
For 3-7 days, cabbage should be pierced with a rolling pin, knitting needle or knife to the very bottom, otherwise an unpleasant bitterness may occur due to accumulating gases. When the cabbage is ready, it should be transferred to a clean jar, pour brine and store in the refrigerator under a lid.
This classic “grandmother’s” recipe for sugar-free sauerkraut in its own juice can be supplemented with a variety of ingredients: cranberries, pomegranate seeds, lingonberries, beets, apples, plums. Of the spices most often used: bay leaf, various types of pepper, ginger, cloves, cumin, coriander, anise, etc.
Classic sauerkraut recipe with brine
No less simple and popular is the recipe using brine. It is most convenient to calculate the amount of ingredients and brine for one three-liter jar. By adding various spices to the brine and experimenting with the amount of salt and sugar, you can achieve the perfect result.
Ingredients (for a 3 liter jar):
- Cabbage – about 2 kg
- Carrots – 1 large or 2 medium
- Bay leaf – 2-3 pieces
- Water – 1,5 liters
- Salt – 2 tablespoons
- Sugar – 2 tablespoons
Preparation:
Dissolve sugar and salt in warm boiled water. Prepare the cabbage: remove the top sheets, wash, chop (with a knife, on a grater or in any other way). Peel the carrots, wash and grate on a coarse grater. Mix cabbage and carrots in a bowl, transfer to a jar, laying bay leaves and other spices (optional) between layers and lightly tamping.
Pour brine into the jar so that it covers the entire mass. The brine consumption will depend on the degree of compaction, so some may remain unused. Cover the resulting mixture with a cloth or gauze rolled up in several layers.
Since the brine may leak out during fermentation, it is better to put the jar in a deep plate. Cabbage is fermented at room temperature for several days, during which it must be periodically pierced to the bottom with a wooden stick, knitting needle or a thin knife. When the dish is ready, the jar can be rearranged in the refrigerator.
Crispy sauerkraut made according to these recipes can either become an excellent snack in itself or serve as the main ingredient for preparing original snacks for vodka, beer and other drinks, which we will write about in the following articles.