How to salt cabbage 

Not every young housewife knows how to salt cabbage for the winter. But half a century ago, cabbage was fermented, salted and marinated in whole barrels in order to feed the family with cabbage soup, dumplings and pies with a healthy and crispy filling until the very spring. Salted cabbage retains almost all the vitamins and minerals that are found in fresh heads of cabbage. It is not surprising that they continue to pickle cabbage in our time, because it is very healthy, fragrant and tasty.

You can learn about how to pickle cabbage for the winter, how to choose the right heads of cabbage and spices, as well as some secrets of pickling and pickling cabbage, from this article.

Salting cabbage for the winter: preparation

The salting process is quite simple, but here there are some tricks and features that a good hostess should know:

1. First of all, you need to distinguish pickled cabbage from salted or sauerkraut. The saltier the brine is, the faster the product will cook, and the longer it can be stored ready-made. In the process of pickling or pickling, products ferment more, more carbon dioxide is released. According to such recipes, salt is needed less, it may take about two weeks for a full preparation. Salted cabbage will be ready in a few days. During cooking, carbon dioxide will also be produced, but in smaller quantities. Due to the large amount of salt, bacteria and microorganisms will not be able to exist in brine – the product will be stored for a long time.

   

2. The taste of salted cabbage is in no way inferior to sauerkraut – it is just as crispy, with a sweet and sour taste and excellent aroma. To make the cabbage even juicier and crispier, experienced housewives do this: half of the head of cabbage is cut into small pieces, and the second part is chopped into larger pieces. As a result, small straws release juice, which is necessary for brine, and large pieces give crunchiness.
3. For salting cabbage for the winter, large and tight heads of white color are chosen. Most of all, late varieties of vegetables are suitable for such purposes.. The upper leaves of a green tint must be removed from the heads of cabbage. You need to carefully choose a product for pickling: the head of cabbage should be elastic, but not hard (Chinese varieties of white cabbage often sin with this).
4. You can cut heads of cabbage with a knife, special shredders, use food processors and other devices. The main thing, so that most of the head of cabbage is chopped into small stripes – it is they who will give the juice, because the cabbage should be fermented in its own juice.
5. So that there is no bitterness in the finished product, it is necessary remove carbon dioxide from the brine daily. To do this, the cabbage mass is pierced in several places with a narrow knife or wooden stick.
6. After cooking, the cabbage is tightly packed and pressed with something heavy. This must be done in order for the cabbage to let the juice out. If the next day the whole product is not covered with brine, you need to replace the press, choosing something heavier.

The most important thing in salting cabbage for the winter is to remove the press in time and put the product in the refrigerator. Ready cabbage should be moderately crispy, juicy and slightly sour. If the brine ferments, the pickle will become sluggish, not crispy and tasteless mass.

Several ways to pickle cabbage

As already mentioned, salting cabbage for the winter is a simple matter. To do this, you do not need to be a super cook, and exotic products will not be required for cooking. All you need for the simplest recipe is a head of cabbage, carrots, spices.

Of course, there are more interesting ways with unusual salting, dyeing cabbage with beetroot juice, some housewives take not simple heads of cabbage for salting, but cauliflower heads. It’s all a matter of taste, how many chefs, so many opinions. To choose the best recipe, you have to try at least a few.

Traditional cabbage pickle recipe

It was in this way that our grandmothers salted the white vegetable. The finished product can be used as a filling for pies or dumplings, added to cabbage soup or eaten as an independent dish.

For cooking you will need:

• 2 heads of medium size;
• 6-7 medium carrots;
• 4-5 tablespoons of salt.

Experts recommend using Himalayan salt for salting, which can still be replaced with extra coarse gray rock salt. Before preparing the brine, such salt must be ground with a manual or electric coffee grinder.

The whole cooking process consists of several steps:

1. Wash the carrots, peel and grate on a coarse grater.
2. Wash the cabbage too, remove the top leaves from the heads. First, chop half of one head of cabbage into small strips. The second half of the head is cut into larger pieces. You can leave a few leaves uncut, they will delay the acidification of the brine so that the cabbage turns out crispy.
3. Pour the chopped cabbage into a basin and knead with your hands so that it becomes juicy, but still remains crispy – here, the main thing is not to overdo it.
4. Now half of the grated carrot is poured here and two tablespoons of salt are added, everything is thoroughly mixed with your hands. Pour the resulting mixture into a bowl, tamping well.
5. Now the same thing needs to be done with the second head of cabbage. At the end, put the cabbage in a saucepan and also tamp. The mass should significantly decrease in volume – this means that the cabbage is dented with sufficient quality and lets the juice out.
6. Now you need to take a plate, cover it with a cabbage mass and press down with a load. You can use a three-liter jar of water as a load, for example.
7. Every day, the cabbage mass should be pierced in several places so that carbon dioxide comes out and fermentation takes place faster.
8. If the room is warm, the product will pickle in 2-3 days, at a cooler temperature it will take about five days. When the product is ready, you can transfer it to glass jars and put it in the refrigerator. You should not fill the jars to the top, the cabbage may still continue to ferment, the juice will spill over the edge of the container.

You can eat pickles the next day. In the refrigerator, salted cabbage can stand all winter without losing its crunchiness and flavor.

Cabbage for the winter with dill grains

Cabbage made according to this recipe has a strong spicy aroma and a special crunchiness. And also The “trick” of the recipe is a special cutting of the product – shredding in long narrow strips, similar to spaghetti.

You need to prepare the following ingredients:

• 2 medium forks of white cabbage;
• 3 small carrots;
• 2,5 tablespoons of salt;
• a spoonful of dried dill seeds.

To prepare a dish according to this recipe, you need to:

1. Wash and clean all ingredients.
2. Cut each head of cabbage into two unequal parts so that the stalk remains in one half.
3. Place half of the fork flat or upright and chop into long narrow strips. The place around the stump should not be cut, the fibers are too coarse there.
4. Put the chopped cabbage in a wide basin or pan and mash it well with your hands. Before that, you need to add salt.
5. Then pour the carrots grated on a coarse grater and pour the dill seeds. Everything is well mixed by hand.
6. Cover the pot with cabbage with a plate and press it with a load. Salt the product in a cool place with good ventilation. Perfect for these purposes, a balcony or veranda is suitable.
7. Twice a day it is necessary to remove the load and mix the mass with a spoon to free the brine from excess carbon dioxide.
8. After three days, the cabbage will be ready, it can be decomposed into glass jars and put in the refrigerator or basement.

How to salt cauliflower

How many recipes exist for pickling white cabbage, but cauliflower, for some reason, is paid much less attention. Completely wrong, because colored varieties are much healthier, and such cabbage tastes just as good as white cabbage.

For salting choose white inflorescences, dense and elastic. If the color of the heads is yellowish, then they are overripe and not suitable for pickling. It is recommended to cut carrots for brine into long strips or grate them on a special grater for Korean carrots – this way the dish will look more beautiful and spectacular.

So, you will need the following ingredients:

• colored heads of cabbage – 2 pieces;
• 500 g carrots;
• Xnumx cloves of garlic;
• a few peas of black pepper;
• 4 laurel leaf;
• a tablespoon of salt with a mountain;
• incomplete spoonful of sugar.

The preparation will be as follows:

1. First prepare the brine. To do this, dissolve salt and sugar in a liter of water, bring the brine to a boil. After that, it must be cooled down.
2. Heads of cabbage are divided into small inflorescences and dipped in boiling water for a few minutes (blanched).
3. After that, the inflorescences are lowered into cold water so that they cool down and do not lose their crunchiness. Place in a large saucepan in neat layers.
4. Each layer of cabbage is interspersed with grated carrots, finely chopped garlic, peppers and bay leaves. The bottom and top layers should be carrot.
5. Pour everything with brine and press it with a load. Cauliflower is salted for 2-3 days in a warm room, after which it is taken out to a cool place (balcony, loggia, veranda). After a couple of days, you can transfer the mixture to jars and put it in the refrigerator for the whole winter.

Salted cabbage according to this recipe is not a shame to treat even the most fastidious guests, it looks like an appetizer or salad and looks very nice on the winter table.

Results

Salted cabbage is very useful for the body, especially for immunity weakened by cold weather. An acidic product will make up for the lack of enzymes in the intestines, saturate the body with valuable vitamin C, remove bad cholesterol, restore the stomach with fiber.

So, salt the cabbage correctly and enjoy a healthy and fragrant snack all winter! You can learn more about the salting process from this video: