Cabbage is stored in winter in different ways. One of the most delicious and popular ways is salting. What could be better than crispy salted cabbage with sunflower oil?
You don’t even need to add anything, many just eat a healthy snack with bread. In terms of the amount of nutrients and vitamins, sauerkraut leads in the winter. It improves digestion, keeps the intestines toned, and supports the immune system.
The salting process occurs when the necessary ingredients are combined. There are a lot of recipes, but it is necessary to dwell on some of the nuances of the process.
helpful hints
Before you start pickling cabbage in a bucket, you need to know that this simple matter has its own subtleties. First, the timing. Naturally, no one salts cabbage in the summer. For recipes, only winter varieties are used. Therefore, the optimal time is the onset of the first frost. One more nuance. A pickled vegetable on a growing moon turns out to be tasty and crispy, and on a waning moon it turns out sour and soft. Well, if you are used to being guided by the recommendations of the lunar calendar. This is a useful tool in culinary business, especially when pickling vegetables in a bucket.
Secondly, the choice of variety for salting in a bucket. To get a crisp, elastic cabbage, choose late or medium-late varieties with white dense heads of uniform color. Winter varieties and hybrids are distinguished by dense heads of cabbage with coarse leaves. If you take loose forks with green leaves, then you may not get the expected result.
There are more leaves, but one stalk. Therefore, there will be less waste, and a large head of cabbage is chopped more easily.
Thirdly, a container for salting. It is usually believed that the most delicious cabbage is obtained in a wooden barrel or tub. Naturally, the tree has magical properties for cooks. But in modern conditions of high-rise buildings or small garden houses, not every owner wants to buy large containers for salting. Therefore, summer residents are looking for other options. A good taste of pickles is obtained when using enameled pots, basins or glass bottles. Be sure to check the integrity of the container. It should not have delaminations, chips or cracks. Cabbage is often salted in a plastic container or bucket, which is very convenient. However, the taste of cabbage is not as rich as in a wooden container.
The acid present in the snack reacts with aluminum. This is unhealthy and the cabbage will come out with a metallic taste.
In this article we will tell you how to pickle cabbage in a bucket. Such a container is present in every house, and it will not be difficult for the hostess to allocate a separate bucket for salting.
Preparatory procedures
Almost all housewives know how to salt cabbage for the winter. This requires salt, carrots and dense heads of cabbage.
But you need to prepare high-quality components. Let us dwell on the choice of the main ingredient for salting – heads of cabbage.
White cabbage is suitable for salting in a bucket. Choose forks with whole green leaves on top. If the leaves are removed, then the cabbage may have frozen. Try not to take these heads. The inside of the forks should be white. Such cabbage after salting turns out juicy and crispy.
Be sure to specify the ripening period of the variety. Early and medium varieties in salting are soft and not crispy. Choose the right size for your hand. It is inconvenient to chop small heads of cabbage, but when you cannot grab the forks with your hand, this also causes discomfort.
Carrots choose sweet and juicy. It is important that the root crops, like cabbage heads, be without severe damage and signs of decay.
The classic proportion for salting 5 kg of cabbage is 100 g of salt and carrots. To make the dish look brighter when ready, the housewives increase the amount of carrots to 150 g.
The following additives add piquancy to the taste of sauerkraut in a bucket:
- Fruits, berries – cranberries, apples, lingonberries;
- vegetables – bell pepper;
- spices – cumin seeds, dill.
In order to get a crispy snack for sure, culinary experts advise adding grated horseradish and oak bark in pharmacy packaging to a bucket (5-7 g per 1 kg of vegetables).
Cooking options
For salting, prepare a plastic bucket of a convenient volume. It is important that there is enough for the whole family and not to offend the guests. Salting vegetables in a plastic bucket is convenient and profitable. The container can be selected in any size, the cost of the container is small and it will not be difficult to purchase it.
Let’s prepare the carrots. Wash, peel, grate. The beautiful orange hue of sauerkraut is the merit of a bright carrot.
Free the cabbage forks from the top green leaves and stalk. It is better to cut the head of cabbage in half or into 4 parts.
It depends on the size of the cabbage. Shred the cabbage with a chopping knife or an ordinary chef’s knife. If you have never worked with a cut, then be extremely careful. Too narrow strips should not be achieved, such cabbage rarely turns out crispy.
Place shredded cabbage and carrots in a bowl. Season with salt and stir in the vegetables. Mix with your hands until the juice starts to stand out. Now we shift the “salad” into a bucket for pickling in layers. Each layer is well tamped also until the juice is released. The layers in the bucket are interspersed with additives (if necessary) – cranberries, dill seeds, lingonberries. So, we continue until the bucket is full. From above we will cover the contents of the bucket with clean cabbage leaves, which were removed from the heads of cabbage before shredding.
The next step is to put oppression on the bucket. Before packing the load, cover the cabbage with a wooden circle or a lid from a pot smaller than a bucket. You can use a dish or plate by turning it upside down. The role of the load will perfectly perform a clean stone, a bottle of water.
Before putting it on a plate, cover it with a clean cloth or gauze.
Storage Rules
We pickled cabbage in a bucket. Now you need to know when it will be ready and can it be stored for a long time?
The first 3-6 days we keep the container with the vegetable at room temperature (20 ° C – 22 ° C). The number of days depends on the volume of the bucket in which the cabbage was salted. The larger the volume, the longer we keep in the room. If the temperature indicators in the first days are lower, then the ripening process may slow down or stop. Cabbage sours quickly when warm.
Finding out how fermentation proceeds is very simple. If there is foam and bubbles on the surface, then everything is in order. As soon as the process is started, we regularly remove the foam, and pierce the cabbage daily with a wooden stick to release gases.
When the volume settles and the juice almost ceases to stand out, this indicates that the product is ready. Cabbage must be tasted before being sent to storage. If the acid is not enough, leave it in the room for another couple of days.
Further storage takes place at a temperature of 0°C … +5°C. We place the bucket in the cellar, basement, balcony or refrigerator. For convenience, you can transfer the product to a smaller container.
The modern method of storage is freezing. Soup sauerkraut, like fresh vegetables, put into bags and place in the freezer.
Sauerkraut is a wonderful product that no meal can do without. Bon appetit and new recipes!