Kefir Sauerkraut

Sauerkraut is basically fermented cabbage and herbs that is a standard staple of many middle European cuisines. The cabbage itself does contain certain strains of Lactic Acid bacteria, which as the consume the sugars and carbohydrates in the bruised cabbage, gradually pickle the cabbage by forming an acidic brine. The number of strains is a little limited, though. And if you’ve ever brewed or fermented any sort alcohol, you’ll recognize that it really reduces your chances of spoilage or going awry if you use a starter culture. Well, what better lactic acid culture than kefir (which actually has a remarkably broad spectrum of active probiotic bacteria).

The classic way of doing this fermentation is in a earthenware crock, which actually allows for some degree of airflow from the outside to contact the surface of the brine. This fact, however, can prove problematic if any cabbage debris or material floats to the top of the brine. When debris comes into contact with air, it can cause putrefying bacteria to take hold, and could threaten to taint the whole batch. So, typically, you would need to weigh down the cabbage, and make sure it is covered in brine, skimming carefully.

Good news, there’s a cheat! Fermentation jars are basically a “jar” version of a carboy that one might use to brew beer or wine. With this, an airtight lid is fitted with an airlock that only allows gas to flow one way. Once the fermentation process forces any oxygen out, the process becomes fully anaerobic, and the only thing moving is CO2 out of the container. So, no weird bacterial issues. They sort of look like this, but theoretically, you could just pop an airlock with a universal bung on a larger jar. You can find them online fairly easily.

Typically, a good salt to raw material ratio is 2-2.5% salt to cabbage by weight. So you might need to bust out the digital scale and do a little math on this one, sorry.

Supplies Needed

1. Fermentation Jars (Or you can just buy lids that for standard canning jars)

2. A Solid French Rolling Pin for bruising.

3. A Grater to shred cabbage (or, if you have a food processor with a grate blade, use it!)

4. A Digital Scale for a’ measurin’

5. 4 lbs Green Cabbage.

6. 1.28-1.6 oz Kosher Salt (Use that scale!, that’s 2-2.5% of 64 oz).

7. 4 Tbl Kefir Grains (Milk or Water Grains).

8. 1 Tbl Caraway Seeds.

Preparation:

1. Sanitize pickling jars by placing into a large pot with about 1 inch of boiling water. Cover with a lid and steam for 5 minutes. Turn off heat and allow to cool.

2. Shred Cabbage and place into a deep pot or bowl (deep enough to keep the cabbage in one place, but strong enough to withstand a beating).Work in layers and sprinkle salt between each one until all is used.

3. By hand begin to work the cabbage, caraway, and salt together, rubbing to ensure coverage.

4. Once rubbed, begin to bruise the cabbage by pulverizing it a bit with the end of the French Pin.

5. Wait about 1 hour, as the salt and bruising begin to kick out the liquid from the cabbage.

6. Pack the cabbage tightly into pickling jars and top up with any reserved liquid from bruising.

7. Should the liquid not be able to cover the cabbage you can make a quick brine of 1 quart hot water and 0.8 oz salt and top up over the cabbage.

8. Place some the kefir grains in the liquid and stir a little. That’s actually enough to get the kefir part started.

10. Place in a dark place at room tempo for 2 days. You will be able to gauge the activity of the fermentation from the airlock activity (oh yeah, BTW fill the airlock with liquid!)

11. After 2 days, you can move the jars into the refrigerator (different bacteria thrive at different temps)

12. Leave in the refrigerator until you don’t see any sign of activity in the airlock, about a week is good. You can replace the fermentation lid with a standard lid at this point, just leave it slightly loosely sealed to prevent the jar from building up pressure.

13. That’s about it, you may choose replace the lids with loosely tightened jar lids for storage purposes. Try to use within 6 months or so.