Sauerkraut - Homemade The Old Way, a New Way

I had 9 pounds of cabbage heads. A few of the heads had split with recent heavy rains, so I cut the dry edges off.

Some people use a "kraut cutter" but, I decided to just use a large, sharp knife and a cutting board.

The outside leaves are not used. I peeled a layer of green off. The cabbage heart is not used either.

The cabbage leaves are sliced so that there are thin strips. The strips are collected in a bowl. Once filled, I placed a cover on the bowl. I decided to slice all of the cabbage before I started salting it.

The recipe is 1 tablespoon of salt per pound of cabbage. The cabbage are weighed before you shred them. I measured out 9 tablespoons of salt, which was about 1/2 cup.

I divided the salt between three bowls so that I could add a third to each bowl. Mostly for ease of mixing. They all got dumped into the crock once the juices started exuding from the cabbage.

You are supposed to press on the cabbage for four hours, every fifteen minutes.

As it sits in between presses, the fluid keeps forming.

I put a clip on the bag so that oxygen air did not touch the cabbage. The cooking bags will work well to seal out the air.

The liquid will need to cover the cabbage during this entire process, so once there is enough liquid to cover the kraut by an inch, a plate is supposed to used to keep the cabbage down, under the liquid.

My hubby found an old lamp bottom and fashioned a rope through it so I am using that for my weight.

I have three bowls of sliced cabbage. I will use a bigger bowl to salt it. Then, I can access all the shreds evenly.

I will use a big bowl for each batch.

I salted each one and squished it to get the juices flowing.

The large turkey bag works great to seal out oxygen. Back in the day, they would put a bag across. Then a towel. Then another towel. Then a plate weighted down with a pickle jar full of water so it was heavy.

This will ferment and in a week to two weeks, the liquid will turn the cabbage into pickled shreds, or sauerkraut. Initially, it will taste salty, but once the lactic acid does it's think, it will be sour.