How to prepare and store sauerkraut at home?

Knowing how to store sauerkraut without refrigeration, you can prepare a lot of this healthy and tasty product. It’s good if you live in a private house: sauerkraut can be stored for a long time in a cool and dark cellar, making sure that mold does not form. In a city apartment, long-term storage is possible only in the refrigerator.

Traditional sauerkraut

There are many ways to prepare this delicious product at home. Some use vinegar to give the cabbage a spicy kick. In other recipes, chopped vegetables are poured with hot brine to speed up the cooking process. To make cabbage healthy and last longer, it is better to cook it according to the classic recipe, using only cabbage, carrots, salt and spices. Mid-season and late varieties are better suited for fermentation.

Ingredients:

chopped cabbage – 3 kg;
carrots – 80 g;
table salt – 60 g;
bay leaf and cumin (optional).

The cooking process is divided into 4 stages.

The head of cabbage is washed under running water and cleaned of green or damaged outer leaves. They chop it finely.
One large carrot is cut into thin strips, like for a Korean salad. Mix vegetables on a plastic cutting board (you can do this in a separate convenient container or on a clean oilcloth).
Add two full, slightly heaped tablespoons of salt.Grind the chopped vegetables well with salt and place them in a clean glass container, carefully compacting them with a wooden tamper.
The jar is filled five centimeters below the edge of the neck. Tie a clean cloth or gauze on top to allow the cabbage to “breathe.” The jar is placed on a plate. During fermentation, air bubbles are released, and the cabbage juice will overflow over the edge of the jar into a substitute container. If you pierce the cabbage with a wooden skewer in several places to the bottom, the air bubbles will come out faster.

After two or three days at room temperature of about 20 degrees, the dish will be ready. The jar can be stored in the refrigerator to prevent the cabbage from peroxidizing. This product can be stored at a temperature of 0 to 2 degrees for several months. But it takes up a lot of space in the refrigerator; it is inconvenient to keep several cans for a long time on shelves intended for perishable foods. Below we will look at the recipe for preparing this dish, which will allow you, after harvesting at the dacha in the fall, to make preparations until next year.

Some housewives take the preparations out onto the balcony in the cool season. This is convenient to do if the balcony is well insulated and there is a closet there. In severe frost, the jars will still have to be brought into the apartment. If cabbage is stored in an enamel pan, it can be left on the balcony during frost. But when defrosting, such a product must be eaten as quickly as possible, which is not always possible.

Many housewives use the freezer for storage. Place the product in plastic bags and put it in the freezer. This cabbage can be stored for a long time, but when defrosted, the taste may deteriorate, and it should not be re-frozen.If sauerkraut is stored in brine, its beneficial properties are better preserved.

Advice

Choose juicy varieties for fermentation to get a high-quality and tasty finished dish. In the fermentation process, the role of cabbage juice is very large. If it is deficient, the cabbage placed in the jar may turn black, an unpleasant odor and bitter taste will appear, and the product will be spoiled.

Sterilized sauerkraut

This recipe will allow you to store the product at home without a cellar or refrigerator for several months.

Ingredients:

shredded cabbage – 5 kg;
salt – 85 g;
sugar or honey – 75 g;
bay leaf – 5 pcs.

Preparation

Clean the head of cabbage from green leaves and cut out the stalk. Shred into thin strips. Add three tablespoons of salt and the same amount of sugar or honey, bay leaf, mix everything well.
Place the cabbage in clean glass jars or an enamel pan, pressing tightly. A load is placed on top (a plate turned upside down and a jar of water). Keep until ready at room temperature for 3–5 days.
Place the prepared sauerkraut in prepared, steamed glass jars with a capacity of one liter - three centimeters below the top of the neck. Cover the jars with prepared lids.
Place the filled jars in a pan or bucket with water heated to 30 degrees and sterilize for 40 minutes. The water level in the pan should be three centimeters below the neck of the jar. The sterilization time begins to count from the moment the water boils in the pan. The boil should not be violent; the heat should be reduced so that the heating is minimal. Place a wooden grid or a rag at the bottom of the sterilization container.
After sterilization, the jars are carefully removed from the water using special tongs or a towel. They roll up quickly.

Prepare according to this recipe after harvesting in the autumn. Without peroxidation, without changing its taste, cabbage will last on the canned shelf until the summer. Perfect as a side dish for boiled potatoes, porridge, meat and fish dishes, for making vinaigrettes and cabbage soup.