Make tasty sauerkraut that it was crunchy – true art. For this purpose it is necessary to know some subtleties and secrets of salting. At all seasons of the year this product can be bought in supermarket. But it is better to make preparations on the taste – it is pleasant to someone is sourer, to someone is more sweet, to someone with additives, and to someone without them. And therefore it is necessary to practice with a pickles and fermentation, not to be afraid to experiment.
Subtleties of preparation of tasty sauerkraut
To make sauerkraut crunchy, it is necessary to follow some obligatory rules. Everyone experiments with nuances on the taste. Most, perhaps, important is to choose a grade of white vegetable. Only srednepozdny and late-ripening varieties are suitable for salting. The most widespread – "Glory". Except it there is "Atrium-F1", "Gift", Dobrovodskaya, "Megaton-F1", "Tradeswoman" and others. If there are no knowledge of it, then it is simpler to ask the seller.
Cabbage can be salted gradually, not really large portions throughout all autumn and winter period. Only it is worth being attentive as in supermarkets often sell very rigid Polish vegetables which don't suit for fermentation.
Often, in the description of recipes of sauerkraut it is said that it is impossible to use iodinated salt. Really, salt of a coarse grinding best of all will be suitable for a pickles. But not always and not in all shops it can be got. It must be kept in mind that iodine after opening of a pack disappears after a while, and here it is possible to work with such "stale" salt.
How many it is necessary for salt for fermentation of cabbage? There is no definite answer – salt is different too and to weigh the cabbage chopped already is problematic. Many salt "approximately" - that on taste the cabbage was a little more salty, than salad. It is possible to use the rule that salt in relation to cabbage there have to be about 2%, i.e. 20 grams of salt for kilogram of cabbage without cabbage stump.
Container for preparation of fermented crunchy cabbage can be glass, enameled, wooden, but not aluminum. The enameled ware has to be without chips.
To salt cabbage there is enough of her and salts, but many add a little sugar. The most widespread recipe of sauerkraut – with addition of carrots. Often put seeds of fennel and caraway seeds, bay leaf, juniper berries. Also add apples, a cranberry, cowberry. Carrots or berries there have to be about 4% of all weight.
When it is better to make sour cabbage
It is worth deciding on salting time. The necessary lunar phases are meant. If the relation to it skeptical, then it is worth remembering the most bright example – inflows and otliva. Yes, the Moon influences everything that contains water (a human body not an exception) and that in cabbage a lot of liquid doesn't need to be proved.
When it is the best of all to salt or make sour cabbage? These are days of a new moon or days of the growing Moon. The cabbage prepared in other time can turn out soft and then it is useful only as a stuffing for pies or in borsch. That it is even worse, can just perekisnut and deteriorate. Someone claims that men salt cabbage on Monday and Thursday (men's days), and women on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday (Women's Days).
Recipe for crunchy sauerkraut
- 10 kg of a white cabbage;
- 400 g of carrots;
- 180 g of salt;
- sugar (at desire and to taste);
- fennel seeds.
1. Cabbage is sliced by means of any devices. You shouldn't turn this work into jewelry as small chopped cabbage won't be juicy.
2. In a big basin or directly on a table of a portion of the cut cabbage it is necessary to rumple hands before release of juice, to mix with carrots, salt, sugar, fennel and to lay, having stamped, in the ware prepared in advance.
3. Over cabbage to put a plate or a wooden circle on which to put oppression – to bank with water, a dumbbell or any other weight. The oppression shouldn't be heavy as cabbage can turn out dry. Ideal weight – 1 to 10. On 10 kg of preparations 1 kg of cargo there is quite enough.
4. In the course of fermentation the cabbage needs to be pierced twice a day to the bottom in order that there were gases.
5. How many days to salt cabbage? 3 – 5 days if cabbage is stored at a temperature below 0. And there is quite enough 2 days if store it in the fridge. The fact is that on cold the process of fermentation slows down, but doesn't stop completely therefore cabbage continues to be made sour.
Confidential way to make crunchy sauerkraut
It happens so that for some unclear reasons the salty cabbage turns out soft or it is worse than that – spoils. Try to salt cabbage with addition of dry mustard. It is a sure bet. Mustard powder is filled on a ware bottom, then do laying of cabbage, and over it put the fabric moistened in the divorced mustard. Then circle and cargo. Mustard will leave no chance for a putrefactive bacteria, and cabbage will turn out tasty and crunchy.
How to store sauerkraut? It is possible to store a ready-made product 8 months at a temperature up to +5 degrees – in a cellar or the fridge. In the city apartment at the large volume of preparations it is possible to take out in the winter a container with cabbage on a balcony. The frost won't affect gustatory qualities in any way, vitamins will remain too. It is the most convenient to pack up salty cabbage in packages and to put in a big pan or a bucket.
It is simple to make crunchy sauerkraut, it is necessary just to practice and gain experience. And it is even better to experiment with small volumes. And if there is a need to make at once many preparations, then it is better to use classical recipes.