Many people don’t make sauerkraut because they think they don’t like it or they are afraid their process will result in food that causes illness or distress. Here are some tips:

1. Use one red cabbage, one red onion, three cloves of garlic, two jalapeños, one habanero (if you like some spice, otherwise substitute a jalapeño) one medium ripe tomato.

2. Weigh a large bowl, tare the scale, write down the weight of the bowl, chop the ingredients to the size you prefer to eat and put the chopped ingredients into the bowl. You can add any spice you like at this point. I like black pepper and cayenne. Paprika is good in this as well.

3. Weigh the mixture, multiply the weight minus the bowl weight by 0.025. It is easiest to work in grams here, take the result of the multiplication and weigh that much sea salt, higher quality is better, non iodized is essential. Add to the bowl. Wash your hands thoroughly and mix the vegetables squeezing them in your fists as you mix. Let it sit at room temperature for two hours covered, mix again, let sit for another two hours.

4. Put 2” of vegetable into a 0.5 gallon large mouth mason jar, compact with your hand or a wooden spoon. Repeat until the mixture is at the canning fill line. Find a glass weight or weights, I use food grade glass marbles and fill the jar to the top. You could use well washed river rocks or stones from gravel. You will need a large mouth airlock top. There are all varieties available on EBay.

5. Now for the magic part! Red cabbage juice is a pH indicator. Purple will be the initial color because the pH will be about neutral 7.0. As the lactobacillus bacteria work in the saline anaerobic environment, they will acidify the mixture turning the cabbage bright pink. Take picture of the starting color for comparison. Keep the temperature 68 or above, preferably not hotter than 72 for a couple weeks. When it’s pink, it’s ready to eat! It will keep in the fridge for 6 months or more. #homestead #homesteading #foodstr #foodpreservation #fermentation