MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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Any recipes for sauerkraut or kimchi? I have loads of them to use up. I've heard picked (paaaarp) cabbage is good for (fweeeeeeeep) stomach health ( puthethetheth) and I'd like to get others and all those around me involved.
Sauerkraut isn’t pickled. It’s fermented.
Kimchi is fermented too.
Cabbage. Salt. Mix. Sit. Put in jar. Add garlic and ginger and chilli and other stuff as you want.
Leave for a while. Taste. Leave longer or put in fridge.
Easy.
Don't forget to open the jar every day during fermentation, to avoid an explosion.
Fermentation is a pickling method.
What do I win?
Love the stuff. I'm going to have a go.
I knew some smartarse would say about fermentation and then not give me a recipe. I fart in your general direction Brant
Salt and caraway seeds is traditional. I've made it a few times. No need to make it airtight and risk explosion, the advice I saw was a open-topped container with a lid one size smaller (I used a tall plastic tupperware-type container) and weight on top to push the cabbage under the liquid that it exudes (due to salt). Ambient temps until it's as you like it. Worked fine. Can go a bit mouldy if you're not careful.
Kimchi has garlic and chilli and probably fish sauce, plus it's based on a different type of cabbage (traditionally not shredded like kraut but whole with the garlic etc spread between the leaves). Never tried it. Though I probably should.
Found this bad boy. might try it. i especially like the part that says "examine the kraut every day"
The vegetable ingredients are flexible, and you can change according to taste as you do more batches. Weigh the total amount of vegetables in order to calculate the salt needed later.
Makes several jars
½ kg fresh white cabbage
½ cauliflower, cut into small pieces
2 carrots, grated
2 sticks of celery, finely chopped
1 onion, chopped
½ turnip, grated
2 garlic cloves, chopped
½ tbsp grated ginger
1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
1½ tbsp good quality sea salt per 1kg of vegetables</span>
Chop or grate the cabbage finely or coarsely to taste – if you prefer it to be crunchy, chop rather than grate. Mix all the vegetables together, and sprinkle in the sea salt.
Place the vegetables and salt in a wide-mouthed crock or clean plastic bucket. Tamp down with your fists or whatever is to hand that works to press hard to release the water in the vegetables. This can take up to 10 minutes, so be prepared to work on the floor for extra downward power.
Transfer to glass jars, then press down so that the vegetables are submerged in the water, and cover with a clean weight such as a plastic ziplock bag filled with brine (in case it leaks), or a glass jug or jar filled withwater. Finally cover with a cloth and put aside. Every now and then press down on the weight to make sure the sauerkraut is covered by brine.
Examine the kraut every day or so. If you have some mould on the surface this can be removed without fear of contamination. With time the taste gets stronger. After a week or so, taste, and when you get the flavour you like transfer to the fridge.
Mrs DB loves sauerkraut and will happily eat half a jar on its own for lunch and she never ever trumps - stomach health personified 😀
‘puthethetheth’
I’d check that one, sounded a bit ‘wet’
puthethetheth’
....sminky pinky chris waddell
Last year on the radio (Radio 4?) I randomly heard a fascinating interview with a guy who was evidently the fermentation guru, he had been doing it for many years & knew all the secrets. I resolved to buy his book (but never did lol). All I can remember is that he had an amazing name!
EDIT: well that was ridiculously easy to find! https://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Fermentation-depth-Exploration-Essential/dp/160358286X
puthethetheth’ I’d check that one, sounded a bit ‘wet’
haha cheers i sat in my office with the door closed doing a phonetic impression of a bowel emptier and that's what i came up with
sliced my bloody nail off last night making it. there is probably a jar of it fermenting in my house with a little piece of me inside it. Sauerkraut anyone?
So is the jar of cheap sauerkraut you get in tescos actually just as good?
from a healthy point of view?
I made some for the first time a couple of months back. Finely shredded cabbage, massaged with salt , some caraway seeds and juniper berries. Into a kilner jar till its softens and tastes sour enough then keep in the fridge. Also made kimchi recently lovely in a noodle bowl.
Check out the UK fermenting friends fb page for full on fermenting geekery and advice.
Taste better if you make it yourself. 🙂
Plenty of instructions on the interweb.
Stuff in shops will have been pasteurised. Maybe also other ingredients you don’t need (preservatives). But yeah it’s still fermented cabbage.
gotta try 'em all
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/mar/07/pickle-ferment-recipes-six-of-the-best