In article ,
songbird wrote:
brussels sprouts... the plants are huge
and we're not even picking them and eating them
as much as we both like them, it's just been
too much other stuff going on so we've not
gotten around to it. as the plants were extras
from my brother we didn't really know what to
do with them and apparently we still don't.
my Ma was going to chop off the plants and take
the whole stalk back to my brother's place so
he can deal with them or eat them as it would
be a good laugh, but he can't eat that many
either...

Could make a batch of miniature sauerkraut - perhaps whack them in half,
salt, weight, and wait (or mix them in with actual shredded cabbage.)
Don't know for sure, but I finally decided to make some home-made
sauerkraut this year for the heck of it (I don't like most things in the
cabbage family, but I do like sauerkraut, so I think something leaves in
the fermentation that's what I don't like.) Got some test-batches going
in mason-jars, should be done in time to assess if I really want to
scale up when the late-fall cabbages come in (well, none of my own, but
from farms - perhaps next year my own if this turns out OK.)

--
Cats, coffee, chocolate...vices to live by
Please don't feed the trolls. Killfile and ignore them so they will go away.

On 10/3/2015 3:52 PM, Ecnerwal wrote:
In article ,
songbird wrote:
brussels sprouts... the plants are huge
and we're not even picking them and eating them
as much as we both like them, it's just been
too much other stuff going on so we've not
gotten around to it. as the plants were extras
from my brother we didn't really know what to
do with them and apparently we still don't.
my Ma was going to chop off the plants and take
the whole stalk back to my brother's place so
he can deal with them or eat them as it would
be a good laugh, but he can't eat that many
either...

Could make a batch of miniature sauerkraut - perhaps whack them in half,
salt, weight, and wait (or mix them in with actual shredded cabbage.)
Don't know for sure, but I finally decided to make some home-made
sauerkraut this year for the heck of it (I don't like most things in the
cabbage family, but I do like sauerkraut, so I think something leaves in
the fermentation that's what I don't like.) Got some test-batches going
in mason-jars, should be done in time to assess if I really want to
scale up when the late-fall cabbages come in (well, none of my own, but
from farms - perhaps next year my own if this turns out OK.)

I made kraut last fall, first time in many years that the fermenting
didn't go bad and grow hair. Came out pretty good. Used a sterilized
plastic bucket, bottled water, canning salt. Ended up with four quarts,
enough to satisfy our kraut hunger for at least a year. Wife liked it
better than I did, particularly when I bought some bratwurst to go with.

I think that sterilizing everything first and using non-iodized salt,
keeping a close eye on the bucket (which had a cloth over it) and
dipping out anything that looked odd did the job. Probably won't make
anymore as I found that my kraut taste was gone and wife only eats it
once in awhile. Good luck on your fermentation.

Oh yeah, I live in Harris Cty, TX, heat zone 8b.

On Saturday, October 3, 2015 at 5:54:03 PM UTC-4, George Shirley wrote:
On 10/3/2015 3:52 PM, Ecnerwal wrote:
In article ,
songbird wrote:
brussels sprouts... the plants are huge
and we're not even picking them and eating them
as much as we both like them, it's just been
too much other stuff going on so we've not
gotten around to it. as the plants were extras
from my brother we didn't really know what to
do with them and apparently we still don't.
my Ma was going to chop off the plants and take
the whole stalk back to my brother's place so
he can deal with them or eat them as it would
be a good laugh, but he can't eat that many
either...

Could make a batch of miniature sauerkraut - perhaps whack them in half,
salt, weight, and wait (or mix them in with actual shredded cabbage.)
Don't know for sure, but I finally decided to make some home-made
sauerkraut this year for the heck of it (I don't like most things in the
cabbage family, but I do like sauerkraut, so I think something leaves in
the fermentation that's what I don't like.) Got some test-batches going
in mason-jars, should be done in time to assess if I really want to
scale up when the late-fall cabbages come in (well, none of my own, but
from farms - perhaps next year my own if this turns out OK.)

I made kraut last fall, first time in many years that the fermenting
didn't go bad and grow hair. Came out pretty good. Used a sterilized
plastic bucket, bottled water, canning salt. Ended up with four quarts,
enough to satisfy our kraut hunger for at least a year. Wife liked it
better than I did, particularly when I bought some bratwurst to go with.

I think that sterilizing everything first and using non-iodized salt,
keeping a close eye on the bucket (which had a cloth over it) and
dipping out anything that looked odd did the job. Probably won't make
anymore as I found that my kraut taste was gone and wife only eats it
once in awhile. Good luck on your fermentation.

Oh yeah, I live in Harris Cty, TX, heat zone 8b.

About a dozen years ago we made a batch of kraut with red cabbage. Tasted the same, just looked more decorative. If you make a batch, avoid iron as it turns the red cabbage blue, sort of like the litmus paper in high school chemistry class. The stainless steel knives and shredding blades didn't bother it, but when we put some in a cast iron skillet, it turned blue.

Paul

On 10/5/2015 2:39 PM, Pavel314 wrote:
On Saturday, October 3, 2015 at 5:54:03 PM UTC-4, George Shirley wrote:
On 10/3/2015 3:52 PM, Ecnerwal wrote:
In article ,
songbird wrote:
brussels sprouts... the plants are huge
and we're not even picking them and eating them
as much as we both like them, it's just been
too much other stuff going on so we've not
gotten around to it. as the plants were extras
from my brother we didn't really know what to
do with them and apparently we still don't.
my Ma was going to chop off the plants and take
the whole stalk back to my brother's place so
he can deal with them or eat them as it would
be a good laugh, but he can't eat that many
either...

Could make a batch of miniature sauerkraut - perhaps whack them in half,
salt, weight, and wait (or mix them in with actual shredded cabbage.)
Don't know for sure, but I finally decided to make some home-made
sauerkraut this year for the heck of it (I don't like most things in the
cabbage family, but I do like sauerkraut, so I think something leaves in
the fermentation that's what I don't like.) Got some test-batches going
in mason-jars, should be done in time to assess if I really want to
scale up when the late-fall cabbages come in (well, none of my own, but
from farms - perhaps next year my own if this turns out OK.)

I made kraut last fall, first time in many years that the fermenting
didn't go bad and grow hair. Came out pretty good. Used a sterilized
plastic bucket, bottled water, canning salt. Ended up with four quarts,
enough to satisfy our kraut hunger for at least a year. Wife liked it
better than I did, particularly when I bought some bratwurst to go with.

I think that sterilizing everything first and using non-iodized salt,
keeping a close eye on the bucket (which had a cloth over it) and
dipping out anything that looked odd did the job. Probably won't make
anymore as I found that my kraut taste was gone and wife only eats it
once in awhile. Good luck on your fermentation.

Oh yeah, I live in Harris Cty, TX, heat zone 8b.

About a dozen years ago we made a batch of kraut with red cabbage. Tasted the same, just looked more decorative. If you make a batch, avoid iron as it turns the red cabbage blue, sort of like the litmus paper in high school chemistry class. The stainless steel knives and shredding blades didn't bother it, but when we put some in a cast iron skillet, it turned blue.

Paul

Our great grandkids might get a kick out of that. G I try not to eat
anything blue except M&M's.

In article ,
George Shirley wrote:
I made kraut last fall, first time in many years that the fermenting
didn't go bad and grow hair. Came out pretty good. Used a sterilized
plastic bucket, bottled water, canning salt.
....
I think that sterilizing everything first and using non-iodized salt,
keeping a close eye on the bucket (which had a cloth over it) and
dipping out anything that looked odd did the job.

Keeping it clean and effectively air-locked seems to be the best route
and traditional in many places where it's a staple, with fancy airlock
crocks as opposed to the open-top cloth over arrangement that somehow
became USA standard. I had just come off of processing 50 pounds of
plums (after 20 years of "perhaps a plum, perhaps 2", the trees went big
this year) so I was refreshed on the "a properly tightened (not
over-tightened) canning jar lid vents gas pressure but does not let air
back in" from all the canning, and carefully ignored all the bad advice
to "burp" canning jar kraut (or the other "advice," mostly obviously
paid, for buying airlock tops for canning jars). It's bubbled away
without blowing up just as the plums in the canner did. Since it's a
huge apple year as well, I also tried the "add 25% apples" step that is
evidently traditional in some areas on several of the jars.

The only one with grot on it is a literal science experiment where the
experimental variation was salt level, and the one at a dubiously high
salt level has some white mold on top. That was also done with red
cabbage, and you can see it getting pinker as the lactic acid forms,
more swiftly in the one at 2% salt, slowly at 4% salt, and hardly at all
at 8% salt where the mold is showing up. Those also involved student
help in the experimental setup and sanitation might not be so good as a
result.

If your cabbage is not dried out, you should not need any water at all -
shredded cabbage mixed with 2% salt (by weight of cabbage or cabbage and
other stuff - apples, carrots, etc.) should develop enough brine to
cover (when it's packed down and weighted) in about 30 minutes. Some
claimed that was more reliable with "farmers market" than "store-bought"
due to store-bought being held for longer, but the red used for the
science experiment was store-bought and made plenty of brine despite
that.

If going with a larger batch in a plastic bucket I would use a lid and
an airlock; from the home-brew store, not from overpriced pickle
suppliers... ;-) But I need to wait a couple more weeks to see how I
actually like the first small batch before I contemplate going there.

I did use non-iodized salt.

The advice for "airlock-type" kraut I'm more-or-less following went
something like: Sterilize the crock (jar, whatever) and don't touch it
for 2 months (at 60-70F). The lack of air (displaced by CO2 early in the
process) is supposed to keep the problem of things growing on the
surface from occurring. With the jars, of course, I can look - and other
than the one, which probably did not produce so much CO2, or not at a
fast rate, since it is at a salt level the lactobacillus don't consider
friendly, there isn't any yuck going on there.

--
Cats, coffee, chocolate...vices to live by
Please don't feed the trolls. Killfile and ignore them so they will go away.

On 10/8/2015 9:57 AM, Ecnerwal wrote:
In article ,
George Shirley wrote:
I made kraut last fall, first time in many years that the fermenting
didn't go bad and grow hair. Came out pretty good. Used a sterilized
plastic bucket, bottled water, canning salt.
...
I think that sterilizing everything first and using non-iodized salt,
keeping a close eye on the bucket (which had a cloth over it) and
dipping out anything that looked odd did the job.

Keeping it clean and effectively air-locked seems to be the best route
and traditional in many places where it's a staple, with fancy airlock
crocks as opposed to the open-top cloth over arrangement that somehow
became USA standard. I had just come off of processing 50 pounds of
plums (after 20 years of "perhaps a plum, perhaps 2", the trees went big
this year) so I was refreshed on the "a properly tightened (not
over-tightened) canning jar lid vents gas pressure but does not let air
back in" from all the canning, and carefully ignored all the bad advice
to "burp" canning jar kraut (or the other "advice," mostly obviously
paid, for buying airlock tops for canning jars). It's bubbled away
without blowing up just as the plums in the canner did. Since it's a
huge apple year as well, I also tried the "add 25% apples" step that is
evidently traditional in some areas on several of the jars.

The only one with grot on it is a literal science experiment where the
experimental variation was salt level, and the one at a dubiously high
salt level has some white mold on top. That was also done with red
cabbage, and you can see it getting pinker as the lactic acid forms,
more swiftly in the one at 2% salt, slowly at 4% salt, and hardly at all
at 8% salt where the mold is showing up. Those also involved student
help in the experimental setup and sanitation might not be so good as a
result.

If your cabbage is not dried out, you should not need any water at all -
shredded cabbage mixed with 2% salt (by weight of cabbage or cabbage and
other stuff - apples, carrots, etc.) should develop enough brine to
cover (when it's packed down and weighted) in about 30 minutes. Some
claimed that was more reliable with "farmers market" than "store-bought"
due to store-bought being held for longer, but the red used for the
science experiment was store-bought and made plenty of brine despite
that.

If going with a larger batch in a plastic bucket I would use a lid and
an airlock; from the home-brew store, not from overpriced pickle
suppliers... ;-) But I need to wait a couple more weeks to see how I
actually like the first small batch before I contemplate going there.

I did use non-iodized salt.

The advice for "airlock-type" kraut I'm more-or-less following went
something like: Sterilize the crock (jar, whatever) and don't touch it
for 2 months (at 60-70F). The lack of air (displaced by CO2 early in the
process) is supposed to keep the problem of things growing on the
surface from occurring. With the jars, of course, I can look - and other
than the one, which probably did not produce so much CO2, or not at a
fast rate, since it is at a salt level the lactobacillus don't consider
friendly, there isn't any yuck going on there.

I did the kraut with a tight fitting sanitized dinner plate upside down
on the top of the kraut. Watched the process daily and skimmed a little
scum off as it worked. The cabbage was home grown and very "juicy" so no
water was added. If water had been needed I was prepared to go with
sterilized, ie. boiled, water rather than tap water, which here is
somewhat iffy as to sterility.

Had thought about buying the stuff you recommend but we just don't eat
enough kraut to justify the purchase. Probably won't make any more kraut
for a few years. Grands and great grands won't even tough kraut so we
don't make it often.

Every time I think fall is actually here Ma Nature messes things up. Got
up to 71F this morning and here it is 1300 CST and the repeating
thermometer says it is over 90F out there. Bah! Humbug! Doe season is
open though.

George Shirley wrote:
Every time I think fall is actually here Ma Nature messes things up.
Got up to 71F this morning and here it is 1300 CST and the repeating
thermometer says it is over 90F out there. Bah! Humbug! Doe season is
open though.

She's doing it here too ... private land antlerless only opens here on
Saturday .

--
Snag

George Shirley wrote:
....
Every time I think fall is actually here Ma Nature messes things up. Got
up to 71F this morning and here it is 1300 CST and the repeating
thermometer says it is over 90F out there. Bah! Humbug! Doe season is
open though.

i don't look at the forecast for one day and things
change a lot. now we have some nights that will be
down in the 30sF coming up so i'll have to get those
peppers picked before then.

a few days ago must have been the early season for
deer hunting starting because it was like a war zone
with all the guns going off in the morning. been
quiet since then so perhaps they got 'em all (joke! --
i know they haven't!)...


songbird

On 10/9/2015 8:44 AM, Derald wrote:
George Shirley wrote:

Every time I think fall is actually here Ma Nature messes things up. Got
up to 71F this morning and here it is 1300 CST and the repeating
thermometer says it is over 90F out there. Bah! Humbug! Doe season is
open though.
Same here. Teevee weather geeks are going on about a cold front
and highs in low-mid 80's for the weekend. Wow: Autumn weather....
Nights have been in mid-low 70's for a couple of weeks, though; a sign
of things to come AWA a big cue to get some more stuff planted for the
fall. Plus, there's no way that I have enough firewood on hand. I find
actually _buying_ the stuff embarassing but it wouldn't be the first
time and I find handing a little year-end bonus money to a local tree
guy preferable to giving it to the Withlacoochee 'Lectric Co-op just for
a warm butt.

Lots of politicians out there screaming about "climate change." The
climate changes here about four times a year. Last fall we had a couple
of hail storms, not new to the area but everyone immediately screamed
"climate change, climate change." I would just appreciate a little cool
weather to cut back on the AC bill for a few months.

Wife won't let me move us back to the boonies as we are close to all the
kids, grands and great grands. There is so much traffic noise here that
it goes on 24-7. I miss rural Louisiana and the peace, not to mention
better food in the restaurants.

We're still getting tomatoes, sweet chiles, and cucumbers. I think the
eggplant has finally given up the ghost. Fall carrots and chard are up
as are the beets. Just a couple of cabbage plants out there and not
going to be much else. Both freezers and the canning pantry are full, no
need to grow a lot of stuff this fall. Now if I can convince my lovely
wife that we don't really need to plant more.

Vote coming up here in Texas next month to lower taxes on senior
citizens. I will vote as often as I can get by with. G Years ago Texas
exempted folks 65 and older from school taxes, we left for many years
and come back to 65 and older get taxed just like everyone else. To many
people having to many kids probably.

On 10/9/2015 3:18 PM, Derald wrote:
George Shirley wrote:


Lots of politicians out there screaming about "climate change." The
climate changes here about four times a year. Last fall we had a couple
of hail storms, not new to the area but everyone immediately screamed
"climate change, climate change." I would just appreciate a little cool
weather to cut back on the AC bill for a few months.
I would remind you: "There's no business like show business...."

Wife won't let me move us back to the boonies as we are close to all the
kids, grands and great grands. There is so much traffic noise here that
it goes on 24-7. I miss rural Louisiana and the peace, not to mention
better food in the restaurants.
So, throw out the teevee, pool your resources and take them all
with you. I know, that's a terribly '60's notion, isn't it?

I was a growed up ex-sailor in the sixties, with kids, a good job, and
ten acres to look after. I expected my kids to grow up and move away but
didn't expect that when I was old I would have to move close to them.
We're still getting tomatoes, sweet chiles, and cucumbers. I think the
eggplant has finally given up the ghost. Fall carrots and chard are up
as are the beets. Just a couple of cabbage plants out there and not
going to be much else. Both freezers and the canning pantry are full, no
need to grow a lot of stuff this fall. Now if I can convince my lovely
wife that we don't really need to plant more.
I didn't raise tomatoes or eggplant in 2015, never grow chard or
beets, and only rarely cabbage. Too early for carrots: Not enough
consistently cool temperatures yet. Sure enough warm weather stuff is
finishing up and I'm making the transition. I can plant generic
"greens" and English peas now because nights are temperate and the
weather'll be cooler by the time they're due to produce. Time, too—a
little late, actually—to plant onions to be transplanted in December or
January. Be planting an "early" broccoli awa carrots RSN, though. We
don't can anything or dehydrate much but do keep a stash of ingredients
along with prepared dishes in the freezer. Not exactly prepared for an
apocalypse, though. My wife and I enjoy fresh in-season garden truck so
I try to keep something coming in year-'round.

We have so much frozen and canned stuff we really don't need another BIG
fall garden. Dear wife is a middle child of five and is always afraid
the big and little siblings will get all the food. G I would just as
soon leave the winter garden alone and build up the mix in the raised
beds for spring/summer. Ain't gonna happen here. I just ignore it, go to
the library, do the grocery shopping, go fishing once in awhile, maybe
get a little deer and hog hunting in this fall and winter. I can live
with it, just don't like all the noise and traffic.

Note: I only eat pickled beets, do eat chard as it is my favorite green,
will eat some broccoli but not a whole plant at once. I like English
peas and about any kind of pea or bean, a little cabbage is good, a lot
is not. We grew so darned much eggplant this year the neighbors were
locking their doors and turning off the lights if they saw us coming
with a bag.

On Thursday, October 8, 2015 at 10:57:15 AM UTC-4, Ecnerwal wrote:
In article ,
George Shirley wrote:
I made kraut last fall, first time in many years that the fermenting
didn't go bad and grow hair. Came out pretty good. Used a sterilized
plastic bucket, bottled water, canning salt.
...
I think that sterilizing everything first and using non-iodized salt,
keeping a close eye on the bucket (which had a cloth over it) and
dipping out anything that looked odd did the job.

Keeping it clean and effectively air-locked seems to be the best route
and traditional in many places where it's a staple, with fancy airlock
crocks as opposed to the open-top cloth over arrangement that somehow
became USA standard. I had just come off of processing 50 pounds of
plums (after 20 years of "perhaps a plum, perhaps 2", the trees went big
this year) so I was refreshed on the "a properly tightened (not
over-tightened) canning jar lid vents gas pressure but does not let air
back in" from all the canning, and carefully ignored all the bad advice
to "burp" canning jar kraut (or the other "advice," mostly obviously
paid, for buying airlock tops for canning jars). It's bubbled away
without blowing up just as the plums in the canner did. Since it's a
huge apple year as well, I also tried the "add 25% apples" step that is
evidently traditional in some areas on several of the jars.

The only one with grot on it is a literal science experiment where the
experimental variation was salt level, and the one at a dubiously high
salt level has some white mold on top. That was also done with red
cabbage, and you can see it getting pinker as the lactic acid forms,
more swiftly in the one at 2% salt, slowly at 4% salt, and hardly at all
at 8% salt where the mold is showing up. Those also involved student
help in the experimental setup and sanitation might not be so good as a
result.

If your cabbage is not dried out, you should not need any water at all -
shredded cabbage mixed with 2% salt (by weight of cabbage or cabbage and
other stuff - apples, carrots, etc.) should develop enough brine to
cover (when it's packed down and weighted) in about 30 minutes. Some
claimed that was more reliable with "farmers market" than "store-bought"
due to store-bought being held for longer, but the red used for the
science experiment was store-bought and made plenty of brine despite
that.

If going with a larger batch in a plastic bucket I would use a lid and
an airlock; from the home-brew store, not from overpriced pickle
suppliers... ;-) But I need to wait a couple more weeks to see how I
actually like the first small batch before I contemplate going there.

I did use non-iodized salt.

The advice for "airlock-type" kraut I'm more-or-less following went
something like: Sterilize the crock (jar, whatever) and don't touch it
for 2 months (at 60-70F). The lack of air (displaced by CO2 early in the
process) is supposed to keep the problem of things growing on the
surface from occurring. With the jars, of course, I can look - and other
than the one, which probably did not produce so much CO2, or not at a
fast rate, since it is at a salt level the lactobacillus don't consider
friendly, there isn't any yuck going on there.

--
Cats, coffee, chocolate...vices to live by
Please don't feed the trolls. Killfile and ignore them so they will go away.

For an airlock, I use a plastic bag filled with water and tied. It goes inside another plastic bag just in case of leaks. The bag is big enough to cover the surface of the fermenting kraut and press around the edge of the crock to keep water out. It's flexible enough to let the fermentation gas escape and the weight of the water keeps the kraut pressed below the surface of the fluid in the crock so it doesn't go bad.

Paul

On 10/9/2015 3:24 PM, Pavel314 wrote:
On Thursday, October 8, 2015 at 10:57:15 AM UTC-4, Ecnerwal wrote:
In article ,
George Shirley wrote:
I made kraut last fall, first time in many years that the fermenting
didn't go bad and grow hair. Came out pretty good. Used a sterilized
plastic bucket, bottled water, canning salt.
...
I think that sterilizing everything first and using non-iodized salt,
keeping a close eye on the bucket (which had a cloth over it) and
dipping out anything that looked odd did the job.

Keeping it clean and effectively air-locked seems to be the best route
and traditional in many places where it's a staple, with fancy airlock
crocks as opposed to the open-top cloth over arrangement that somehow
became USA standard. I had just come off of processing 50 pounds of
plums (after 20 years of "perhaps a plum, perhaps 2", the trees went big
this year) so I was refreshed on the "a properly tightened (not
over-tightened) canning jar lid vents gas pressure but does not let air
back in" from all the canning, and carefully ignored all the bad advice
to "burp" canning jar kraut (or the other "advice," mostly obviously
paid, for buying airlock tops for canning jars). It's bubbled away
without blowing up just as the plums in the canner did. Since it's a
huge apple year as well, I also tried the "add 25% apples" step that is
evidently traditional in some areas on several of the jars.

The only one with grot on it is a literal science experiment where the
experimental variation was salt level, and the one at a dubiously high
salt level has some white mold on top. That was also done with red
cabbage, and you can see it getting pinker as the lactic acid forms,
more swiftly in the one at 2% salt, slowly at 4% salt, and hardly at all
at 8% salt where the mold is showing up. Those also involved student
help in the experimental setup and sanitation might not be so good as a
result.

If your cabbage is not dried out, you should not need any water at all -
shredded cabbage mixed with 2% salt (by weight of cabbage or cabbage and
other stuff - apples, carrots, etc.) should develop enough brine to
cover (when it's packed down and weighted) in about 30 minutes. Some
claimed that was more reliable with "farmers market" than "store-bought"
due to store-bought being held for longer, but the red used for the
science experiment was store-bought and made plenty of brine despite
that.

If going with a larger batch in a plastic bucket I would use a lid and
an airlock; from the home-brew store, not from overpriced pickle
suppliers... ;-) But I need to wait a couple more weeks to see how I
actually like the first small batch before I contemplate going there.

I did use non-iodized salt.

The advice for "airlock-type" kraut I'm more-or-less following went
something like: Sterilize the crock (jar, whatever) and don't touch it
for 2 months (at 60-70F). The lack of air (displaced by CO2 early in the
process) is supposed to keep the problem of things growing on the
surface from occurring. With the jars, of course, I can look - and other
than the one, which probably did not produce so much CO2, or not at a
fast rate, since it is at a salt level the lactobacillus don't consider
friendly, there isn't any yuck going on there.

--
Cats, coffee, chocolate...vices to live by
Please don't feed the trolls. Killfile and ignore them so they will go away.

For an airlock, I use a plastic bag filled with water and tied. It goes inside another plastic bag just in case of leaks. The bag is big enough to cover the surface of the fermenting kraut and press around the edge of the crock to keep water out. It's flexible enough to let the fermentation gas escape and the weight of the water keeps the kraut pressed below the surface of the fluid in the crock so it doesn't go bad.

Paul

That's pretty much what I did Paul, except the zip loc bag sat on top of
an inverted plate so I could see if any muck formed up around the edge.
Worked fine so will do it again sometime.

On Friday, October 9, 2015 at 6:13:31 PM UTC-4, George Shirley wrote:
On 10/9/2015 3:24 PM, Pavel314 wrote:
On Thursday, October 8, 2015 at 10:57:15 AM UTC-4, Ecnerwal wrote:
In article ,
George Shirley wrote:
I made kraut last fall, first time in many years that the fermenting
didn't go bad and grow hair. Came out pretty good. Used a sterilized
plastic bucket, bottled water, canning salt.
...
I think that sterilizing everything first and using non-iodized salt,
keeping a close eye on the bucket (which had a cloth over it) and
dipping out anything that looked odd did the job.

Keeping it clean and effectively air-locked seems to be the best route
and traditional in many places where it's a staple, with fancy airlock
crocks as opposed to the open-top cloth over arrangement that somehow
became USA standard. I had just come off of processing 50 pounds of
plums (after 20 years of "perhaps a plum, perhaps 2", the trees went big
this year) so I was refreshed on the "a properly tightened (not
over-tightened) canning jar lid vents gas pressure but does not let air
back in" from all the canning, and carefully ignored all the bad advice
to "burp" canning jar kraut (or the other "advice," mostly obviously
paid, for buying airlock tops for canning jars). It's bubbled away
without blowing up just as the plums in the canner did. Since it's a
huge apple year as well, I also tried the "add 25% apples" step that is
evidently traditional in some areas on several of the jars.

The only one with grot on it is a literal science experiment where the
experimental variation was salt level, and the one at a dubiously high
salt level has some white mold on top. That was also done with red
cabbage, and you can see it getting pinker as the lactic acid forms,
more swiftly in the one at 2% salt, slowly at 4% salt, and hardly at all
at 8% salt where the mold is showing up. Those also involved student
help in the experimental setup and sanitation might not be so good as a
result.

If your cabbage is not dried out, you should not need any water at all -
shredded cabbage mixed with 2% salt (by weight of cabbage or cabbage and
other stuff - apples, carrots, etc.) should develop enough brine to
cover (when it's packed down and weighted) in about 30 minutes. Some
claimed that was more reliable with "farmers market" than "store-bought"
due to store-bought being held for longer, but the red used for the
science experiment was store-bought and made plenty of brine despite
that.

If going with a larger batch in a plastic bucket I would use a lid and
an airlock; from the home-brew store, not from overpriced pickle
suppliers... ;-) But I need to wait a couple more weeks to see how I
actually like the first small batch before I contemplate going there.

I did use non-iodized salt.

The advice for "airlock-type" kraut I'm more-or-less following went
something like: Sterilize the crock (jar, whatever) and don't touch it
for 2 months (at 60-70F). The lack of air (displaced by CO2 early in the
process) is supposed to keep the problem of things growing on the
surface from occurring. With the jars, of course, I can look - and other
than the one, which probably did not produce so much CO2, or not at a
fast rate, since it is at a salt level the lactobacillus don't consider
friendly, there isn't any yuck going on there.

--
Cats, coffee, chocolate...vices to live by
Please don't feed the trolls. Killfile and ignore them so they will go away.

For an airlock, I use a plastic bag filled with water and tied. It goes inside another plastic bag just in case of leaks. The bag is big enough to cover the surface of the fermenting kraut and press around the edge of the crock to keep water out. It's flexible enough to let the fermentation gas escape and the weight of the water keeps the kraut pressed below the surface of the fluid in the crock so it doesn't go bad.

Paul

That's pretty much what I did Paul, except the zip loc bag sat on top of
an inverted plate so I could see if any muck formed up around the edge.
Worked fine so will do it again sometime.

I'll try the inverted plate idea next time I make kraut.

Paul