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