And I have obtained these beautiful vessels and made an enormous amount of sauerkraut over the years because Fall often brings an abundance of cabbage. Whether grown at home in the garden or picked up like irresistible vegetable magnets at some beautiful farmer's market veggie stand, I can never resist the urge to preserve it all for later consumption when fresh greens are less abundant.
10L and 15L crocks make a pretty decent amount of pickled anything, whether it's dill pickles, pickled hot peppers, sauerkraut, kimchi, whatever. It's a lot. And when they are full, they are heavy. Like, you might strain yourself if you try to lift them. That kinda heavy...
For instance, if you have 15 or more lbs of cabbage, then the larger, traditional glazed clay crocks are the way to go. They aren't cheap and can run anywhere from $85 to over $200, but it's definitely how you want to make a larger batch.
But lo and behold, I stumbled upon this little fermentation container known as the Crazy Korean Kimchi maker. Or something like that. But this company makes them in every size you will ever need.
What I love about this one is that it is fridge-size. If you've ever made kimchi before, you know that it's a fridge or cool cellar, kind of affair. Me, I've always made my kimchi in a click clack style food container that I kept in the fridge. An airtight, container, mind you. Understating it politely, kimchi can be rather aromatic. Especially to those untrained in the ways of kimchi. lol! I love that kind of intense, sucker punch of flavor, for real but not really loving a cheesecake with a hint of kimchi...
So when I saw this contraption a few years ago on Amazon while looking for a new glass kimchi jar, I had to have it. It seemed ingenious.
Easier to refrigerate and the best part of it is that it has it's own flexible airlock layer that naturally vents the fermentation gases. No weights and no mess or fuss with your fermented vegetables not staying beneath the fermenting brining liquid. That sometimes leads to mold or off flavors and this handy little all in one box does it all and does it very well.
Not one to settle for single-taskers in the kitchen, I wanted to test drive it with a few smaller batch ferments I needed to do recently. For one, I used it to speed up a chili pepper ferment for a microbrew of hot sauce. It was outstanding and the ferment was so perfect after 2 weeks, I could complete the hot sauce I was making with the fermented peppers.
On to bigger and better culinary experiments.
Here's the way I used it for making my first batch of bad-to-the-bone sauerkraut. And yes, at my house, that's now a thing....
Bad to the Bone Sauerkraut Ingredients:
cabbage, sliced thinly with a knife or mandolin slicer
pink Himalayan salt
Brining ratio, if necessary:
2 c water
2 tbsp distilled white vinegar
1 tbsp pink Himalayan salt
- Slice the cabbage thinly and layer on the bottom of whatever vessel you are using for your ferment. It could be a ceramic or glass jar.
- Sprinkle salt over the layer of cabbage. Don't have to go crazy here. A light touch will do. Pound with a cabbage muddler/pounder, if you have one and if you make kraut a lot, you will want one. I couldn't find mine, funny enough, so I used the meat pounder.
- Pound the cabbage layer a bit and then add another layer of salted cabbage. Continue to pound each layer until the cabbage begins to release it's natural water. You will be surprised.
- At this point, you should have enough natural juices to submerge the now tightly pressed cabbage but if not, add a simple brine using the above ratio until you can fully submerge the cabbage. This container I'm using has a silicone layer with a built in airvac loc and seal. It performs the same function as traditional fermentation weights or plates. If using a more traditional fermenting crock or jar, the cabbage needs to be submerged in its liquid using fermentation stones, weights, a plate, etc.
- Seal the vessel. Mine above has a locking lid. My other crocks have large stone fitted lids and are sealed with water in a water channel that creates an airtight seal. You can also just use a cheesecloth, muslin or tea towel secured with a rubber band. You want to keep out bugs and insects as well as unwanted bacteria or other airborne contaminants.
When it comes to sauerkraut, like most any other fermented vegetables, it really is a matter of taste. How long you let the fermentation go, depends on how sour you like your ferment. If you are more on the milder side of that fence, then check your kraut after a week and then again after another week. I think I let mine ferment for about 4-6 weeks but because I'm a curious cat, I will check the ferment starting about week 2. I like a super sour kraut so 6 weeks is still a-ok in my book.
Remember that in times past, our grandparents used to ferment for the entire winter months, keeping their kraut and pickles in really large crocks or barrels even, just pulling out only what would be eaten within a few days, as needed. You need the larger crocks for that, in my opinion, which I have, but I usually just put it all up in jars just in case something goes awry. Like... I forget to keep the water channel full to create the watertight seal and insets get in. That is just suck-o-rama. Super suck-o-rama.
Again, one of the reasons I'm a little smitten with the Crazy Korean Kimchi maker is that it is a smaller, more manageable batch and it solves all of the drama because it keeps everything out while letting the ferment bubble and burp safely away. That's true regardless of whether you are doing a room temperature ferment, a basement ferment or a fridge ferment, like kimchi where you need to stop the fermentation process at some point.
Me, I just blow stuff up and this can help with that little problem of over-fermenting because it's small enough to store in the 'ol refrigerator. But even that, can sometimes go awry, as you may have heard... so experiment with wild fermentation abandon at your own risk. ;)
One more handy little gadget to mention before I leave you to your fermentation devices. And that, was a pun intended, because this little device has been my newest BFF in addition to the crazy Korean mentioned above. Pickle Pipes. Yup. Mine came in a pack of 4 and they have since become one of the most used pickling gadgets in the house.
The silicone lids fit with wide mouth canning jar rings and creates an airlock with zero hassle. That little nipple thingy has a hole in it like a child's bottle might but is small enough to only let gases out while preventing access to insects, etc. What I have found is that not only are they very useful for fermenting foods. But if you use them to store fresh peppers, it will literally extend the shelf life of your fresh peppers for WEEKS. That's right. I said weeks, my friends. I was harvesting peppers out of my garden over the course of several weeks in order to start a small batch of hot sauce, but at first, I didn't have enough peppers to start.
I added my fresh peppers to my jar, no liquid of any kind, of course. Just the washed, fresh peppers. Sealed the jar with a pickle pipe and ring, just as is shown above and I was able to collect peppers over the course of several weeks, adding them to my jar until it was full. Then I started another jar and did that until I had 3 half gallon jars full.
I couldn't believe my eyes, honestly. I swear to Julia, the peppers I had picked nearly 5 weeks prior were indistinguishable in quality from the ones i had freshly picked that same day. You could not see a bit of deterioration, no soft spots or rotten peppers. Perfect. The peppers were refrigerated the whole time in my pickle pipe jars. Between the refrigeration and the pickle pipe, the combination allowed me to preserve my fresh pepper harvest over 6 weeks!!! Freaking incredible. So well worth it just for this sole purpose if you grow and eat fresh peppers on a regular basis.
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