Food Alphabet
Sauerkraut white cabbage
For pickling, medium-ripe and late-maturing varieties of white cabbage are suitable, having dense, juicy, white leaves (there should not be green leaves).
After the removal of the stems (stumps) and the infected surface leaves, the heads are finely chopped or chopped into thin strips 2-4 mm wide.
In the finished shredded cabbage, add salt (250 g of salt per 10 g of cabbage) and, if desired, grated large "feathers" or circles of carrots, thin slices of sour apples of the Antonovka variety and cumin (about 250-300 g of carrots, 200 g of apples and 20-25 g of cumin seeds per 10 g of cabbage).
Attention: salt should be evenly distributed over the entire mass of cabbage!
1. If a wooden tub is used for pickling, then its bottom is thoroughly washed, sprinkled with rye flour, covered with whole cabbage leaves and tightly stuffed with chopped cabbage. A tub filled with cabbage is covered with cabbage leaves on top, a wooden circle is placed on the leaves, and a load (for example, a well - washed stone) is placed on it.
After a few days, the cabbage begins to sour and give foam.
Further, during the fermentation, the amount of foam decreases, and then it disappears altogether – this means that the cabbage is ready! (During fermentation, it is necessary to pierce the cabbage several times with a pointed wooden stake or a large fork to release the gas formed during fermentation.)
2. If enameled dishes are used for sauerkraut, then first squeeze the cabbage with your hands until the juice appears, then fill the container tightly with cabbage, place a whole cabbage leaf (or leaves) on top and put a bend on it (in the absence of a wooden circle, you can use a plate tightly adjacent to the cabbage mass and a jar filled with water).
In addition to the classic sauerkraut, you can also prepare the so-called low-salt cabbage. To do this, fresh cabbage should be chopped, washed with cold water, and then lowered for a few minutes in boiling water and thrown into a colander, pouring cold boiled water. Next, salt the cabbage and ferment, as indicated above. After 5-6 days, the lightly salted cabbage is ready!
In the end, a few general recommendations for sauerkraut:
1. The required temperature for fermentation of cabbage is 18-24 degrees of heat. Under such conditions, cabbage is fermented quite quickly – within 3-10 days. At a lower temperature, fermentation can take 3-4 months.
2. If mold has appeared on the surface of the cabbage brine, then it should be carefully removed, and the wooden circle covering the cabbage should be thoroughly washed with boiling water.
3. When the foam appears on the cabbage, it is recommended to remove the pressure and pierce the cabbage with a wooden point (fork) to the bottom, then cover the cabbage again with a wooden circle, put it under the pressure and take it out to the cold (the required temperature is from 0 to -3 degrees).
4. To prevent the top layer of cabbage from spoiling, it is better to cover the container from above with an additional plastic film. In case of mold formation, the film should be thoroughly washed with warm boiled water.
