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Digital_photog

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  • 2 years later...
16 minutes ago, Digital_photog said:

Hey, I made silage....er.... I mean a big crock of sauerkraut for her yesterday.  6 giant heads of cabbage in a 5 gallon crock. In a couple months it will be fermented and ready to eat.

 

Holy cow. Does sauerkraut always take that long, or is it because it's a large batch?

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6 minutes ago, smudge said:

Holy cow. Does sauerkraut always take that long, or is it because it's a large batch?

Sauerkraut takes a minimum of several weeks. It is a fermented food where anaerobic bacteria produce lactic acid. Like natural pickling (not hot pickling) and the way haylage and corn silage is produced.  That is why the reference to making silage. We grate the cabbage into the crock, layeringit with salt the packing it down to work out all the air and to squeeze the juice out of it.  When the crock is full and the cabbage is packed enough that the juice is covering the cabbage we put a plate that just fits inside the crock on top then add weight on top of that. To keep flies away we cover the crock with a plastic bag.  Let it sit and don't mess with it for at least a month or 2.  It will keep so no hurry to do anything with it soon. A small layer on the top may get some mold and not ferment good so that is thrown away when we open the crock.  We then hot bath can the sauerkraut and have a supply that will last us a couple years.  Much better than any you can buy in the stores.  If you really like kraut you could borrow a bigger crock from @Airehead and make 10. 15 or 20 gallons. There are ways to make small quantities but we have found that large batches turn out better.

@smudge Maybe you could make a batch in your she shed.  ??

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Cattle farms have the silos, bunkers, bags or wrapped bales.  Those are the large fermentation containers to keep the air out so the anaerobic bacteria can do their job and produce the lactic acid to preserve the feed for the cattle.  The wet feed will spoil and rot where air gets in.

You have now had you biochemistry 101 lesson for today.

Tomorrow it is @sheep_herder's turn to teach biochemistry 102

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2 hours ago, Digital_photog said:

Sauerkraut takes a minimum of several weeks. It is a fermented food where anaerobic bacteria produce lactic acid. Like natural pickling (not hot pickling) and the way haylage and corn silage is produced.  That is why the reference to making silage. We grate the cabbage into the crock, layeringit with salt the packing it down to work out all the air and to squeeze the juice out of it.  When the crock is full and the cabbage is packed enough that the juice is covering the cabbage we put a plate that just fits inside the crock on top then add weight on top of that. To keep flies away we cover the crock with a plastic bag.  Let it sit and don't mess with it for at least a month or 2.  It will keep so no hurry to do anything with it soon. A small layer on the top may get some mold and not ferment good so that is thrown away when we open the crock.  We then hot bath can the sauerkraut and have a supply that will last us a couple years.  Much better than any you can buy in the stores.  If you really like kraut you could borrow a bigger crock from @Airehead and make 10. 15 or 20 gallons. There are ways to make small quantities but we have found that large batches turn out better.

@smudge Maybe you could make a batch in your she shed.  ??

My kraut crock holds about 8 decent sized heads. Lots of commercial cabbage growers in our area. We did not make any this year. I have a mum in the big crock for this year. 

image.jpg

image.jpg

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1 hour ago, Airehead said:

My kraut crock holds about 8 decent sized heads. Lots of commercial cabbage growers in our area. We did not make any this year. I have a mum in the big crock for this year. 

image.jpg

image.jpg

That is a 15 gallon.  A big one.  You could eat lots of kraut. We didn't have enough cabbage to make more this year.  We still have all we need.

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