Sauerkraut....Think you don't like it? Home made will change your mind.

Many years ago I worked for this old Swiss man named Hans. I was hired to be his wife's nurse and after she died i stuck around to make sure he stayed out of trouble. He ended up being one of my closest friends and would often have me rolling in stitches at the stories he would tell. The man was a joker who thought it was funny to talk about going to the "nudily" beach on Sauvies Island where he lived, but would never actually go there because "my girlfriend is looking down at me from heaven and she will hit me with the fryin pan when i get up there". 

Hans was born and mostly raised in Switzerland. He came to the Portland Oregon area when he was a preteen and there he stayed building himself a garbage empire that he passed down to his children. One other thing he passed to them, and me as well, was how to make the best daggum sauerkraut you could imagine eating. The first year i helped him make it was filled with stories of years past. He told me that one time his father had sent him to the village for a bag of salt and a bag of sugar. Well when his father was making the kraut he grabbed the bag nearest him, which it turned out to be sugar, and wondered why the cabbage wasnt wilting like it would with salt a few days later. When he tasted it he realized he had put sugar in it and Hans got a whoopin that he never forgot. They washed the cabbage and started over with salt. Hans swears its the best saurkraut they ever made. So he told me "lil girl if you want good sauerkraut put just a few pinches of sugar in it too"  That first year we must have cut up nearly 100lbs of cabbage and put in crocks in the laundry room and then i had a few days off. When i came back the house smelled terrible and i couldn't figure out what it was as i did my cleaning. Hans watched me search and sat at the table sipping his coffee and laughing. Finally after an hour or so he said it was time to check the kraut. I pulled off the covers on the first crock and about passed out it smelled so strong. He laughed and laughed as he taught me how to skim the scum off.

Last fall was my first attempt at making it myself. As i sat cutting up the cabbage i listened to some old polka records i had, a favorite of Hans', and remembered everything he had taught me nearly a decade ago. Below is a recipe that goes back generations of the Grutter family. I hope you enjoy it as much as my family does.

You can make the sauerkraut in a plastic bucket but i prefer the classic old ceramic crock. My crock is a 8 gallon. I will include after how to process it in jars for good storage or gifting but you can also leave it in the crock, skim scum off of it and eat straight from there long as you keep it cool and covered. 

Han's Sauerkraut






 25lbs of cabbage
Kosher salt

1. Cut the cabbage into long thin strips sort of like you would for coleslaw
2. Pack tightly into the crock or bucket doing a layer at a time
3. Place a handful of kosher salt on each layer mixing it in well. 
4. The cabbage should begin to sweat and produce its own water from the salt. This could take a day to do well. If by second day there is not enough water to cover the cabbage entirely make a simple brine and make sure its covered. 
5. At each layer i add just a tiny tiny pinch of sugar
6.  Once packed into your bucket or crock cover it with a clean white pillowcase or cheesecloth. Personally i think the pillowcase works best. 
7. Weigh it down with whatever you have handy. I used two gallon jugs of water on top of each other and it worked perfectly.
8. Within a week or so you should start to see some scum just skim that off every day and make sure the water is still covering the cabbage. 
9. Leave to ferment for 6-8 weeks depending on how sour you want it. 

To preserve the Kraut in Jars.

1. Heat the sauerkraut on the stove
2. Pack into hot clean jars
3. Fill with enough hot water to cover the cabbage
4. Process in a hot water bath for 15mins for pints 25mins for quarts