Making Sauerkraut

Today we made up a crock full of cabbage for sauerkraut.   Several weeks ago, Harold bought a cabbage cutter at a yard sale, so this year we tried it out.  I usually have to use a smaller mandolin slicer (which takes all day long!).  Today we did everything start to finish in about 3 hours.  I grow Danish Ballhead cabbge for kraut making as it is a sturdy winter cabbage variety made for this purpose, and it holds up well to fermentation.  We put about  35 pounds of shredded cabbage in the crock, which should yield about 14-17 quarts of good sauerkraut!  After the cabbage is in the crock, it takes about 3 to 4 weeks to ferment - depending on the temperature of my basement.  Could take longer if we get cold weather.  If it stays warm, it might be quick.   I check it every 5 days.   When it's ready to be canned, I heat up the kraut to near boiling and put it into hot sterilized jars, and process them in the water bath canner.
      For every 5 pounds of cabbage you use 3 T. of canning salt, mix it up until it gets juicy, and then pack into a crock tightly.   I cover the kraut in the crock with cheesecloth, then use a double thick plastic bag of water on top for weight, which also seals everything up nicely.   As the kraut ferments, I might need to ladle off some excess water.   Here are photos of what we did today.

A couple of the Danish Ballhead cabbages.   They weigh about 8 to 12 lbs each and we cut up 5 of them. 

The cabbages are cut into quarters or eighths.

Harold runs the cutter while his sister Becky looks on. 

My Mom also tries her hand at the cutter. 

Salt is added to the shredded cabbage and it sits until it's juicy. 

The juicy cabbage is packed into the crock. 

The crock is fully packed, and weighted with a bag of water.  In about a month or less we will have kraut!