How to Sour Cabbage

Green cabbage is the traditional type to use for sour cabbage.

Sour cabbage rolls are a traditional Eastern European delicacy that can only be made authentically with preserved whole cabbages. Before easy access to refrigeration, cabbages fermented so that they would be edible all winter long, providing an essential source of vitamin C to the winter diet. Today, the flavor of long-pickled cabbages leaves is unmatched by a simple vinegar-boiled cabbage. Preparation for this food project is simple, and the results will take you halfway across space and time.

Things You'll Need

• Whole cabbages
• Paring knife
• Sea salt
• Five-gallon food-grade bucket
• Dill stems
• Whole horseradish root
• Large pot
• Plate
• Weight
• Food-grade tube

Instructions

1. 

   A small, sharp knife is essential for souring cabbage.

   Cut off the browned, exposed stem of the cabbage. Then cut the core out of a whole cabbage with a very sharp paring knife. Go as deeply as you can.

2. Stuff the cabbage with a high-quality, coarse sea salt. Repeat this until you have enough cabbages to almost fill a five-gallon food-grade bucket.

3. 

   Use high-quality coarse sea salt for better taste and fermentation.

   Place whole dill stems and sliced horseradish into the bottom of the bucket. Place the cabbages into the bucket, salt-side up, so that the salt doesn't fall out right away.

4. Boil water in a pot with salt. Add enough salt to the water so that it tastes as salty as a soup. Make enough salty water, or brine, to cover all the cabbage heads. This amount will vary, depending upon how many cabbage heads you need to cover, but can be estimated by looking at how far up the bucket the cabbages are stacked. If they go 3/5 up the five-gallon bucket, make just more than three gallons of brine.

5. 

   Save dill stems in the freezer until you are ready to sour cabbage.

   Let the salty water cool, and then add it to the bucket. If it doesn't cover all the cabbages, make more, and add that too.

6. Set a regular kitchen plate that is slightly smaller than the bucket opening inside the the bucket so that it rests on the heads of cabbage. Place a weight, such as a clean stone or a full jug of water, on top of the plate, to help it hold the cabbage heads underwater. Cover the entire bucket with a clean, dry cloth to protect it from dust and bugs.

7. Ferment the cabbage for 4 to 6 weeks in cooler environments, or for a shorter length of time in warmer environments. It doesn't matter if you keep the bucket in a walk-in cooler or in a warm living room. However, be aware that the warmer the environment, the faster souring will be completed, but also that a more developed taste comes with a longer fermentation process. So, for a quick fix, keep the bucket at a warm room temperature, but for a more complex taste, keep the bucket in a refrigeration unit. Taste the cabbage to test for desired sourness.

8. Insert a food-grade tube into the bucket, and blow into it to bring any salt that fell to the bottom of the bucket back up to the top. Repeat this step once each day during the fermentation process.

9. Skim any white food mold off the top of the brine as soon as you see it forming.

Tips & Warnings

• Add a piece of purple cabbage to turn the brine an attractive pink.

• Add other seasonings, such as caraway, for different flavor.

• Use only plastic, glass or ceramic buckets and plates. Metal inhibits the growth of microorganisms essential for fermentation.

References

• Kemal and Sheila; How to Make Sour Cabbage (Sauerkraut); December 2009
• YouTube; Victoria Bed and Breakfast Gingerbread Cottage B&B; Capitol City Dean; March 2008
• Wild Fermentation; Vegetable Fermentation Further Simplified; Sandor Elix Katz