In our home, at this time of year, we typically have at least one crock of sauerkraut fermenting at all times. Usually two.
Let’s just say, we love sauerkraut around here!
We love to have enzyme-rich sauerkraut accompany meats and cooked foods because it helps aid digestion. It’s a welcome addition in the middle of winter when raw foods are fewer and farther between, but finds it’s way to our plates year-round. Kraut adds something refreshing to every meal. It’s so satisfying. Just writing about it fills me with adoration. If only I could describe the taste. We love homemade sauerkraut so much, we even like to drink the juice!

Not all sauerkraut is the same. Most sauerkraut from the store is made with vinegar and canned, being heated until no enzymes remain. I wasn’t much of a sauerkraut fan until tasting Jeff’s homemade stuff. And I can now say that it is well worth it to make your own! Not only are the health benefits far superior when you enjoy it in it’s raw form (mucho Vitamin C for starters), the taste is in a different realm entirely. Can you tell we are passionate about sauerkraut?

We’ve had requests to share our recipe. I felt funny referring to Jeff’s sauerkraut as a “recipe”, since his approach tended to be intuitive, rather than technical, but I wanted to share the gist of it. Some time ago, I shared the recipe we used a few times for sauerkraut, as well as health benefits, in my post: Sauerkraut, how I love thee!
Well, we are using a different recipe these days. With lots of experimenting, we’ve developed our  preferences. We’ve discovered in time that we prefer green cabbage for making kraut. We’ve used purple cabbage and we even tried a fancy curly variety, but we keep going back to the good ol’ regular green stuff.
To make a delicious batch, you need to start out with some good cabbage. I know from your comments that some of you readers are getting your cabbage for kraut in your own backyard, which is awesome! If not, do you have a local farmer’s market where you can purchase some? Lately, we’ve been loving Groundworks Organics cabbage for making sauerkraut. But we’ve made it plenty of times with organic cabbage from the store.

How many cabbages do we use?
Sometimes we make a batch with 7 cabbages, sometimes 3. It just depends. We cut each head in half, cut out the core, then slice the rest to preferred size. (I just kinda go with the flow on size, Jeff is a little more particular, he says he needs the size just right or it gets floppy on his beard when he tries to eat it.) Then we put it in one of our large ceramic crocks, sprinkling salt (2 tbsp per cabbage) in the layers as we go and start pounding with a wooden pounder to release the juices. (This builds some serious arm muscles, a nice bonus!) Pounding your sauerkraut is not essential, but it makes for a really good kraut! It helps release the juices from the cabbage and makes the end product more delicious in our opinion. You can get your whole family involved in the pounding. My mom helps pound kraut when she visits and I’m sure Bracken will have ample opportunity when he gets a little older. (Edited to add: he loves helping with the pounding these days!)

After this part, Jeff, the Kraut King, takes over and does his magic. I inquired about his “magic” because I wanted to share it with all of you. He admitted that he does it different every time. But here’s the gist of it. He uses a packet of Caldwell’s vegetable starter culture from Cultures for Health. (Edited to add: Cultures for Health no longer carries Caldwell’s starter culture. You can get it from Lehman’s or Wise Choice Market. It often sells out, so you might need to search for another source online.) We used to use just cabbage and salt, but once we discovered the starter culture, we were hooked because the taste was incredible! Better than any kraut we had ever made. It delivers living active bacteria, making it very healing for the digestive tract. We also tried Body Ecology’s vegetable starter culture before and didn’t like it as much. We’re sticking with Caldwell’s. You might notice that there is a small amount of dairy in the starter and yes, we are avoiding dairy right now, but there is such a small amount that we are not concerned.
He pours the packet into a small dish with some warm water and lets it sit. (Not sure how long, says on packet.) One packet can ferment a lot of vegetables, so we don’t need to use the whole thing, but we usually do. If it’s an extra big batch, we sometimes use 2 packets, just to be safe. Once you’ve purchased the starter culture, you can use your juice to start your next batch, to save money.  Even if we pound a lot, the juices from the kraut never cover the cabbage, so Jeff puts in enough water to cover (with the culture mixed in.) He sprinkles some extra salt over the top. Then weighs it down with jerry-rigged implements (I told you this wasn’t technical) to keep the kraut from floating to the top. You want to keep it covered with liquid always. Then he covers it with a towel.
How long to let it ferment? Depends how long you can wait. From weeks to months, with the occasional skimming off the top. When the sauerkraut has reached your preferred “done-ness”, you can add some seasonings (garlic, ginger, turmeric, caraway…) Then stick it in your fridge and welcome to kraut heaven! Warning: you might want to start fermenting everything in sight.

If you’d like to make some with just salt and cabbage (and not do any pounding), or if you’d just like to read more ballads of love for sauerkraut, Nourished Kitchen posted A recipe for homemade sauerkraut. She even talks about aging it like a fine wine, a true connoisseur.
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Hope this helps with your sauerkraut-making aspirations.
Oh, I do hope you find as much enjoyment in the delectable deliciousness of homemade sauerkraut in your home, as we do in ours!
Happy Kraut Pounding!