Here is a recipe for homemade saurkraut that is so easy, once you try it, you'll never go back to the canned or bagged 'kraut again.  You can just keep this in the 'fridge, where it will continue to ferment, albeit slowly, and get tangier, and tangier, or you can pasteurize and seal it in a water-bath canner and store it at room temp.  I don't like to pasteurize it because raw kraut has all the live probiotics in it.  Of course, if you cook it, that will kill the probiotics, too, but your homemade 'kraut will still be far-and-away better than the kind from the store.  The best thing about this recipe, in my opinion, is that you can make just a small amount…no more recipes just for those who have 100lbs of cabbage to preserve!

Equipment—a food processor with a slicing blade…the smaller (thinner) the slices the better

                    or a sharp kitchen knife

                 —wide mouth mason jars…quart or half-gallon size

                 —zip-to-seal sandwich bags (optional)*

                 —a stainless steel or plastic potato masher (to tamp down the cabbage with)

                 —a large stainless steel or plastic mixing bowl

Ingredients—cabbage:  how much depends upon  how much 'kraut you want to make…a large head

                     will make about 2 quarts…5 lbs of cabbage will make about 1 gallon.

                 —NONIODIZED salt:  1 teaspoonful per lb of cabbage

Proceedure—shred the cabbage very thin…use your narrowest food processor slicing blade or slice

                      finely with a kitchen knife.

                 —toss the cabbage with the salt…the cabbage will start to wilt almost right away

                 —put layers of cabbage into your jars, tamping it down with your potato masher as you

                     go.  Be sure not to crush or bruise the cabbage…just tamp it down to get the air out.

As you tamp down the cabbage, the juices should start to rise and cover the cabbage, especially if the cabbage is very juicey and/or organicially grown (see Note, below).  Top off the jars with any juice that has accumulated in the bottom of the bowl.  Fill the jars to no more than 1 inch below the tops of the jars, juice and all.  Screw the two-piece lids on very tightly.  Set the jars in a warm place to ferment for 3 full days.  You may want to put the jars on plates or in pie pans to catch any juice that can overflows (it can happen).  After three full days, refridgerate your kraut, or waterbath can.

*  If you want to, you can weigh down your cabbage with a zipclose bag filled with brine before you put on the lids.  Just put a tablespoon of salt in a zipclose bag and fill with water.  This will hold your cabbage below the brine so that it doesn't spoil during fermentation.  I have never bothered with doing that, though, and my kraut always has turned out fine. 

Note:  If the cabbage is not juicey and doesn't make enough juice on its own so that it rises above the tamped-down cabbage, mix a tablespoon of NONIODIZED salt into a quart of water and top off your kraut so that it is 1 inch below the surface (you won't need all of it).

I hope this all makes sense.  Homemade 'kraut is sooo good, and is much simpler to make than it sounds.

WV_Hills said:

Eons ago I tried making sauerkraut — used a crock and a ton of cabbage, cut with a knife since I didn't have anything else.  The problem?  The recipe I had called for an amount of salt for each pound of cabbage.  I didn't have a scale.  I estimated the weight of the cabbage, and I was off just a wee bit.  The amount of salt I used preserved the cabbage so well it wouldn't ferment.

Like Jayne, I think even I could do this one, with the benefit that we wouldn't have to eat it nightly for a year to use it up, and even if I totally screwed up making this recipe it's not that much to lose.

That happened to me one time, too (too much salt).  Be sure to use only non-iodized salt, because iodine is an anti-bacterial and will inhibit the lactobacteria (lactobacteria like salt but don't like iodine).  Oh, and if you use kosher salt, it might take a little more salt than it otherwise would because kosher salt is so light and fluffy…just use rounded teaspoonfuls instead of level teaspoonfuls.  Another thought…if it isn't fermenting and you think you've added too much salt, try pouring off some of the juice and replacing it with an equal amount of non-chlorinated (filtered) water to bring down the saltiness and perhaps getting the fermentation going.  I don't know if that would work, but if the batch is already ruined, you've got nothing to lose by trying.  Nothing  me off more than alot of work down the drain !