More culture for 22K

We've had a sourdough culture growing since 1996. And now it's getting a sibling-- a bucket of sauerkraut. I've long been a fan of sauerkraut, even the stuff from the ballpark. As you might imagine, the sauerkraut that you make from fresh organic cabbage, with minimal processing, is a million times better than the baseball variety. Here's the final product, in the good company of some fatty pork, a thick-cut pork chop. The sauerkraut is trivially simple to make. Now that I've got it going, I think I'll just keep adding some cabbage to it every so often, as we eat some of the sauerkraut, to keep the culture going. Maybe 16 more years? I used a recipe I found online, on Wild Fermentation. Here's my setup above. Lots of cabbage-- I had about a dozen heads of cabbage, a mandoline, and a food-grade plastic bucket with lid. I bet that just about any kind of bucket like container with a lid will work. You want to find a plate that will just fit into the bucket. More on that in a sec. As the recipe tells you, just start slicing the cabbage with a mandoline, in a uniform thickness. As you add it to a large bowl to collect it, sprinkle it with a liberal amount of kosher salt, so that the cabbage will start to sweat. The fresher the cabbage the better, as it will have more water in it.  As you're accumulating salted cabbage, just throw it into your bucket. By the time you're done, you'll have a bucket full of salty cabbage, sitting in the brine that it has created for itself.

From Sauerkraut

Here's what is looked like just before I pushed down with a plate. Then, I put a large container of water on top of the plate to hold it down. The container has a lid on it, so I wouldn't spill any of the water when moving the bucket around. For the next few hours, you want to be somewhat diligent about pushing down on the plate via whatever you've put on top of the plate, so that you end up with a layer of water above your plate. The sauerkraut needs to be in an anaerobic environment--not exposed to air--otherwise you'll have a fungus among us. Instead, you want the natural bacteria in the cabbage to culture, and create a vinegar that will end up transforming the raw cabbage into a beautiful thing.

From Sauerkraut

It took about 3 weeks to get to something I'd call sauerkraut. I tried it periodically up till then, and it was more like raw cabbage. I stored it at about 65-70 degrees in our garage and dining room. Now, at about 10 weeks, it's still tasting fine, even better than at 3 weeks into it. I'll be getting some more cabbage tomorrow, to feed the machine. Getting ready for some brats.

From Sauerkraut