I make a variety of what I like to refer to as my personal army building foods. They are broad spectrum pathogen fighters that can help you against viral and bacterial infections. These are cultured vegetables with the most popular being raw krauts. They are easy to make and require very little tools and even fewer ingredients. Here's how to make a basic, raw, fermented sauerkraut:
Cabbage is a very special vegetable due to its naturally high bacterial count. For this reason it does not require a starter culture which means anyone on any budget will be able to make this very potent very nutritious living food.
Ingredients:
1 head of green cabbage
Sea salt or Himalayan pink salt
Filtered Water
Tools
A large, sharp knife
Wooden pounder
A large bowl
2 quart-sized glass mason jars or 1 gallon-sized jar with plastic lid
Take off the large outer leaves of the cabbage and reserve. Shred the cabbage to whatever size you like to eat it. You can use a large kitchen knife, a cabbage shredder or a food processor. The reason I like to chop the cabbage by hand is to obtain more microbes . Not only do we have a microbiome community living in our guts but we also have a skin microbiome. This is our first line of defense. The microbes that live on us are important fo help keep us safe. When working with whole foods you are gathering some of those good microbes. Placing them in a food processor is a much faster process and great for commercial, or large batches but if you are making this just for you and your family, try going through the process by hand.
The Process
Place in a large bowl and add salt this will start to draw out the liquid which will be used as the brine. (I use Himalayan pink but sea salt is great too, just don’t use iodized…) The amount of salt is about 1 to 2 t per small head of cabbage but I think its important to salt to taste. I start with one teaspoon and add as I go. You want the brine to taste salty. The salt is what is going to keep the vegetables crunchy and is really important to keep the pathogens from growing. Salt keeps the pH level low so the good organisms take over. You want to get as much of the liquid out of the cabbage as possible. Pound and squeeze it out. In some countries where sauerkraut making is part of their culture, it becomes a family event. On some farms it is a common practice for the family to stomp on the shredded cabbage with their feet. They swear by the symbiotic benefits of being “immersed” in their food.
When you have a lot of juice (the brine) you know it’s ready to put in the jar. I use quart or gallon jars for this. As you are adding the cabbage into the jar, keep pushing it down aggressively so even more juice is released. Again this should taste salty but not so much that you couldn’t eat it. It will normalize during the fermenting process. Leave about an inch of space at the top for the vegetables to expand. If there is not enough liquid at the top add some filtered water as the vegetables need to be completely submerged. This is an anaerobic process so the vegetables need to be completely submerged. A great way to do this is to add one of the reserved, large outer eaves of the cabbage head folded up. This will keep the veggies you are going to eat submerged. If this large leaf does not stay submerged its ok because this gets discarded anyway. The length of time to leave on your counter is about 4-7 days. The lactic acid bacteria will start to build up and will start to break down the cabbage. You should start to notice some bubbles. When I made my first batch I was so blown away seeing this! This is only present in food that is truly alive.
Open the lid once a day to release this pressure so the jar doesn’t explode:) You can also taste test it to see if it needs more water or salt. Once it gets to the point that you like the taste, it’s ready. This is subject to personal taste. Mine is normally ready after 6 days. If you notice water evaporating along the way you can add more. If it is not submerged it will get moldy and ruin the batch. If a layer of white yeast forms on the top this can just be scraped off as it is completely harmless.
This is the basic process. From this you can add all kinds of other ingredients. As you add different vegetables and herbs it will be more important to add a culture. This can be 1/2 c of the juice from a previous batch, kefir whey, or a powdered starter culture (found on my site under the “Cultures” tab.). The possibilities are endless!
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