Sauerkraut

On Friday we went to Sarah's Great Grandmother's house to make Sauerkraut.  I wanted to do it in a five gallon bucket but Ruby (grandmother) wanted to use crocks.  She had made it in the past and they always used crocks.  We forgot to measure the crocks but they are 1 or 2 gallon (much discussion/arguing about size).  When we can the sauerkraut the size issue will be resolved.  A lot of cabbage goes a short way.  We managed to get 14 pounds of sliced cabbage into the two 1 gallon ( my size choice) crocks.  We used our cabbage slicer that was purchased at an auction this summer.  Ruby used her recipe from a canning book written in 1943, I went onto you tube and watched about 40 minutes to video from various people.

You slice the cabbage very thin and then add 3 Tbsp of salt to every 5# of cabbage.  Mix the salt and cabbage together by hand and then pound the cabbage until it waters up and the water is at the top of the cabbage.  Then do it again until the crock/bucket is a few inches from the top.  Wipe off the top rim and sides, add a layer of whole cabbage leaves to the top and spread an unopened trash bag over the top.  Tuck the bag in and down along all the sides so it is sitting on top of the cabbage.  Take another water tight bag and fill it up with water while the bag is sitting on top of the cabbage.  This water bag acts like a weight and a seal.  Now wait 10 days to six months depending on who you listen to.  We are going to check it at 14 days.  We used up most of the cabbage from the garden doing this.  A five gallon bucket would take around 50# of cabbage (if I am right other wise it will only take 35#).