Sauerkraut

Yesterday was sauerkraut making day.

There is a local institution called Morse’s which is famous for its kraut, but I will put Himself’s homemade up against it any time.  He is of Bohemian stock and making sauerkraut is hard-wired into his genes. 

He and the Heir disappeared down cellar with seven heads of cabbage.  (I think their real motivation for going to the basement was the fact that yesterday’s opera broadcast was Lohengrin, which I insisted on listening to because I know I should like Wagner.)

They sliced the cabbage and layered it with canning salt in the fermenting crock, pressing it down as they went. 

 

The cutter was my mother-in-law's.

 

My children clearly need to get out more.  In go the weights...

...and one final push... 

(The cabbage has already released a lot of water.)

...then water goes in the trough around the rim to form an airlock seal.

(This is a fancy new specially designed fermenting crock.  In previous years we have used an antique crock and a dinnerplate with a big rock on top as the weight.  Primative but effective.)

On goes the lid.

The crock will sit in the warm kitchen for a couple of days to jump-start the fermentation process, then  percolate in the cellar for a few weeks. 

Wonder if anyone's ever done a krautcam...