{"id":275,"date":"2022-08-01T21:13:57","date_gmt":"2022-08-02T04:13:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.houseofcranks.com\/journal\/?p=275"},"modified":"2022-08-15T22:40:55","modified_gmt":"2022-08-16T05:40:55","slug":"sauerkraut-take-1-and-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.houseofcranks.com\/journal\/2022\/08\/sauerkraut-take-1-and-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Sauerkraut, take 1 (and 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I have been meaning to try making my own sauerkraut for years, so I finally bought some airlock lids for mason jars<\/a> and some glass weights<\/a> and made a couple of 1-quart batches. If these work out well, I might get a nice fermentation crock and try fermenting other things. Maybe kimchi. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today’s batches: 800 grams cabbage, 18 grams salt, and 750 grams cabbage, 50 grams carrot, 18 grams salt, 5 grams caraway seeds. I’ll check in on them in a week or so and see how they’re looking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve got a copy of The Art of Fermentation<\/a>, but today’s experiment is mostly inspired by https:\/\/www.makesauerkraut.com\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Ok, I lied about checking back on them in a week. Here’s a daily (for now) log:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Day 1: A little liquid in the overflow pan, looks like from the plain cabbage, which has a couple of visible bubbles. The one with carrot feels like it’s doing something, too, but its lid isn’t domed like the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Day 2: both bottles are under some pressure and periodically letting gas\/liquid escape through the vent in the lid. Squeezed the red cap and a little brine squirted out right before the photo, but they were both fairly domed. Red less than purple, a bit. Indoor temperature has been between 70 and 75 F.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Day 6: There was a little mold or yeast in the liquid at the bottom of the overflow pan. Jars themselves look fine, though, although I can’t see whatever’s happening behind the bands, so there could be some yeast growing there. I’d be surprised, given how little oxygen there must be in there, though. I had opened them both to check out what turned out to be an optical illusion — it looked like the glass weight had floated up to the top, but I think that must just have been a weird lens effect from the liquid and the shape of the jar. They’re back to pressurized with CO2 now, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Day 7: Tried a bite of each. Tasty, but could definitely use more time. The one with caraway is very strongly flavored; maybe half the caraway next time? I like it, but I don’t think it’s what I was going for. A tiny amount of yeast was growing on each; scooped it out with a spoon. The glass weights are impossible to lift out with steel tongs. Maybe silicone-coated tongs would work, but the only way I could get them out today was by sticking a finger of each hand in and applying outward pressure while lifting. I couldn’t lift them all the way out by pinching the knob — too slippery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Day 14: Had another bite of each, and I think they’re pretty tasty! Lost a little more crunch than I expected, but I’m going to call this batch good. I might take half of each jar and blend the two to dilute the caraway, and see how I like that. There was a bunch of trapped CO2 in the carawy batch which didn’t release until I disturbed it with a fork. Hiss! These are going into the fridge now, and maybe I’ll thaw a couple sausages for dinner tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have been meaning to try making my own sauerkraut for years, so I finally bought some airlock lids for mason jars and some glass weights and made a couple of 1-quart batches. If these work out well, I might get a nice fermentation crock and try fermenting other things. Maybe kimchi. Today’s batches: 800 … Continue reading Sauerkraut, take 1 (and 2)<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[11,13],"tags":[33,81],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5wUSd-4r","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.houseofcranks.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.houseofcranks.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.houseofcranks.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.houseofcranks.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.houseofcranks.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.houseofcranks.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":288,"href":"http:\/\/www.houseofcranks.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275\/revisions\/288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.houseofcranks.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.houseofcranks.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.houseofcranks.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}