Sauerkraut in a barrel: an old simple recipe

Our ancestors salted cabbage in barrels. And it turned out crispy, aromatic, and stored until spring. Today it is salted in enamel pans, glass jars and even bags. But cooked in a wooden barrel, it still holds the lead.

To get a masterpiece dish, you need to consider two points:

• preparing the barrel for salting;
• choice of cabbage variety.

If everything is done correctly, you will receive a supply of tasty and healthy vitamin products for the season.

How to choose a barrel

Barrels and tubs are suitable for pickling. They differ in shape. The barrel's upper and lower diameters are equal, and in the middle it is larger. The tub has a larger base diameter, smooth walls, and often has a lid. You should choose containers with hoops made of brass or galvanized steel.

Oak, beech, linden, and aspen barrels are used for salting. Containers made of ash and cedar are also suitable.

Oak is strong and durable and prevents the growth of fungi and pathogenic microorganisms. If you salt cabbage in an oak barrel, mold will never appear in it. However, wood contains natural coloring tannins. Therefore, closer to spring, the snow-white vegetable will darken. But if this detail doesn’t bother you, you can safely use oak for salting.

Beech containers have similar qualities, but its wood is less dense. The linden container gives the finished product a light and barely noticeable floral aroma. Aspen is neutral, more suitable than other materials for preparing and storing cabbage. But it is not recommended to use spruce containers, since they contain resins.

A new barrel should be properly prepared for use. She is soaked. To do this, fill the container with clean cold water for two weeks, changing the water every two days. In this way, the pickling barrel will swell and small cracks will close, it will acquire such a quality as tightness. You also need to soak the circle under pressure.

The next stage is evaporation. To do this, a barrel or tub is filled one third with boiling water and covered with thick natural material on top. You can put a hot stone on the bottom. After the water has cooled, it is drained and the procedure is repeated again. Then they wash the inside of the container with boiled water and soda and rinse.

Keg, barrel, tub

Currently there are no difficulties with purchasing barrels. There are difficulties in choosing a suitable barrel for making pickles. Many people prefer plastic barrels. Plastic barrels have two main advantages: these barrels are lightweight and they are easy to clean. There are a variety of barrels available for sale, varying in volume.

It is important to choose a barrel made of food-grade plastic for storing food, especially if you intend to use it for storing pickles. For many types of plastic barrels, you can choose airtight lids. A lid is absolutely necessary when transporting barrels of food.

Wooden barrels. For food purposes, it is preferable to use wooden barrels. There is now a wide range of these products on sale. You can buy barrels with a capacity of 5 to 200 liters. Barrels are made of birch or oak. Wooden barrels have their drawbacks - they are much heavier than plastic ones and they require special care. True, wooden barrels last a long time and the food in them turns out more tasty.

Barrels. A small-volume barrel (5-10 l), which is convenient and can be carried by hand, is called a keg. It is convenient to pickle various varieties in a barrel and store mushrooms or other pickles, which can be quickly eaten after the barrel is opened.

Tubs. In addition to wooden barrels, wooden tubs are also used for salting food. A tub differs from a barrel in that the tub can only be stored in a vertical position, while a barrel closed with a lid can be stored on its side and, if necessary, rolled over.

Covers and a circle for installing oppression. To store pickles, in addition to a barrel, you need a circle. The circle is placed in a barrel on top of the salted product, and pressure is placed on the circle (for example, a jar of water or a heavy stone). The top of the circle is covered with a clean cloth. Lids are also sold for wooden barrels.

How to choose cabbage for pickling

Now you have to choose the right cabbage variety. So, early and middle varieties are not suitable. Late or mid-late ripening vegetables are ideal for pickling: Kharkovskaya, Moscow late, Stone Head, Kolobok, Valentina F-1, Kupchikha, Miracle for Pickling F-1 and others.

We choose white and elastic forks weighing at least two kilograms.

If you press on the head of cabbage, it will not deform; you will hear a slight creaking sound.

Cabbage should taste sweet; a bitter vegetable is not suitable for pickling.

The stalk of cabbage is no more than three to four centimeters.

It is preferable for forks to be slightly flattened, resembling a “flying saucer” in shape.

Before we present several popular recipes, let us note how salted cabbage differs from sauerkraut. In the first case, the amount of salt is 6% of the cabbage’s weight, and in the second, 2.5%.

To prepare the dish, iodized salt is not used, but only coarsely ground stone salt.

Classic recipe for pickling cabbage in a barrel

It is the most common and is known as the classic way of preparing cabbage for the winter.

Product composition:

1. 10 kilograms of cabbage;
2. About a kilogram of carrots;
3. 10-12 full tablespoons of salt;
4. 100 grams of sugar;
5. Black pepper and bay leaf to taste.

The dish is prepared in portions. The forks and carrots are chopped, mixed with the rest of the ingredients in an enamel basin, crushed well by hand and sent to a barrel. At the end, everything is compacted until the juice appears, which should cover the mass. Cover it with clean natural cloth, then install a circle. A cobblestone is placed on top of it.

The cabbage is kept warm for three days. During this time, they pierce it a couple of times with long wooden sticks to release carbon dioxide. In this way, the necessary enzymes are released. Then the container is sent to a cellar or basement, an unheated storage room. You can store supplies on the loggia. After a couple of weeks you can try the cabbage.

All this time, the material and the circle should be washed in clean water.

We prepare whole cabbage for the winter

The vegetable can be fermented with whole heads of cabbage. A plastic barrel is suitable as a container. At first glance, it may seem that the cooking process is complicated, but any housewife can handle it.

For detailed instructions, see the following video:

These are the ways you can use to stock up on tasty and healthy snacks for the winter. Today, buying a wooden barrel is not difficult. It is sold in specialized stores. But plastic containers are also suitable for pickling vegetables.

Salting cabbage for the winter begins at the end of October, beginning of November. For these purposes, various containers are used. Today, more and more housewives prefer to salt vegetables in jars or pans. But just recently barrels were used. The best option is oak containers.

The sizes of barrels for pickling cabbage can be selected based on the needs of the family. Vegetables salted in such a wooden container turn out much more appetizing. In addition, they completely retain all the beneficial properties. We will try to tell our readers about the rules of pickling in a barrel.

How to salt cabbage with apples in a country style

This dish was traditional in our villages. The following ingredients are taken:

1. 10 kilograms of cabbage;
2. 500 grams of carrots;
3. Two kilograms of late varieties of apples;
4. Celery root;
5. 200 grams of lingonberries (possible without them);
6. Cumin to taste.

As in the first case, the vegetables are chopped, kneaded with salt in an enamel basin, caraway seeds and celery are added.

Layers of cabbage in a barrel are layered with apples, whole or cut into pieces with the core removed.

Next, keep the filled container for three days at room temperature and transfer it to the cold. You should periodically pierce the mass with a wooden stick. After 20 days, the dish is ready to eat.

Salting cabbage in cold brine

If there was little rain in the summer and the cabbage grew a little dry, this recipe will do. We take the following ingredients:

1. 10 kilograms of white cabbage;
2. 12 tablespoons of salt;
3. 50 grams of sugar;
4. A few black peppercorns;
5. A liter of boiled water.

Cabbage is traditionally chopped and placed in a basin, lightly crushed and placed in layers in a barrel, adding pepper. Salt and sugar are dissolved in a liter of water and the product is poured. Just like in previous recipes, it sits in a warm place for three days, then the barrel is transferred to the cellar. After a couple of weeks, you can eat cabbage.

How to salt cabbage with cranberries in a barrel

It turns out with a slight sourness. To prepare the dish we take the following ingredients:

1. 3 kilograms of cabbage;
2. 1 kilogram of carrots;
3. 200-300 grams of cranberries;
4. 3 tablespoons sugar;
5. The same amount of salt.

Chop the vegetables and grind them in an enamel bowl with sugar and salt. Add the cranberries directly to the barrel, layering the berries. According to this recipe, the cabbage can be kept warm for three days, but it is better to immediately put it in a cool room. It will be ready in 10 days.

Advantages and disadvantages of fork fermentation

The disadvantage of salting whole cabbage for the winter is that the unchopped vegetable takes up a lot of space. To salt cabbage with forks, you will need not only a separate room, but also special containers, for example, barrels. Shredded cabbage can be fermented in ordinary three-liter jars and stored in the refrigerator or on the balcony.

The advantages include the simplicity of the process, as well as a large number of recipe variations: such cabbage is fermented with cumin, horseradish, apples, coriander, carrots, beets and other vegetables and spices, which impart their beneficial properties and taste to the vegetable. Sauerkraut in forks is a real superfood containing vitamins and minerals that are essential for the human body.

Table “Chemical composition of sauerkraut”

How to pickle cabbage with horseradish in a barrel

Since horseradish contains substances that kill microbes, cabbage prepared according to this recipe is stored for a long time and does not spoil. For this spicy spicy dish you need the following ingredients:

1.10 kilograms of white cabbage;

1. 500 grams of horseradish;
2. One kilogram of carrots;
3. 300 grams of rock salt;
4. 700-800 ml of water;
5. Black pepper and bay leaf to taste.

Vegetables are chopped, horseradish is grated, everything is mixed, pepper and bay leaf are added. The mixture is placed in layers in a barrel and compacted, filled with saline solution, and pressure is installed.

Caring for it is the same as for classic salted cabbage.

Mushrooms

Small wooden barrels are used for pickling mushrooms. For pickles, carefully selected lamellar mushrooms (saffron milk caps, milk mushrooms, chanterelles and honey mushrooms) are used. Place the mushrooms in the barrel in layers, caps up, sprinkling the layers with salt. The filled barrel is filled with cold water. When salted, the mushrooms will sag, then new portions of mushrooms can be added on top. The barrel is tightly closed and placed in a cold place. The pickling time depends on the type of mushroom and can be up to 40 days. The barrel is rolled weekly so that the brine is evenly distributed between the mushrooms. After salting, the lid of the barrel is opened, the mushrooms are covered with a wooden circle, oppression is placed on top, and then covered with a clean cloth.

During storage, the mushrooms are placed in a cool place, the wooden circle is washed from time to time and the fabric is changed.

On the Internet you can find many offers of wooden and plastic barrels, and on our website you can find a large selection of food-grade plastic barrels!

How to pickle cabbage in large pieces in a barrel

You can prepare the vitamin vegetable in pieces for the winter.

For preparation you will need the following ingredients:

1.10 kilograms of cabbage;

1. One and a half kilograms of beets;
2. 250 grams of garlic;
3. One kilogram of carrots;
4. 250 grams of horseradish;
5. Fresh herbs to taste.
6. 250 grams of salt and sugar.

After removing the stalk and upper leaves of the forks, cut into several parts. Beets can be chopped into strips or cut into thin slices, carrots - into strips. Horseradish is ground on a grater or using a meat grinder, the greens are finely chopped.

Cabbage is placed in a barrel in rows, interspersed with beets, carrots, horseradish and herbs.

Salt and sugar are dissolved in one liter of hot boiled water, and the cooled mixture is poured into the composition. Then the pressure is set according to all the rules and the container is kept warm for two days. On the third day, the barrel is transferred to the cellar or basement. But such vigorous and beautiful cabbage (beets turn it a rich pink color) is also stored on the loggia.