Which salt is best for pickling cabbage: features of choice by type and grinding, basic rules for pickling

How to salt correctly and what salt is best to use for pickling and canning?

Canned and salted vegetables are an excellent replacement for fresh produce in the fall and winter. Due to their rich and unusual taste, they are often used as ingredients for preparing a variety of dishes.

However, even experienced housewives often encounter problems when jars explode, crispy vegetables become soft or have an unpleasant aftertaste. One of the reasons for such troubles may be the wrong choice of salt, which is used when preparing marinade or brine.

To ensure that pickled and salted vegetables always turn out tasty and do not spoil for a long time, you need to know what types of salt are most often used to prepare various types of preparations.

Which cabbage is suitable for pickling, pickling: varieties

White cabbage for pickling
For winter preparations, as well as for pickling, white cabbage of mid-late and late varieties is usually taken, since it has a fairly dense structure and long-lasting storage. This type of cabbage is best suited for pickling.

When selecting vegetables for long-term storage, there are several important rules to consider:

• Variety - mid-late or late
• The head of cabbage must be fully ripe and dense enough
• In cross section - white or slightly creamy
• The leaves taste slightly sweet - this means high glucose levels

Varieties of white cabbage that are ideal for pickling, pickling and pickling:

• “Slava-1305” is an ideal variety for pickling; it ripens in September, but is not stored for long, until January at most.
• “Belorusskaya-455” is a late variety, ripens by early October, ideal for pickling.
• “Moskovskaya late-15” - ideal for fermentation, ripens in October.
• "Amager-611" is the most late-ripening variety.
• “Kharkovskaya Zimnyaya” is a universal variety for all types of preparations.
• “Late Langedeyker” is a German variety that ripens in mid-autumn, can be stored for a very long time, and the taste only improves during storage.
• "Turkis" is a German variety, ideal for pickling.

Below is even more useful information. Read on.

Types of salt

Salt, depending on the type, can have a variety of sizes and colors, composition and degree of salinity. All these indicators will ultimately affect the taste of the finished dish, so when preparing marinades and brines you should pay attention to the following types of product:

1. Cooked, or food. The most affordable option, it is obtained in two ways: rock salt is purified or the brine is recrystallized multiple times. After all the manipulations, a product appears that is devoid of foreign impurities and consists of almost 100% sodium chloride. This salt is ideal for pickling and salting, but when purchasing, you need to carefully study its composition. To prevent caking, manufacturers sometimes add E536 to salt. This is potassium ferrocyanide, its use is prohibited in many countries, and this salt cannot be used to prepare canned vegetables.

2. Marine. It comes in both coarse and fine grinding. It is obtained by evaporating sea water. This product is not recommended for canning, as it contains a large amount of trace elements and foreign impurities, such as algae. All this affects the salinity, so there will be problems with calculating the right amount of salt. In addition, the complex composition can negatively affect not only the safety, but also the taste of canned food.
3. Iodized. This is classic table salt, which has been enriched with iodate. This component does not in any way affect the safety or taste of canned food, so the product can be used for preparing brines and marinades.
4. Stone. This variety includes many types of salt, ranging from regular coarse table salt to pink Himalayan or black. Coarse white salt can be used to make brine, but colored salt cannot. Due to the high content of foreign impurities, no one can guarantee that canned food will be tasty and will not explode a week after capping.

If you really want to use an exotic product for marinade or brine, then it is better to roll up 1 or 2 small jars and see how long the canned food will be stored and what taste the vegetables will acquire.

Which cabbage to take

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Late and mid-late varieties are suitable. They are the strongest and densest. It’s better to choose the whitest cabbage you can find – such cabbage will be crunchy. The winter “Glory” is quite popular.

Before buying, try the head of cabbage by touch - you want it to crunch a little when pressed, but at the same time be dense and not loose. You definitely need to pay attention to the stalk: it should also be dense and juicy.

If you choose cabbage in late autumn, check that it is not frozen. The indicator is the green leaves on the head of cabbage; when cooking, we remove them, but if the seller removed them, there is a high probability that they were frozen. And there are no traces of frost on the head of cabbage.

Be careful this year, due to heavy rains in July-August there will be a lot of rotten cabbage.

Grinding salt for different products

Despite the variety of product grinds, it is recommended to use coarse white table salt for most preparations and pickles:

1. Tomatoes and cucumbers. These vegetables contain a lot of moisture, so the salting process should be slow. Coarse salt is best suited for this, as it dissolves slowly and gradually salts the vegetables, preventing them from fermenting and the appearance of sourness.
2. Cabbage. Thanks to large salt crystals, the salting process occurs slowly, fermentation does not occur, and the product turns out crispy, with a piquant flavor and is stored for a long time.
3. Greenery. Salt acts as a preservative, thanks to which the mixture of dill, parsley, basil and cilantro will remain fresh for a long time. You need to put all the herbs in glass containers and sprinkle with coarse salt.
4. Mushrooms. Despite its density and meaty structure, this product is very capricious. For pickling, you do not need to use salt with various additives, as the mushrooms can turn out bitter, ferment or become soggy.
5. Fish. To prevent the development of botulism, only coarse salt is used when salting carcasses. It gradually salts the meat and prevents pathogenic microorganisms from multiplying. In addition, it is impossible to overdo it with such salt - the fish will take exactly as much product as it needs.

Delicious sauerkraut recipe

Still, iodized NaCl has another drawback - it is often sold in the form of finely ground crystals. Usually bleaches and anti-caking agents are added there. These compounds are harmful to health and can give food a bitter taste. Therefore, it is not without reason that our grandmothers used rock table salt to pickle cabbage.

For homemade preparation, prepare the following ingredients:

• white cabbage (preferably crispy and sweet) – 2 kg;
• rock table salt - 4 tbsp. spoons;
• sugar – 2 tbsp. spoons;
• 1 large carrot;
• fresh cranberries – 150 g;
• bay leaf - to taste.

Cooking process:

1. Shred the cabbage. If you want a crispy product, cut larger. And finely chopped leaves come out more sour.
2. Peel the carrots and grate on a coarse grater.
3. Mix vegetables with salt, sugar, knead thoroughly with your hands until juice appears.
4. Top with 1/3 of the cranberries and bay leaf. Repeat 3 such layers.
5. Cover the cabbage with plastic and press down with a weight. Keep in a dark place at room temperature. As soon as foam appears on top, make holes in the cabbage with thin sticks. The product will be ready in 5–7 days. Then it needs to be stored in the refrigerator.

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Useful tips

To ensure that canned food always turns out tasty and is stored well, it is important not to forget about the following recommendations:

• do not use colored or exotic salt, as a rich composition can negatively affect the quality of the final product;
• Beginners are advised to use a medium grind product, as it is easiest to work with;
• finely ground salt should not be used for marinades or pickling, as canned food often turns out over-salted;
• It is important to take into account the quality of water, so only spring, filtered or well water is suitable for preparations.

The ideal option, which never fails and is universal for salting and marinating any food, is coarse and medium-ground table salt.

The right choice of salt will save the housewife from disappointment and allow her to enjoy the taste of homemade pickles all year round.

The importance of choosing the right salt for pickling cabbage

The quality of sauerkraut is influenced by its type and variety . Depending on these characteristics, the fermentation process occurs differently.

If you choose the “wrong” salt, the product turns out to be peroxided , the leaves become soft and unsuitable for consumption.

When purchasing a product, look at the packaging:

• Name;
• mode of production;
• variety;
• grind number;
• what is it enriched with;
• additives;
• recommendations for use;
• manufacturer's name.

Take note:

Selecting the type of salt

The quality of the future workpiece depends on the type of product.

Food

Cooked food - mineral substance . In appearance - white or transparent crystals, odorless, but with a pronounced taste.

Salt - sodium chloride : Na - 39.4%, CI - 60.0%.

Chemical composition of table salt (per 100 g):

• potassium - 9 mg;
• calcium - 368 mg;
• magnesium - 22 mg;
• sodium - 38710 mg;
• sulfur - 180 mg;
• phosphorus - 75 mg;
• chlorine - 59690 mg;
• iron - 2.9 mg;
• cobalt - 15 mcg;
• manganese - 0.25 mg;
• copper - 271 mcg;
• molybdenum - 110 mcg;
• selenium - 0.1 mcg;
• fluorine - 2 mcg;
• zinc - 0.6 mg.

By origin and method of extraction:

1. Stone . They are mined in mines and quarries. Contains few impurities, up to 99% sodium chloride. Has low humidity.
2. Evaporation . Natural or artificial brines are evaporated. Natural ones are extracted from the ground, artificial ones are obtained by dissolving rock salt in wells. It is characterized by low hygroscopicity, high sodium chloride content, and a small amount of impurities.
3. Self-planting . Ozernaya, it is mined from the bottom of salt lakes. Precipitated, it forms layers. Natural impurities - silt, sand, clay - give the color a yellow, gray tint. Characterized by high humidity.
4. Sadochnaya . Extracted from the water of oceans and seas. Water is diverted into large but shallow artificial pools. Natural evaporation occurs and salt precipitates. Sadochnaya has many shades due to the large number of impurities.

According to GOST 51574-2000, table food is divided into four grades depending on the purity of the product , elements of the chemical composition, and particle size:

1. Extra. The product is white, without impurities. Particle size within 0.8 mm.
2. Higher. Pure white crystals up to 1.2 mm in size.
3. First. Grayish grains up to 4 mm. In addition to sodium chloride, it may contain other minerals.
4. Second. The composition is closest to natural.

Chemical composition

Sauerkraut is 34% enriched with vitamin C and 12% with potassium. In turn, vitamin C improves the body's immune system and helps iron be better absorbed. Potassium normalizes blood pressure and has a beneficial effect on the nervous system.

This product also has a large amount of lactic acid, which helps improve the functioning of the intestines, improving its microflora, eliminating dysbacteriosis and cleansing the stomach of a putrefactive environment.

100 g of sauerkraut contains only 28 kcal. This amount of product contains 0.1 g of fat and 4.7 g of carbohydrates. White cabbage pickles contain proteins, starch, monosaccharides, disaccharides, organic acids and ash.

This fermented vegetable can enrich the body with calcium, magnesium, sodium, phosphorus, sulfur, zinc, iodine and copper and boasts significant levels of manganese, cobalt and fluoride.

Which salt is best to choose for pickling cabbage?

Most often, 1 kg of vegetable requires about 1 tbsp. l. salt, but if you are not going to make brine, then you need to take more spices. To prepare cabbage for the winter, you need to correctly decide what kind of salt to salt it with. There are types that are absolutely not suitable for preparing this dish.

By appearance

In accordance with government regulations, all salt presented on store shelves is divided into several types. They are determined depending on the production method, processing method, quality and particle size distribution.

Food

The best option for preparing cabbage is to season it with table salt without additives. Sometimes it can be identified by the inscription on the package “pickling” and the blue color of the pack.

Which container to choose for fermenting cabbage for the winter?

Traditionally, in the past, fermentation was carried out in wooden barrels. They stood in cold hay, thanks to which the cabbage retained its freshness and unique taste for a long time. But living in a modern stone “jungle”, this is simply impossible. Which container to choose for fermenting cabbage for the winter?

• It is worth noting that the container does not affect the taste of the finished product, so in this situation ordinary 3-5 liter jars , enamel pots and buckets , and stainless steel utensils .
• strictly prohibited - the cabbage will acquire an unpleasant aftertaste and a gray color.

So, when everything is ready, the cabbage has been purchased, you can begin the fermentation process. Read on.

Basic rules for salting

There are several simple rules for pickling cabbage at home, following which you can properly prepare a quality product:

1. For pickling, you need to choose the whitest head of cabbage from late varieties, then the pickle will be as crunchy as possible.
2. The head of cabbage should be firm and crispy, with no signs of frostbite.
3. To prepare cabbage, it is best to use a wooden or glass container. You can also take enameled containers, but in this case it is important that there is no damage to the coating. It is not recommended to use stainless steel containers and plastic utensils.
4. Salt should only be taken from rock or sea salt. In other cases, salt can harm the quality of the dish.
5. The vegetable must be finely chopped, but not very thinly, as the product will be soft. The stalk can also be finely chopped and added to the preparation. This can only be done if you are sure that the head of cabbage has not accumulated nitrates.
6. You need to add carrots to the pickles. At the same time, you can put it in large quantities, since this root vegetable will only add flavor and crunch to the dish.
7. You can add beets to the cabbage, then the pickle will have an unusual rich color.
8. Sometimes spices are added to the leaven in the same quantity as salt. You can add any sour berries.
9. If you decide to ferment cabbage in brine, it can be either warm or cold. In this case, the vegetable is ground with salt and only then poured with liquid.
10. You need to place a weight on top of the pickle, which can be a stone (clean) or a jar of water.
11. The best temperature for storing sourdough is considered to be 0.+2°C. But it is not recommended to freeze this product, as it can become soft, so you should store sauerkraut in the cellar, refrigerator or on the balcony.

Sources:

https://hot-info.ru/kak-pravilno-solit-i-kakuyu-sol-luchshe-ispolzovat-dlya-zasolki-i-konservirovaniya https://agronom.expert/posadka/ogorod/kapustnye/kapusta/kakoy -solyu-solit.html https://fermer.blog/bok/ogorod/kapusta/hranenie-kapusty/3566-kakoj-solju-solit-kapustu.html

How to cut cabbage

Usually it is finely shredded, and the shredder should not be too thin, otherwise the cabbage will turn out soft. The stalk must be removed before slicing, but you can chop it separately and add it to the cabbage; the fact is that the stalk contains many useful substances. This makes sense if you grew the cabbage yourself and you are sure that the stalk has not accumulated nitrates and chemicals. Sometimes the cabbage is cut into squares, and sometimes the head of cabbage is simply cut into quarters or halves.