Sauerkraut is one of the simplest and most common ways to process vegetables for long-term (more than six months) storage. Cabbage is fermented from the second half of September to mid-November; during this period, late and mid-late varieties ripen en masse.
Early varieties of vegetables are not suitable for fermentation, as they have loose heads of cabbage and are green in color; they also contain less sugar, so they ferment less well. In total, in traditional Slavic cuisine there are several types of sauerkraut: chopped, shredded and cabbage. The article will tell you how to ferment cabbage into heads, how to store it and what to use it with.
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”
| Vitamins | Amount, mg |
| A (retinoids) | 0,6 |
| B1 (thiamine) | 0,03 |
| B2 (riboflavin) | 0,021 |
| B5 (pantothenic acid) | 0,09 |
| B6 (pyridoxine) | 0,13 |
| B9 (folate) | 0,024 |
| C (ascorbic acid) | 31,2 |
| E (tocopherol) | 0,14 |
| K (phylloquinone) | 0,013 |
| PP (niacin) | 0,42 |
| U (methylmethionine) | 0,01 |
Balkan style sauerkraut
I offer you a recipe for sauerkraut whole, heads of cabbage. Its taste is different from our usual shredded one, but no worse. And what kind of cabbage rolls it makes! You can also prepare salad, stew and many delicious dishes. The recipe is taken from Balkan cuisine; they prepare such cabbage in huge quantities, in 120-liter barrels! And not in vain, because we all know well about the benefits of sauerkraut. Cabbage costs well until spring.
How to ferment cabbage with heads of cabbage
As already mentioned, it is customary to ferment cabbage in the autumn, when the main crop suitable for harvesting ripens. The list of ingredients required for sourdough includes:
- cabbage - 10 kg;
- carrots - 300 g (3% of the weight of the main vegetable);
- fine salt - 200-250 g (2-2.5% of the weight of the vegetable);
- apples, lingonberries, cranberries - to taste.
A suitable container for preparing cabbage in forks is a barrel - wooden or plastic. Large metal pans used in food service and large-capacity hard plastic containers are also suitable. All plastic containers must be suitable for storing food products.
In addition, it is recommended to pay attention to what was previously stored in it - if not new barrels, pots and containers are used. For example, the smell of herring that was previously in containers is almost impossible to remove; a product with a fishy smell can be considered spoiled.
Step-by-step instruction:
- The heads of cabbage are cleaned of dirty, rotten and green leaves, and the stalks are cut off.
- Wash, peel and chop the carrots.
- Sprinkle cabbage with salt.
- The bottom of the container is lined with cabbage leaves.
- Green leaves, a plastic napkin and a pressure circle are laid over the entire cabbage, and pressure is placed on the container.
- Brine should appear on the surface of the pressure circle after 24 hours.
- Gas bubbles and foam (signs of fermentation) are removed.
- Every 1-2 days, pierce the workpiece in several places to the bottom with a smooth, pointed stick. The procedure is repeated until gas with a pungent odor stops escaping from the holes.
- After settling the vegetable (by 20-30 cm), remove the oppression, circle, napkin, leaves and browned forks.
- The pressure circle is washed with hot soda solution.
- The napkin is washed in water, then in saline solution.
- With a wrung-out napkin, cover the workpiece in the container again.
- The edges of the napkin are tucked inside the container.
- Cover with a circle and less pressure.
- The brine should reach the edge of the pressure circle, otherwise, increase or add brine.
The preparation in heads of cabbage is considered ready when lactic acid fermentation ends and the vegetable becomes amber-yellow in color and acquires a pleasant aroma. The brine should be cloudy yellow and have a sour-salty taste. The workpiece is ready in approximately 15-20 days.
How to salt cabbage halves
The vegetable is fermented both in heads and in halves. For harvesting, dense heads of late varieties are used.
Ingredients:
- cabbage - 10 kg;
- water - 8 l;
- salt - 320 g.
Preparation:
- The heads of cabbage are cleaned of spoiled and green leaves, and the stalks are cut off.
- The bottom of the container is lined with green leaves.
- Vegetables are placed in containers.
- Green leaves, a napkin and a pressure circle are laid on top of the cabbage, and pressure is placed on top.
- Fill everything with 4% brine (400 g of salt per bucket of water)
- Every 1-2 days the workpiece is pierced to allow gas to escape.
The workpiece is ready in about three weeks.
Cabbage halves with shredded cabbage and carrots
Heads of cabbage and halves are also salted together with chopped cabbage and carrots.
Ingredients:
- cabbage - 10 kg;
- carrots - 300 g;
- salt - 200 g.
Preparation:
- Add carrots to chopped cabbage.
- Grind vegetables with salt.
- Place vegetables in a container in a layer of 30 cm.
- Lay heads of cabbage or halves.
- Place chopped cabbage, etc.
- Cover with green leaves, a napkin, circle and place under pressure.
- They pierce to release gas every 1-2 days until all of it comes out.
Readiness occurs in about 15-20 days.
Blanched cabbage in halves
There is also a way to pickle blanched cabbage in halves, let’s consider that too.
Ingredients:
- cabbage - 10 kg;
- salt - 600 g.
Preparation:
- Blanch the heads of cabbage in boiling salted water for 2-3 minutes.
- The cooled vegetables are compacted tightly into a container and sprinkled with salt.
- Cover with green leaves, a napkin, around and put under pressure for 15-20 days.
Pickling with vinegar
Let's consider an interesting recipe for pickling blanched heads of cabbage with vinegar. The preparation turns out to be piquant and ideal for a snack menu.
Ingredients:
- cabbage - 10 kg;
- allspice - 1 g;
- bay leaf - 2 g;
- sugar - 20 g;
- salt - 10 g;
- vinegar - 20 g;
- decoction - 1 l.
Preparation:
- The vegetable is cleaned, the heads of cabbage are cut into halves and blanched in boiling water.
- Cool the forks and the broth.
- Place the halves in a container, add salt, sugar, allspice, bay leaf and vinegar.
- Cover with a napkin, circle and place under pressure.
- Pour in cold broth for three days.
Features of sauerkraut in a bucket
The first frost has arrived, which means it's time to salt the cabbage. You live in an apartment, you don’t have a cellar. You have a big family: two children, a husband and a cat (yes, two children nowadays is already a big family). This means you need a lot of white cabbage. Pies with filling for the kids, an aperitif for dinner for the husband, and what to snack on? The best and most correct snack is cabbage. Well, for the cat... although the cat is better off with whiskey. We will salt either in a wooden barrel or in a bucket. But the barrel won’t fit in the apartment, and you can’t eat that much, so there’s only a bucket left. Finding space in the kitchen is not a problem; the process will take a week, no more. What products will you need? How much salt do you need per bucket? Let's look at everything in detail:
- bucket (enamel, wood, plastic)
- oppression (a three-liter jar of pickled tomatoes or cucumbers will do, it doesn’t matter)
- cabbage, carrots, salt
- various additives: berries, apples, dill seeds, garlic.
Recipe Variations
Among the variety of recipes for sauerkraut with forks, let's look at some of the most interesting and delicious ones.
With pickled mushrooms
White cabbage with pickled mushrooms is often found in Slavic cuisine. To do this, the heads of cabbage are fermented in the usual way with carrots, which was described above. After fermentation is complete, the vegetable is placed in a small container and mixed with chopped pickled mushrooms.
Ingredients:
- cabbage - 10 kg;
- carrots - 300 g;
- salt - 160 g;
- pickled mushrooms - 900 g.
With parsnips
The heads of cabbage are fermented according to the classic recipe with carrots, and parsnips are added after fermentation is complete.
Ingredients:
- cabbage - 10 kg;
- carrots - 600 g;
- fresh parsnips - 300 g;
- salt - 200 g.
Heads of cabbage with beets
Forks are fermented with beets, peeled and blanched for 2-3 minutes in boiling water. Forks of cabbage are placed in containers and topped with chopped beets. Pickling occurs according to the same principle as usual.
Ingredients:
- cabbage - 10 kg;
- red beets - 400 g;
- salt - 170 g.
Heads of cabbage with cucumbers
Not only spices, berries, fresh vegetables and fruits are added to cabbage, but also pickles. The cucumbers turn out a little compressed, but crispy, with the smell of cabbage. The preparation acquires the sharpness of cucumbers and a slight sourness.
Ingredients:
- cabbage - 10 kg;
- carrots - 330 g;
- strong pickled cucumbers - 7-8 kg.
Preparation:
Forks, chopped carrots and pickles are placed in a container lined with cabbage leaves in layers of 20-30 cm. The compaction is completed with cabbage, it is covered with sheets, a circle is placed and placed under pressure for 30 days.
"Provencal"
Provencal cabbage is prepared from pickled forks, to which pickled apples, pickled stone fruits, grapes, cranberries, lingonberries, sugar and vegetable oil are added. Provencal cabbage is prepared according to various recipes.
Ingredients:
- cabbage - 5 kg;
- sugar - 3.7 kg;
- vegetable oil - 700 g;
- mustard powder - 1 g;
- cranberries or lingonberries - 450 g;
- pickled fruits - 450 g;
- pickled grapes - 450 g;
- soaked apples - 500 g;
- marinade left over from stone fruits - 350 g.
Preparation:
- The vegetable is chopped.
- Add sugar and mustard to it.
- Apples are cut into eight pieces.
- Vegetable oil is filtered through cheesecloth.
- The mixture of cabbage, berries, stone fruits and apples is placed in a container, but not compacted.
- Pour in the strained marinade.
- Store at temperatures from 0 to +5°C for 10 days.
Recipes for pickling cabbage with forks for the winter
Salting cabbage with a single fork is convenient because it is suitable for quickly processing a large harvest . However, in this case it is better to use a bulk container - a large pan, barrel or bucket - as a salt (the container in which fermentation will be carried out). It is difficult to fit a whole head of cabbage into a jar, much less several forks, so this container is not suitable for implementing the idea, however, some housewives manage to salt cabbage using a similar method in standard glass containers with a volume of 3 liters or more.
Many people believe that the best container for fermenting vegetables is an oak barrel, but in reality this is not entirely true . Oak is a classic and irreplaceable material for making wines and cognacs, but linden or birch are much more suitable for pickling - such barrels or tubs are cheaper and do not add an unusual color and “tannic” taste to the finished dish. The technology for preparing a dish may differ slightly depending on the utensils used and other criteria, so below are the three most successful recipes that can be adopted.
How to use
Pickled forks are used both as an independent dish and as part of complex recipes. The finished product is not placed on the table entirely; it must be cut or chopped. Pickled vegetables are an excellent appetizer for alcoholic drinks and a traditional side dish . In post-Soviet canteens, for example, you can find shredded preparation, pickled in heads of cabbage, on a plate with mashed potatoes and cutlets.
The vegetable is also used as an independent dish: it is poured with oil, seasoned with pepper, onion and garlic. For a beautiful presentation at the holiday table, shredded vegetables are decorated with herbs, pomegranate seeds, grapes, lemon and cranberries.
The fermented barrel vegetable is found in classic borscht and cabbage soup, it is stewed with meat, and it is used to stuff fish for subsequent baking. Also, the fermented product is suitable for filling pies and pies, it is put in salads, and the brine from under the heads of cabbage is suitable as a cure for a hangover.
Method of blanching heads of cabbage (processing with boiling water)
To pickle the heads of cabbage, they should be blanched in boiling brine (the preparation of which was briefly described earlier) for about three minutes.
You need to let the heads of cabbage cool. After cooling, place the heads of cabbage tightly in a bucket and add about half a kilogram of salt. Afterwards, as in the previous methods, cover with cabbage leaves and leave for a couple of weeks.
Tip: If you want more sour cabbage, use the cabbage method. Don't want to worry too much? Use the blanching method as it is the easiest. Want variety? Add different spices, hot horseradish or garlic, experiment with beets and spices. You can also pickle vegetables with vinegar, which is described in our other articles.
After reading this article, you learned how to ferment cabbage. You can serve chopped sour cabbage - a fairly common method, as evidenced by many photos and videos on the Internet.
Sauerkraut is both a good appetizer for any dish and a component of some dishes, for example, cabbage rolls (as opposed to classic cabbage rolls with cabbage), delicious salads and mushroom pies. Crispy cabbage will appeal to many people, being a common dish in different countries.
Terms and conditions of storage
Any pickled forks, regardless of the recipe, should be stored in a cool place at a temperature from 0 °C to +4 °C. This way the vegetable will retain its taste and beneficial properties for up to eight months. At temperatures from +5 to +8°C, the product is stored for no more than two weeks, then it begins to oxidize.
Cold will destroy vitamin C and spoil the taste, so freezing the heads of cabbage is not recommended.
An important condition for preserving the product is the presence of brine. It should cover the workpiece completely.
How to pickle cabbage with forks for the winter with different additives?
Many housewives pickle cabbage for the winter so that they can serve it as an independent salad, as well as use it for a variety of dishes. In most cases, the vegetable is finely chopped and then poured with marinade, but you can greatly simplify your task and cook whole heads of cabbage.
The processes are very similar, but it is important to have an appropriately sized container. For example, it could be a barrel, a large saucepan or a plastic bucket. Let's look at a few proven recipes.
