This recipe for real sauerkraut was opened to my grandmother by her old friend, who has been selling pickles in the market and bazaar for more than 20 years. Usually, sellers never tell the secrets of their recipes on how to make sauerkraut, because sauerkraut with apples, cucumbers, tomatoes and other pickles bring a good income.

SAUCURATED CABBAGE WITH APPLES - INGREDIENTS:

• Cabbage - 5 kg.
• Carrots - 1 kg.
• Salt - 100 gr.
• Sugar - 50 gr.
• Boiled water - 1 liter
• Bay leaf - 10 pcs.
• Peppercorns (black) - 10 peas
• Peppercorns (allspice) - 10 peas
• Apple (anise or antonovka) - 2 pcs.

HOW CORRECTLY TO SAVE CABBAGE?

Grate the peeled carrots on a regular grater, and set aside in a separate bowl.

Cut the apples into half-centimeter slices (pancakes).

The head of cabbage must be cleaned and the first layer of leaves removed, they are usually lethargic and unsuitable for eating. We cut off the stalk, and cut the head of cabbage into 2-4 parts along the stalk, after which it must be cut out.

We chop the cabbage with a knife, or on a grater, you can just chop it. After that, we immediately put our shredded cabbage in a large bowl (basin, bucket), add carrots to it, sprinkle with salt (a couple of pinches) and mix well, press it with our hands, knead like dough.

BRINE FOR SAUCURATED CABBAGE

So we actually came to the secret of making sauerkraut, such as they sell in the bazaar or markets. It's all about the right brine. Sauerkraut with apples requires the right cooking technology, pickle is no exception.

Pour 1 liter of warm, boiled water into an empty pan, pour salt and sugar into it, mix well until completely dissolved. Brine for sourdough cabbage is ready!

HOW TO SAVE CABBAGE IN JARS?

Sauerkraut is a noble product, and will not tolerate being fermented in anything. Usually, not everyone has barrels at home, I would even say that they are rarely seen in apartment buildings, rather in private ones. Therefore, cabbage is usually fermented in buckets, or in glass jars.

We take a glass jar (at least 3 liters), you need to lay whole cabbage leaves on the bottom of the jar or bucket.

Spread in small layers of 3 cm, mixed cabbage with carrots in a jar, tamp the layer well, you need to achieve density, so that in the end there is as little air as possible. On top we throw 2 peas of black and allspice pepper, 1 Bay leaf, and put 2-3 circles of apple on top.

We continue this procedure until the jar is full.

Now pour into the jar, slowly slowly, our brine. You can pick a hole from the edge of the jar with a knife and slowly pour in the pickle for sauerkraut, to the brim.

Be sure to cover the jar or bucket with a double layer of gauze, and place in a bowl. Find the warmest place, you can just put it under the table in the kitchen, like everyone else does. During the day, pierce the cabbage with a knife as often as possible so that the air comes out faster, and so on for a week.

From a jar of sauerkraut, brine will periodically flow out - this is normal, let it flow into a bowl, you can pour it back into the jar again. After about 5 - 7 days you can taste our sauerkraut.

To keep it longer, just put it in a cool place, you can in the refrigerator.

In winter, sauerkraut with potatoes is the most best dish! Good luck!

Sauerkraut turns out crispy, juicy, tasty, fragrant and super healthy.

Many thanks to my grandmother for the recipe, who told in detail all the subtleties. And we have been eating for many years and remember her with a kind word. Grandma has the most delicious cabbage 🙂

I share the recipe and reveal the secrets ...

Preparing vegetables:

Head of cabbage 2.5 - 3 kg or several heads of a smaller size, I clean it from the top leaves, cut it into 2 parts, remove the stump and shredded straw. I don’t chop with a knife, it’s a long time 🙂 I use a special grater - a shredder.

Carrots 300 g, peeled and rubbed on a coarse grater.

I cook on the kitchen table, it turns out a large pile of cabbage + carrots on top + bay leaf 5 pcs + peppercorns 15 pcs = I mix with my hands, do not crush and do not press.

In a clean 3-liter glass jar, I tightly put the prepared vegetables with my hand and tamp with my fist.

Brine:

In 2 liters cold water I add 2 tablespoons of salt (with a slide) and 2 tablespoons of sugar (with a slide). Stir until the salt and sugar are dissolved - ready.

Sauerkraut:

In a jar of cabbage, I pour the brine to the top (it takes about 1.5 liters).

I put the jar in a plate, since the brine will flow out during the fermentation process and leave it at room temperature 22-25C. The room should not be cool, as processes slow down, but not hot either. I do not cover a jar of cabbage.

It takes 2-3 days to prepare sauerkraut.

Important!!! Every 8 hours, the cabbage must be pierced (I do it with a long knife) I lower the long knife into the jar to the very bottom, so I do it in 3-4 different places of the jar. This is what will give your cabbage a crispy taste, as when pierced, excess gas is released, which is formed.

After about 12 hours, the brine will start to flow out of the jar and you will notice bubbles, this is normal. After 1.5 days, the brine may slightly thicken and become cloudy.

After 2-3 days, the fermentation processes subside, and the cabbage is ready.

I taste cabbage every time I pierce it with a knife. As soon as the cabbage has acquired a taste and aroma, and this is after 2 days and it’s already delicious for me, I cover the jar with a lid and send it to the refrigerator. You can eat right away, but I like it when it's cold. From now on, I keep it in the refrigerator. You can store for several months, but this does not happen to me 🙂.

Bon Appetit.

Sauerkraut is an excellent appetizer for a feast and an excellent addition to or .

- I choose winter varieties of cabbage - dense, hard, white. That is why cabbage is fermented closer to winter. summer cabbage not suitable for this.

- I don’t adhere to signs, certain days or the lunar calendar 🙂 I always get crispy and juicy cabbage, the main thing is to cook with love.

Many of us remember delicious pies with pies, which our grandmothers cooked with love. And grandmother's cabbage, fermented in the old Russian way, was especially good. Do you want to cook the same? In this article, you will learn the technology for making sauerkraut using old recipe, you will find out what the fermentation process is based on and, in fact, the grandmother's recipe for sauerkraut itself.

Origin of sauerkraut

Cabbage in Russia was so respected that they even came up with a holiday - Sergey the cabbage man, which was celebrated on October 8th. On this day, the housewives fermented cabbage, accompanying the preparation with songs and jokes? Harvesting cabbage allowed people to hold out all winter without hunger. Therefore, sauerkraut was an obligatory guest on every table of a Russian family.

Even until recently, as then, cabbage was pickled in barrels, and the whole family participated in the preparation of cabbage for the winter. Cabbage was pickled with the addition of apples, carrots, cranberries. For fermentation, shredded cabbage, chopped, whole-boiled, or pellets (quarters) were used. The most popular, in our time, is the method of preparing sauerkraut by shredding.

Properly fermented cabbage will allow you to enjoy delicious snack without any unpleasant consequences for health, as well as provide long-term storage.

Why is sauerkraut sour?

Lactic acid bacteria help turn fresh cabbage into sauerkraut, which ferment cabbage juice, resulting in a tart-sour taste in the final product.

The process of sauerkraut can be conditionally divided into three periods:

• salting
• fermentation (fermentation)
• cold end stage

In the first period table salt comes into play, which extracts the juice from the cabbage along with all the organic substances that are in it. At the very beginning of the process, the concentration of table salt in cabbage juice is quite high, so microorganisms do not yet multiply in it. As the amount of cabbage juice increases, the concentration of salt in it decreases, thereby creating conditions for the reproduction of bacteria and yeast. The activity of yeast and other microorganisms causes strong gas formation. Yeast fungi, coli bacteria, etc. participate in the fermentation process. At the same time, lactic acid bacteria begin their activity, which gradually displace the rest of the microflora and occupy the main place in the fermentation process. Lactic acid, which is produced by lactic acid bacteria, inhibits the growth of foreign microorganisms, preventing cabbage from rotting. The first period of fermentation of cabbage ends with rapid reproduction lactic acid bacteria.

Second period is fermentation or main fermentation. At this time, lactic acid accumulates in the brine, caused by the action of a certain kind of bacteria. It is they who determine the sour taste of sauerkraut.

At the end of the second period, lactic acid fermentation stops. And with that begins third period, which is characterized by the suppression of the activity of lactic acid bacteria by the accumulated lactic acid. However, it is worth considering that in conditions of high acidity, molds and other yeast fungi can also develop, which, in turn, neutralize lactic acid. To prevent this from happening, ready-made sauerkraut should be stored at a temperature of 0 - 2 ° C.

Fermenting cabbage - important points

1. The nature of fermentation, the rate of fermentation and, as a result, taste qualities of the finished product, first of all, depend on the temperature at which fermentation occurs. The most favorable temperature for fermentation is 22-25°C - as this is the ideal temperature for the reproduction of lactic acid bacteria. At this temperature, fermentation lasts from 5 to 7 days. Sauerkraut, at the same time, turns out tasty, crispy, with the lowest alcohol content and with a higher content of vitamin C.
2. When the temperature drops to 15-20°C, the fermentation process lengthens. At temperatures below 15 ° C, the fermentation process stops, and at temperatures close to 0 ° C, it may not occur at all. If the temperature in the room is above 25 °, then extraneous microflora, including putrefactive bacteria, will actively develop in the cabbage brine.
3. The acid content in cabbage can be adjusted by changing the temperature, as well as the amount of salt. The more salt, the less acidic the cabbage will be. Normally, the content of table salt in the finished product should not exceed 2.0%.

In order to get tasty, juicy and crispy sauerkraut, you need to choose the right heads of cabbage. Not every cabbage is suitable for this purpose.

Undesirable for use:

• early maturing varieties, as they have a loose, loose tissue and a low content of sugars necessary for fermentation;
• lean, dry cabbage, because it will give little juice and the fermentation process will be complicated;
• unripe cabbage or with green leaves;
• rotten cabbage or cabbage with mold, because rot and mold will inhibit the development of the desired microflora.

There are certain varieties of white cabbage that are recommended for fermentation, as a rule, these are mid-season and late varieties:

• mid-season varieties: Belorusskaya, Slava-1305, Slava Gribovskaya, Mozharskaya, Dobrovodskaya, Gift, Saburovka, Aggressor, Anniversary F1, Nadezhda, Sibiryachka, Megaton, Stakhanovka, etc.;
• late-ripening - Amager, Slavyanka, Moscow late, Winter Gribovskaya, Blizzard, Kharkov winter, Turkiz, Geneva F1, Valentina F.

For fermentation, choose large heads of white color. They should not have green leaves. Only mature white cabbage contains enough sugars for fermentation and a lot of juice.

Delicious sauerkraut - a classic grandmother's recipe

What do we need to cook sauerkraut in the old fashioned way? grandma's recipe:

• White cabbage- 10 kg.
• carrots - 300-350 gr
• salt - 150-200 gr
• dill seeds - 1 tbsp. l.

So, white cabbage of all the above varieties is suitable for fermentation. First, the cabbage should be washed and the top bad leaves cut off. Then the cabbage must be weighed. If you bought cabbage in a supermarket, then you probably have a sticker with the weight of the head (s) in front of your eyes. You can simply cut out the stalks, weigh them and subtract their weight from the weight of the entire cabbage. But, if you don’t know how much your cabbage weighs, then you will most likely have to weigh each head separately and also take away the weight of the stumps with fasting.

If you have cabbage more or less than 10 kg, calculate how much salt you need for your quantity. It's the same with carrots. Carrots should not be too much, otherwise it will give more sweetness than necessary, and less carrots will not give the cabbage a beautiful pink-yellow hue.

Cabbage is chopped on a shredder or with a knife, depending on the quantity. Shredded cabbage is mixed with grated carrots, then sprinkled with salt and mixed and rubbed lightly with your hands. You do not need to add sugar if the cabbage is ripe and sweet enough, but if the cabbage is not very tasty, dry and not sweet, you can add a little sugar to the salt (a couple of tablespoons per 10 kg of slaw). Now the cabbage must be transferred to a large container (preferably in an enameled pan without chips), and tamped well. In the middle of the cabbage mass, place dill wrapped in gauze or a bandage. Dill will give the cabbage a piquant flavor, in addition, it has antibacterial properties, which will prevent the growth of putrefactive bacteria. On top of the cabbage, you can put whole leaves that need to be prepared in advance by removing them from the washed heads.

Can not use iodized salt otherwise the cabbage will be soft.

On top of the cabbage you need to put a wide plate, board or cut plywood (preferably slightly smaller than the diameter of the pan) and put a load (for example, a saucepan of water or a clean calcined stone, a jar of water).

The pan is covered with a towel, but not with a lid, because the cabbage needs to breathe, and left for several days at room temperature (22-23 ° C). The next day after fermentation, the cabbage must be pierced with a wooden stick (morning and evening). They do this in order to release the accumulated gas. And so they release gas every day until the cabbage ferments. The foam from the brine is also removed every day. At a temperature of 22-23 ° C, cabbage is fermented already on the fifth day, if it is cooler in the room where the cabbage is fermented, then the fermentation process will take a little longer. You can control the fermentation process by taking a sample starting from the 3rd day. Ready sauerkraut has a pleasant sour taste and a yellowish-pink color. Now it can be transferred to three-liter jars and put in the cold. In jars, cabbage also needs to be well tamped. Leave some space in the jar, in case your kale isn't fermented and might release some more juice.

There are many different recipes making sauerkraut, but "grandma's recipe" for crispy sauerkraut is perhaps the best of them all. That is why it is still very popular today, due to the amazing taste of the finished product and ease of preparation.

How to store sauerkraut at home

Ready sauerkraut should be stored in the cold, but in no case in the cold. If fresh cabbage perfectly tolerates short frosts, then sauerkraut, falling into frost, changes its structure and becomes soft and not crispy. If your cabbage has come under the influence of sub-zero temperatures, you need to use it in the near future, otherwise such cabbage will not be stored for long.

Store it in the refrigerator or cellar at +1°C to +5°C.

What can be cooked from sauerkraut

From sauerkraut, our grandmothers prepared a lot of useful and delicious meals. What can be prepared from cabbage fermented according to a grandmother's recipe?

* Screech (or vyaziga) - cartilaginous tissue (chord) from the spine sturgeon fish. Harvested in dried form and used as additives to the fillings of pies, pies and pie.

Sauerkraut - what are the benefits

Let's talk a little about the beneficial properties of sauerkraut.

In winter, we experience vitamin deficiency, which manifests itself from a lack of sun, fresh berries, fruits and vegetables. Sauerkraut can completely replace many of these products and bring great benefits to our body. After all, it also contains very important vitamins (C, P, B, A, H, E, K) and useful trace elements (iron, magnesium, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, sodium, sulfur, zinc, chromium, iodine, copper, molybdenum, etc.).

Is sauerkraut good for pregnancy?

Is it possible to eat sauerkraut during pregnancy is a question that women often ask when they are expecting a baby. As it turned out, sauerkraut helps pregnant women cope with bouts of nausea with toxicosis. But at the same time, one cannot ignore the contraindications, which we will talk about a little later.

Sauerkraut to boost immunity

How can sauerkraut help boost our immunity? The high content of vitamins (especially ascorbic acid), antioxidants and minerals in its composition allows you to resist viruses and bacteria, so its use is simply necessary during the period of colds and flu. And if you still catch a cold, then the cabbage pickle, which has anti-inflammatory properties, will come to your aid. It will help with sore throat and cough. Cabbage juice diluted with water can be gargled, and with SARS, acute respiratory infections and flu, take it orally.

So, we found out how sauerkraut is useful for our body. And now we will find out - why it is dangerous, and whether everyone can use this product.

Sauerkraut - contraindications

Despite the sea of ​​useful properties, sauerkraut also has contraindications.

1. First of all, it is an increased content of lactic acid, which can negatively affect the walls of the inflamed stomach of patients with gastritis, ulcers, or other diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. The increased content of coarse fiber is also contraindicated in gastrointestinal diseases.
2. Hypertension is a direct contraindication for the use of sauerkraut, because the salt that such cabbage contains can retain fluid in the cells and tissues of the body and cause an increase in pressure.
3. With kidney failure, sauerkraut is contraindicated for the reason that it can cause difficulty in the work of the kidneys due to the high salt content.
4. Edema of the cardiac and renal nature is also a serious contraindication for the use of sauerkraut.
5. Sauerkraut cooked with large quantity sweet carrot, apples, or with added sugar, may have a high glycemic index. Therefore, people with diabetes, as well as those who are overweight, it is better not to use such cabbage.
6. Fermented sauerkraut products can cause increased gas production in people with bowel problems.
7. With pancreatitis, sauerkraut must be excluded from the menu.

If you have certain health problems, but you do not have direct contraindications for eating sauerkraut, try eating it in small portions. And if after that you do not have a side effect from its use, then eat to your health.

It is not only delicious, but also very useful vegetable included in the diet of most people. You can cook a lot of delicious dishes from cabbage, it can also be used in pickled, stewed, sauerkraut, and also raw. Cabbage juice is used in the treatment of many diseases. However, in our country the most popular dish of this vegetable is sauerkraut. From this article you will learn how my grandmother prepares correctly) and a lot of other useful information.

Beneficial features

It has been noticed that sauerkraut has an extremely positive effect on the human body, this is due to the fact that it contains many vitamins and minerals that help slow down the aging process and strengthen the immune system. In the process of cooking cabbage, lactic acid bacteria are involved, which is why after entering the intestines, it favors the improvement of the microflora. Sauerkraut (my grandmother's recipe will be discussed below) brings iodine to the human body, without which the internal organs and systems are not able to function normally. In addition, iodine normalizes blood sugar levels.

Compound

It has already been mentioned above that sauerkraut contains a lot of C (its content in this product is the largest), as well as vitamins B 1, B 2, B 6, U and K. In addition, beneficial features vegetables depend on trace elements, also necessary for the human body. These include: iodine, fluorine, molybdenum, manganese, chromium, copper, calcium, potassium, magnesium and sulfur.

cooking options

Usually sauerkraut (my grandmother's recipe) is prepared at home in several basic ways:

• Cabbage for pickling, chopped with a special shredder or knife.
• Finely chopped cabbage or chopper, sauerkraut in a special wooden trough.
• Cabbage, chopped in halves or quarters.

The main ingredients in cooking are cabbage and salt, evenly distributed in it. In this case, additives can be very different. These are bay leaves and carrots, apples and cranberries, dill and caraway seeds, beet peas and much more. Thus, sauerkraut (my grandmother's recipe) can be with any additives, it all depends on your preferences.

How to choose the right cabbage for pickling

For pickling, late varieties should be chosen. Forks, which are selected for harvesting for the winter, should be white, with crispy and juicy leaves.

For sourdough economical housewives choose large heads. This is very useful, as there is much less waste with a large fork compared to two small ones. In the process of preparation, the upper leaves are cut off from the cabbage, which have a darker color with a greenish color, rotten places, any darkening, frostbitten or deformed. If you plan to pickle quarters or halves of a head of cabbage, then for uniform salting it is advisable to cut the stalk.

We have come to the most basic question - how to ferment cabbage correctly. We proceed from the fact that we need a grandmother's classic. In this case, the following proportions are observed: 200 grams of salt per 10 kilograms of cabbage.

Cabbage can be fermented in a variety of ways, starting with the salting option. This is both “wet” salting (cabbage is tamped into a prepared container and poured with brine) and dry salting (in this case, the cabbage is rubbed with dry salt by hand). In turn, wet salting can be done in hot and cold ways.

Carrots are a traditional addition. However, even here the opinions of the hostesses were divided. Some rub carrots on a coarse grater, someone prefers to cut it into long strips or thin circles. The only difference is that chopped carrots, compared to grated ones, will not give a large number juice. Thus, sauerkraut with chopped carrots will have a light, uncolored color.

Whole or sliced ​​sour apples, cranberries, lingonberries and plums will also help diversify the taste. In addition, you can add mushrooms (salted or pickled), sweet bell pepper, celery and more.

Classic recipe

So, sauerkraut (grandmother's recipe) is prepared as follows:

Sauerkraut: my grandmother's recipe with a photo

For cooking you will need the following ingredients:

For salting, white and dense cabbage of late varieties is selected.

Salt - exclusively stone, not sea and not iodized, since iodine will make the cabbage sluggish and soft.

If desired, you can add spices - dried herbs, coriander, cumin.

You can salt in glass jars, a ceramic tub, a saucepan. The dishes must be thoroughly washed, but not sterilized.

The number of products increases proportionally.

Step by step cooking recipe

So, sauerkraut - grandmother's recipe, involves the following sequence of actions:

Sauerkraut with beets: a recipe like my grandmother's

Well-salted, crispy cabbage can be eaten the very next day. And most importantly, cabbage cooked according to this recipe will be stored for a very long time.

For cooking you will need:

• Beets, garlic and cabbage - the proportions are taken at your own discretion.

For 1 liter of water should be:

• 2 tbsp. spoons of salt;
• 2 pcs. bay leaf;
• 1 glass of 9% vinegar;
• 1 cup of sugar.

About 1.5 liters of this filling falls on a 3-liter can.

Pickled cabbage is prepared as follows:

1. Cabbage is cut into arbitrary pieces or squares. Garlic should be left whole. Beets must be peeled and cut into slices.
2. Tamping tightly, put the cabbage in a jar, shifting it with garlic and beets.
3. For the marinade, boil water, dissolve sugar, salt in it and add bay leaf. Vinegar is poured into boiling brine. As soon as the filling boils again, it must be poured into jars of cabbage and corked.
4. Banks should be left warm until completely cooled, then put in the refrigerator for storage.