I started making sauerkraut a bit unintentionally. A friend had brought by a gift in this big 2 quart mason jar, while we also had some cabbage going bad in the fridge. I also happened to read an article on sauerkraut, but I suppose my smart devices (Alexa, phone) could had sent me the article, knowing about my cabbage and new jar.

In the last year or two I have experimented a bit, which mostly hasn’t worked out. My last batch of sauerkraut wasn’t so good. Not bad, just basically wet cabbage. I put a bit of lemon in, just a couple of thin slices in, just for flavor. My guess is I lowered the pH and cut into the fermentation. This time I went fairly traditional. A head of cabbage, sliced as thin as I could manage, a red onion, also sliced thin, some matchstick carrots which I admit were going a bit slimy in the fridge (I did rinse them off). I added a bit of garlic and some peppercorns. I realized I also omitted red pepper flakes. Oh, and I measured the one tablespoon of kosher salt instead of just estimating.

For the first time I didn’t have to add water. It is bubbling nicely and even overflowed a bit. Looking forward to tasting this batch in a week or two.