How to Make Sauerkraut with No Special Equipment

Think sauerkraut is complicated to make? It can be as simple as cabbage, salt, and a jar. You don’t need any special ingredients, equipment, or skills to make sauerkraut or other fermented vegetables! With a little effort and some hands-off time, you can make this probiotic side dish affordably. Such a simple way to improve your gut health!

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Sauerkraut, and fermented foods and drinks in general, are enjoying a moment. I don’t typically align with trends, but fermenting is an exception! Trends aren’t to be avoided on principle. This one offers so many benefits, and, in the case of sauerkraut, the benefits are both easy and budget-friendly to achieve.

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Why Make Sauerkraut?

I didn’t eat sauerkraut growing up. Maybe from a jar once or twice, but not the real thing. I read a book once where the girl had a hard life and got bad stomachaches from the stress. Her mother would give her sauerkraut to help her over them.

This made no sense to me– the little sauerkraut I had eaten seemed like something that would make things worse! I didn’t realize that real sauerkraut would be full of bacteria and enzymes that really could help her. Now it makes sense… (It’s a true story and worth reading– not mainly about sauerkraut.)

Culturing foods and drinks at home is a whole new world. It can seem strange, or even a bit risky. The truth is, it is a little strange when new, but it is easy. Fermenting is also time-honored, crossing cultures and traditions around the world! It doesn’t have to be especially risky, and fermented products benefit our gut health, and thus our general health, without costing much.

Cost

Unlike many natural health products, fermented veggies like sauerkraut are super cheap! Have you seen the prices for good quality probiotic supplements?! There are really good ones on the market, and I am not suggesting you shouldn’t take them, but they are quite costly.

Making sauerkraut is cheap, even if you start with an organic cabbage and high quality salt.

Effectiveness

The other thing about most probiotic supplements is that many aren’t terribly effective. Some are better than others; I look for ones with soil based organisms when I buy them. They can be useful if you are targeting a particular strain of bacteria, for example.

For the most part, I prefer to rely on fermented foods for general, un-targeted health purposes. They provide a range of different bacteria that offer a range of benefits. After all, a diverse microbiome is a good goal.

Whether shelf stable or refrigerated, probiotic supplements don’t have a great track record at surviving in our digestive tract. Think about it– we are warm enough at normal temperature to kill off a lot of them. Then there is our stomach acid. The good bugs don’t always make it to where we need them!

Interestingly, foods and drinks that have been fermented at home and not packaged, processed, or otherwise prepared for mass sale tend to do better! This is great news for us who are on a budget– with a little time and effort we can actually do quite well!

Read more here, here, and here.

Health benefits

Taking a purchased probiotic can help you. Yes, you need to spend on a good one, and you need to take it at the right times. You can improve your microbiome using these. The supplement may not do much else for you, though.

Sauerkraut, on the other hand, forms part of your meal. You have to eat, and cabbage is a cheap and nourishing addition to your meals. Fermenting makes the nutrition in the cabbage even better for you and easier for your body to use. In addition to probiotics, sauerkraut provides you with:

• prebiotics– naturally present in cabbage, prebiotics feed to probiotics, helping them thrive in your gut. You can take a separate prebiotic with your probiotic, but both are present in a nice ittle package in sauerkraut. It’s almost as though God made it that way…
• fiber
• vitamin C and other familiar vitamins and minerals
• sulphoraphane–antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and may fight cancer
• digestive benefits from enzymes and bacteria
• immune support
• mood, memory, and other brain boost
• bone strength due to directing vitamins and minerals into the bones
• possible benefits for heart health and avoiding cancer
• thyroid friendly– if you, like me, minimize your consumption of fresh cruciferous vegetables because of their goitrogenic (thyroid-inhibiting) effect, fermented and cooked cruciferous vegetables are OK

Read more here and here.

It’s easy!

Unlike some ferments, you don’t need anything special. You don’t need to purchase cultures or invest in any special equipment. Just a clean jar, chopped cabbage, and a good salt are all you need!

It is true, the chopping takes some effort. You can use a food processor, and I have even used pre-chopped cabbage in difficult times, but usually I just get out my cutting board and knife and listen to something interesting while I chop. It doesn’t take that long.

Are there any downsides to eating sauerkraut?

There can be. If you aren’t used to eating probiotic-rich food, you might want to start with just a bite and go up from there. Your gut may do all sorts of interesting things at first, especially if your microbiome is out of whack. As many people’s are.

If you have SIBO, you may not do well at all with anything fermented, or at least you might have trouble with some of them. Once you have done some healing using other methods, there will come a time you can slowly introduce fermented foods successfully.

If you have histamine sensitivity, you are likely to react to ferments. They are high in histamine. Once you have addressed the reason you have trouble with histamine, you will be better able to consume cultured foods.

Some drugs interact with fermented foods; it is a good idea to check into any drugs you are taking before starting sauerkraut.

How to Make Sauerkraut

I like to use a red cabbage. (It seems purple to me…) You can use green or red, whichever you like. They work and taste the same. I often go with the red one because it is pretty, actually. Colorful food has a certain appeal!

Also, red cabbage is a bit richer in nutrients. The anthocyanins that give it that pretty color also protect our cells. Red cabbage is especially packed with vitamins, flavonoids, and polyphenols. Still, green cabbage is similar and I use it sometimes.

Chop

This is the hardest part… I usually just chop up the cabbage with a knife and cutting board. The chunkier texture achieved this way appeals to me. I used to use my food processor, and that works too. You get smaller bits of cabbage that way, and some may prefer that finer texture.

In challenging times when I didn’t think I would get the chopping done, I bought bags of pre-chopped cole slaw and made sauerkraut with them. It’s not necessarily ideal, but it works. It is fine if it has bits of carrot or both colors of cabbage in it. Just check that there are no other ingredients that might hinder fermentation!

Salt

Scoop all the cabbage into a big bowl and add a tablespoon of good quality salt. I often use Redmond’s salt, and sometimes Himalayan or Celtic salt. Mix the salt through. The salt will prevent mold. The cabbage will start to “sweat”, releasing liquid as it sits. A tablespoon of salt per head of cabbage seems to work well.

I usually pound the cabbage with my meat mallet a bit to help this liquid release. A potato masher also works. You can buy a special tool to do this if you prefer, and pound it inside the jar.

(The times I haven’t pounded the cabbage, it has still fermented fine. I add a bit of water to cover the cabbage in that situation.)

Notice the drops coming out of the cabbage.

Pack

Pack the salty cabbage into a jar, pressing it down so it is packed in well. A small head of cabbage generally fits easily into a quart jar, with enthusiastic packing down. You want it packed so that there is little space between bits of cabbage,and no air pockets. The liquid will continue releasing as you pack.

Make sure there is enough liquid to just cover the cabbage. The salty liquid prevents mold or anything else untoward. You can use a folded-up cabbage leaf, a very clean rock, or a fermenting weight to keep your cabbage submerged. I usually don’t– the liquid itself seem to be adequate if I have packed it all in well and there is enough liquid to cover.

Burp

No, not you. The jar. The fermentation process produces gas that needs to be released daily. No exploding jars!

I use a plastic lid on my jar, so I have to burp the jar daily at first. Just open the lid to release pressure and put it back on. After a few days, things will settle down and you won’t need to keep doing that.

I also turn the jar over once or twice to make sure the salty liquid is preventing mold on top of the kraut, unless I have a cabbage leaf folded on top of it.

Another thing that will happen, especially if you really packed the cabbage in tightly, is that it will overflow a bit as it ferments. I put my jar on a plate or shallow dish to catch this liquid. After the first few days, this will stop and you will know the fermenting is happening.

Here is my jar after a day– look at all that juice on the plate! I washed it off and kept going.

Here is the second day of fermentation. Less liquid, but enough to wash off. My kitchen was really warm that week– the process is sometimes a little slower.

I let my sauerkraut ferment for a week at minimum. If I don’t need it yet, I let it go longer. I have never gone more than a month or so, but some people do. Longer-fermented sauerkraut gets softer; you might prefer that, or you may like it to have some crunch. When it is ready, store in the refrigerator.

If you want to set and forget your sauerkraut, you can use fermenting weights and lids that let the gas out so you don’t need to remember to burp them. This means you have to buy some special equipment, but it isn’t bulky or terribly expensive.

Additions to the Recipe

You don’t need to add anything at all!

Sometimes I do add things, though.

• if I have it on hand (and think of it!!), I add a tablespoon or two of whey left over from other projects. It is unnecessary, and presumably changes the resulting bacteria content, but the kraut seems to ferment a little faster with whey included.
• sometimes I add a teaspoon or two of caraway seeds. They add a delicious flavor!
• a couple of cloves of minced garlic
• a tablespoon of chopped, fresh ginger– very fresh, bright flavor with added health benefits
• chopped onion or carrot

Interested in other ferments? We love probiotic lemonade, root beer, and root beer water kefir!