How To Make Sauerkraut
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Follow my easy step-step guide to learn how to make sauerkraut at home with just 2 ingredients. I cannot get enough of this tangy cabbage condiment.
In this post you’ll learn:
- How to make sauerkraut at home with no special equipment and only two ingredients.
- The health benefits of sauerkraut.
- The best equipment to get if you want to make larger quantities.
I love sauerkraut. It is one of my favorite things in the world and the better the sauerkraut, the more I love it. I’ll eat canned kraut from a store (Aldi brand is the absolute best as far as canned goes) but the cold bagged kind in the deli (such as Boar’s Head brand) is much better than canned.
However, homemade sauerkraut absolutely wins out over any and all sauerkraut that you could ever find on a grocery store shelf. Truly. It is night and day in terms of quality and flavor. So if you love sauerkraut as much as I do, today I am going to show you one of the most simplified ways of making it, with some tips and tricks at the end in case you want to go pro.
All you need is shredded cabbage, kosher salt, and a little bit of patience to make my . Let’s get into it and learn how to make sauerkraut a home!
Recipe Ingredients
- Cabbage
- Salt
How to Make Sauerkraut
Dump your fresh cabbage and salt into a large bowl.
Now you want to take your hands and squeeze and mix all of this together, bruising the cabbage as much as you can to help draw out the juices.
The salt will help a lot with this as well. I am using gloves on my hands but you don’t have to, just make sure your hands are really clean.
This is what it looks like after I’ve squeezed and mixed it up for a few minutes with my hands.
Now cover that and let it sit for about 10 minutes.
During that time the salt will draw a lot more liquid out of the cabbage. This is creating our brine in which the cabbage is going to ferment.
After 10 minutes you can see that it has lost even more volume.
It is always amazing how you can start with what you think is a large quantity of cabbage and be doing good to end up with a mason jar of sauerkraut.
Using a jar funnel, pack the cabbage down into a mason jar (I am using a large mouth quart jar).
Pack it as tight as you can, trying to get the cabbage submerged in the salt water it has wept.
Let that sit for the rest of the day.
You should end up with enough liquid to cover your cabbage, as you can see in this photo. If by the next day you still don’t have enough, you can add a little bit of water to make up the difference.
Leave your sitting out on your countertop or in a cool place (between 65 and 72 degrees is best if possible) and let it for 1 to 3 weeks.
The importance of venting the sauerkraut
Now you need to know that a LOT of gas is going to build up during this . During the first week, I open the lid each morning and each evening and then put it back on to allow the gas to escape. After that week I do it about once a day.
Over time your sauerkraut will begin to develop its taste, which only gets better the more time goes on. I generally put mine in the fridge and start eating it after 2 weeks but you can leave it out another week if you like or put it in the fridge in as little as 3 to 4 days if you want a very mild taste, which is absolutely not my preference. I like a deeper, richer, more fermented cabbage that tends to show up around the 2-week mark.
Storage
Store your sauerkraut in the fridge for several months (we’re talking 6 months, although I doubt it will last that long).
Recipe Notes
- I like to use kosher or sea salt but you can also use Himalayan salt. Just don’t use iodized salt because the iodine has been known to inhibit fermenting.
- Try to keep your cabbage pushed down beneath the salt water level. They sell weights on Amazon for this (click here to see them) but I have never used them. You can also use a regular mouth 4-ounce jelly jar to help weigh the cabbage down or even a zipper seal bag sealed shut with water inside, but again, I’ve never had a need myself. I just push it down once a day, with a clean wooden spoon, during the . I’m perhaps overly cautious not to touch it with my bare hands as I don’t want to disturb all of the happy bacteria that are being born.
- For added flavor, you can add a couple of tablespoons of shredded fresh ginger and minced garlic cloves to the kraut. Other dried herbs and spices to add include 1 tablespoon each of caraway seed, dill seed, and/or mustard seed.
- You can also add 2 to 3 grated carrots to this fermented sauerkraut recipe.
Recipe FAQs
What are the health benefits of sauerkraut?
There are a LOT of health benefits to eating sauerkraut and other fermented food. Specifically, sauerkraut is high in fiber, vitamins C, A, K, and B. It’s also a good source of iron, copper, magnesium, calcium, and manganese.
Sauerkraut also contains a lot of great living and highly concentrated probiotics which serve countless purposes in your digestive system.
What’s the best salt to cabbage ratio for sauerkraut?
Generally, you want a heaping tablespoon of salt per 2 pounds of cabbage. If you are thinking it will taste salty, it really doesn’t. It will be the first few days but it isn’t sauerkraut yet at that point. The more it ages the less salty it becomes and a whole other flavor of wonderful develops in its place.
However, if you end up with it too salty for your taste once it is done, the preferable method of dealing with that is to add a little additional water to the brine rather than pouring the brine out because so much goodness is in that.
What happens if I forget to vent my homemade sauerkraut?
If you forget to vent for a day or two, the best thing to do is place your jar in a plastic grocery bag, close the bag up around it a bit, then open the lid. There will likely be some spewing as the gases escape but the bag will catch it all. Once the jar is open, close it again and rinse it off. No biggie.
I should let you know that they sell these little airlock things (look up on Amazon), which fit on mason jars to help vent the gases but I’ve never had the need because I only do small batches in mason jars and it is no trouble to vent the jar once or twice a day.
What is a fermenting pot?
If you want to get into fermenting larger quantities of sauerkraut and other veggies (check out my homemade kimchi recipe here), you might want to invest in a fermenting pot. You can find them on Amazon, along with the weights mentioned above.
My fermenting pot has a special well around the top that you can pour water in to seal the pot, but still allow gases to escape as they are formed so there is no need to vent the pot each day as we do with mason jars. This helps protect against spoilage as well and allows you to leave your fermenting alone for the most part until it is ready, as long as you check the water level on your seal from time to time.
What’s the main ingredient in sauerkraut?
The main ingredient is shredded green cabbage. However, for something different you can use red cabbage or napa cabbage instead.
Can I freeze sauerkraut?
You can freeze sauerkraut but I don’t recommend it, as it kills all those probiotics and beneficial bacteria you’ve worked to create. Luckily, it will last for months in the fridge, so there’s no need for freezing.
How do you serve sauerkraut?
Sauerkraut is a great topping to add to salad, burgers, wraps, hot dogs, or sandwiches. Add it to a classic Reuben sandwich, hot dog chili, meatloaf burgers (with burger slaw), or potato salad.
Check out these other pickles and relishes:
Chow Chow Recipe (Southern Relish)
Ingredients
- 1.5-2 pounds shredded cabbage
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
Instructions
- Place shredded cabbage in a large bowl. Sprinkle salt over. With very clean hands (or using gloves) squeeze and mix cabbage and salt for several minutes, until it decreases in volume and starts producing juices.1.5-2 pounds shredded cabbage, 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- Cover and let it sit for 10 minutes.
- Pack the cabbage into a mason jar, pressing down as much as possible. Cover and let it sit for a day.
- Check to see if there is enough liquid to cover the cabbage. If so, open the lid and press down until the cabbage is submerged. If not, add a little more water so that there is enough to cover. Press cabbage down to submerge. Cover with lid once more.
- For the next week, open the lid in the morning and evening to release pressure and then immediately close it again. After the first week, once per day should be enough.
- You can begin testing the flavor of the sauerkraut after one week. Once it reaches your desired depth of flavor it is ready to place in the refrigerator and start eating. Store in the refrigerator for several months. I prefer to leave mine out for two weeks before refrigerating.
Nutrition
Is it possible to just make this in my regular crock pot and leave the lid on? I have several sizes to try with , or is the jar method better? Ready to make this today!!!
I’ve never heard of anyone using a crock pot for fermenting but it is a glazed stoneware vessel with a lid so it will work. However, the lid will likely allow fruit flies in if it doesn’t clamp. I would also make sure it is not in your base while doing this and then you have to get past having your crock pot otherwise occupied for a few weeks :). I don’t see why it would have any residual smell but it would probably require a few washings after the fact just in case.
I grew up eating homemade sauerkraut and I cannot stand any canned brands from the store. I’ll definitely be trying this!!! Yummy! And so easy!
(Also – I didn’t see a the picture or a link to your Sauercrock. Did I miss it somewhere?)
One other question – my grandmother used to make “salt pickles” (they weren’t dill or bread & butter, etc.) No one in my family has the recipe. Have you ever heard of them and do you have a recipe? 🙂
Hey Freda! At the end of the post, after the recipe, I talk about my crock in that paragraph and the one like I have is pictured on the left beneath it. Let me look into that salt pickle recipe for ya!
Here’s a hint: PICKLE PIPES. The company is MasonTops. A pickle pipe is a (I think) silicone top that looks like a baby bottle nipple got together with a mason jar lid. They make them for both wide mouth and narrow mouth jars. You put them on top & screw them down like a regular lid, and the “nipple” will let the gas escape without letting air in. Oh, and caraway is a great seasoning for the cabbage….
Hey Cara! I mentioned things like that in the post for those who might be interested. I’ve just never found them to be necessary but if you were going to be out of town or just wanted to put them away and not check on them that would certainly be a needed tool. Instead, I just put the money into a fermenting jar that vents itself and can do larger quantities, but I see those things all the time at homesteading events and they seem to have a big following! Others have mentioned caraway seeds as well. There are so many great things you can do to customize kraut – which makes it even more wonderful 🙂
Why do you need screwtop lids? Could you just keep the jar covered with layers of cheesecloth? Would eliminate need for daily venting.
You can but this will also allow fruit flies to get in. Those little suckers are smaller than we realize 🙂 It also helps keep mold at bay.
I have made this about 30 years ago I had purchased a book it was called freezing and canning cookbook. made it in pint mason jars filled with the cabbage and kosher salt packing it down and placing the jars in a square metal baking pan to catch the brine when it bubbled over top of jars the pan would catch the liquid lay the lids on top of the jars when the brine got a little low would mix the salt and water to make a brine and add to the jars that needed it and lay the lids back on top it would bubble for about 2 to 3 weeks when it stopple bubbling I would place the jars with the lids and rings on top and place in a boiling water to seal the worked out well.
Sounds like a solid method, thank you for sharing this!
Oh,Sauerkraut is the best. Thanks for sharing. I’ve been know to just got straight to the fridge and eat it out of the container( I’m such a kid). Love to know that camera trick, I got a new fancy camera too and really wish I new how to conquer over head shots. See you around.
I was supposedly able to do it with my last camera but just never took the time to figure it out. I have too much technology in my life so I tend to push back ;). I’m like you, I eat it straight from the jar, too! lol
I love sauerkraut too and I use kitchen rock salt and add grated carrots, 1 part of carrots to 3 or 4 parts of cabagge and poke the mix once a day while it sits with wooden chopsticks to let gases out.
Sounds delicious! I have Kimchi (also with carrots) that is almost ready now and it is all I can do to wait 🙂