From: dadams@cray.com (David Adams)
Subject: FAQ.sauerkraut
Reply-To: dadams@cray.com
Organization: Cray Research, Inc.
Date: 2 Sep 92 14:43:49 CDT

Or maybe you prefer sauerkraut?

---
--David C. Adams  Statistician  Cray Research Inc.  dadams@cray.com
___________________________________________________________________
       Old Sourdoughs never die.  They just ferment away.


Subject: Re:  borsch is not pickled beets :-)

From: Beverly Erlebacher <bae@utcs.utoronto.ca>

The Editor writes:

> 	Brine pickles are often canned after they are fermented or
> 	partially fermented, since the low-salt brining is not
> 	considered sufficient for long term storage.  There is also
> 	a heavy brine where the vegtables do not need to be canned
> 	for long term storage.  Here the salt is the preservative, but
> 	the vegtables need to be de-salted before they can be used.

If you don't want to screw around with canning, you can freeze your
sauerkraut.  It will lose crispness, but this doesn't matter if you
are planning to cook it.

In the old days, people just kept their sauerkraut in a big crock in
a cold cellar.  If you keep eating the part on top, it will keep until
spring.  once the weather warms up, you eat fresh veggies and give the
remaining kraut to the pigs.

You can keep sauerkraut for months in the fridge using the following
method.  After fermentation is complete, pack it tightly  in plastic
containers (like yogurt or cottage cheese containers).  Fill the 
containers right to the top so that when you put the cover on you
can press out all the air bubbles and have the liquid in contact
with the entire surface of the cover.

Don't bother with heavy brining.  Getting the salt out washes out
most of the nutrition too.  I think heavy brining prevents fermentation
of all kinds, but I've never tried it myself, although I have eaten
salt-packed vegetables and they are pretty bad.

> 	The process involved here is not a yeast, as I understand it,
> 	but a bacteria.  Is it a lactobacilli?  Does anybody know?

It's a lactobacillus, converting sugar to lactic acid.  The scum on
top is some other type of microbe, converting the lactic acid to
carbon dioxide and water, which is why you have to skim it off.  This
latter microbe needs plenty of air, so will only grow on an exposed
liquid surface, hence my suggestion above to keep air out of the plastic
containers.

Why don't you go ahead and experiment with a small batch of sauerkraut
right now?  Buy a head of cabbage and make a few quarts.  Some tips:

	- Red cabbage makes especially nice sauerkraut, not only because
	of the pretty colour, but because most people are used to the
	bright white colour of commercial sauerkraut (which may not even
	be fermented, as far as I can tell by the taste and texture).
	Home made sauerkraut tends to be somewhat brownish, the darker
	the more you let it oxidize.  Using red cabbage, the kraut stays red.

	- Don't use anything but cabbage and salt, never add water.  The
	brine may take a few hours to rise over the cabbage, under the
	weight.  Be patient, and use a heavy enough weight.

	- An aside to the above:  you can throw in some shredded apples
	to get a bit more sugar and flavour in the kraut.  Some people
	like to add caraway or dill seeds for extra flavour.  Just make
	plain cabbage-and-salt kraut for your first go.

	- A lot of recipes tell you to use a stone for a weight.  Stones
	of suitable size and shape are scarce in the city.  I use a gallon
	glass jug filled with varying amounts of water depending on how
	much weight I want.  I make kraut and brined pickles in a food-
	grade plastic bucket.  You can get buckets like this from bulk
	food stores, bakeries, etc., since they are used to ship things
	like peanut butter and pie filling.  The diameters of the jug
	and bucket are such that little surface area of brine is exposed
	to the air.  I don't use a cloth under the plate, I just wipe the
	scum from the surface around the jug.  If the plate is a good fit
	for the bucket, you can slowly lift the weight, the plate will rise
	with all the scum sticking to it, rinse the plate and outside of
	the jug, and put them back.

	- Don't use a plate that you care about under the weight.  It's
	amazing the way an acid brine can etch a china surface.  Similarly,
	don't let metal stay in contact with the brine.  I've found that
	even the small amount of brine that overflows the jars  during
	canning will corrode the rings on the canning jars.

	- During the early stages of fermentation, sauerkraut smells
	rather unpleasant.  There's almost an ozone or chlorine character
	to the smell.  So you might want to isolate your project away
	from living areas for the first week or so, especially in winter
	when windows are closed.

	- You can make small batches of sauerkraut in quart jars.  Fill
	the jars to the brim, cover them and keep them in a plastic dishpan
	because the brine will overflow.  I've never tried this, but have
	read about it.  It might work well using quart plastic containers
	instead of jars with corrodable rings.  The kraut shrinks as it
	develops.  At some stage you are supposed to pack n containers
	of kraut into n-1 jars, n is probably 4 or 5.

	- I've been making kraut and brined pickles for about 20 years now.
	I learned how from a book I think by Evelyn Loveday, called something
	like "Home Preservation of Fruits and Vegetables", published by
	Garden Way Publishing.  It's quite a classic, I often see it in
	libraries.  I can get the exact title for you if you like (I'm
	not at home now).

Anyhow, all these fermenting processes have been used for thousands of 
years by people who knew nothing about the science involved.  I think
people should try to stay relaxed about all this.  Things usually work
out, you really don't need to keep a herd of pigs or flock of poultry
to eat your mistakes.  Experiment and have fun, try to come up with
methods that give you the taste and texture you like, but don't sweat
it if your bread or whatever doesn't match your ideal at first.  You
might inadvertently discover something you like better.  A lot of the
very meticulous methods are necessary for repeatably getting a standardized
product, which is important if you are a commercial producer needing to
induce brand loyalty in your customers.  When you are doing it for yourself
and family and friends, you can be more lax or more free.  You'll soon
learn when you've gone too far in the laxness direction (nothing like
an oven full of overflowing jars of gassy non-yogourt to make you reconsider
the quality of your sterile technique or your economy in propagating from
your last batch instead of springing 59 cents for some fresh commercial
yogourt!).

A last tip: start small, and do only a small batch when trying something
new.  It's a lot easier to pitch a couple of quarts of mushy pickles in 
the compost than to try to dump a 50 gallon barrel.  I can tell you lots
of funny-only-in-retrospect stories of friends' adventures in zymotechnics,
and a few of my own! :-)


yrs, b.

Btw, I've got a good method for making yogourt from powdered milk.  It was
particularly attractive for its cheapness when I started doing this as a
student in ancient times, now it is even more attractive for its zero-fat
property!  I can write it up for the list if people are interested.  I can
also write up my sauerkraut and delicatessen-style brined pickle recipes,
but not all at once... :-)



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