Something else to ferment

The corned beef has been in the slow cooker all day and smells great. I decided, since I’m the only one who eats the cabbage, to put half the head in for the last half hour and to make some sauerkraut with the other half. I’m thinking also add some shredded carrot, thinly sliced onion and some garlic that is in a spiced brine. Since it’s only going to be in a quart mason jar, I should be trying it in a week to ten days.

Yum! I bet it will be great. While I’ve never made kraut myself, I imagine it might take a lot longer than a week to finish fermenting. But what do I know.

I thought so too. According to this

, because it’s only a small batch it shouldn’t take too long. Big batches I hear can take months to fully ferment. In any case, I’ll let it go as long as it takes.

My wife is kind of the fermented food expert in our house, although I get in on the process too. She just does all the reading. She tells me that any ferment with cabbage really should go for 10-12 weeks for complete fermentation.

You’ll probably get some sour flavor development after a couple weeks though. It will stay salty for quite a while and then start evolving. Be ready to punch it down and vent the gases often in such a small container.

We’ve since moved to 1-gallon bail-top glass jars that I think we ordered from Harbor Freight. We had the lids drilled at a glass shop to fit the #9 stoppers which accept an airlock. Since we managed to finally exclude oxygen from the fermentations, the results have been much cleaner and better tasting. We monkeyed around with quart and 2-quart jars for quite a while and never could quite get them to seal completely.

Either way, this should be a fun project for you. Good luck!