How to ferment cabbage at home for the winter in different ways

Each housewife has a variety of fruits, berries and vegetables in her pantry or cellar. On the shelves are jars and bottles, and on the floor there are barrels and pots with sauerkraut, soaked apples, sour cucumbers and tomatoes, and even soaked watermelons. Learn how to ferment cabbage at home in different ways and increase your range of harvests for the winter.

How to ferment cabbage at home

Pickling has always been considered the best way to harvest vegetables for the winter. After all, we do not use any preservatives and use minimal salt. Only a few recipes contain a small amount of sugar. During the fermentation process, a unique preservative is produced - acid, which also inhibits the development and growth of pathogenic bacteria.

Sauerkraut is used to prepare various dishes. These are salads, and saltwort, and dumplings, and pies. Sauerkraut is also served as a separate salad with onions and vegetable oil.

In order for the preparation for the winter to succeed, several rules must be observed:

1. You need to ferment for the winter only cabbage of late or medium late varieties.
2. When choosing heads of cabbage for sourdough, you should give preference to tight, elastic with sweet crispy leaves.
3. Ripe cabbage leaves are white or creamy white. Heads with green leaves are not suitable for harvesting.
4. Frozen cabbage is not suitable for sourdough.
5. When examining the stalk, there should be no rotting or damage.
6. Need coarse rock salt. When using iodized salt, the taste and smell of the workpiece will not be very pleasant.
7. When harvesting cabbage, do not use galvanized or aluminum cans.
8. Store fermented cabbage in wooden barrels, enamel pots or buckets, and glass jars.

For 1 kg of fresh cabbage, add 25 g of rock salt. If you take more salt, the fermentation process will be weak or the workpiece will not ferment at all. Less salt will make the cabbage sour faster.

Sour cabbage in jars

The recipe is for a full three liter can of delicious crispy cabbage.

Ingredients for the starter culture:

• white cabbage - 3.5 kg;
• two medium carrots;
• 3 sheets currants;
• 5 black peppercorns;
• horseradish leaf;
• dill umbrella;
• 2 bay leaves;
• salt - 75 g.

Cooking process:

1. Wash and dry the cabbage heads. Remove the top leaves.
2. Cut the cabbage with a special shredder. You can chop the cabbage with a knife, but not too finely or coarsely.
3. Peel and grate washed carrots. Carrots are needed to remove bitterness from the leaves and give the workpiece a slight sweetness.
4. In a large bowl, mix chopped cabbage with carrots and salt. Squeeze the cabbage a little to make the juice stand out.
5. Place clean dry leaves on the bottom of a pre-washed and dried jar horseradish and currants, dill and spices.
6. Fill the jar tightly. When laying the cabbage, juice begins to stand out, which is necessary for good fermentation. The top of the jar should be filled with cabbage juice. The neck of the jar should be free so that the juice does not flow out during fermentation.
7. It is necessary to install oppression. You can use a plastic cover for this. It needs to be warmed up in hot water and bent to shove it into the neck of the can. When the lid assumes its natural position, it will block the neck and prevent the cabbage from rising to the top.
8. Place the bottle with the preparation in a deep bowl and leave for 48 hours to ferment in a warm place.
9. The foam that appears on the surface must be removed.
10. For subsequent fermentation, remove the cabbage in a cool place for 4 days. The fermentation process is complete when the foam disappears from the surface and the brine becomes transparent.

For 1 kg of cabbage, add 100 g of carrots.

To add spice to the workpiece, you can put a few cloves of garlic and a couple of fresh pieces at the bottom of the jar. ginger.

Sauerkraut in a saucepan with cumin

A completely different taste of sauerkraut appears if you add caraway seeds during harvesting. We also need quite a bit of allspice peas, dill seeds and a couple of bay leaves. Also, sugar must be used in this recipe. Its amount is equal to the amount of rock salt.

For 2 kg of chopped cabbage, add 1 tsp. cumin seeds.

Cooking process:

1. Chop ripe late varieties of cabbage in any way.
2. Use a coarse grater to chop the carrots.
3. Put the chopped cabbage in a large bowl, add sugar and salt. Mix well.
4. Sprinkle with caraway seeds and mix thoroughly again.
5. Add the grated carrots and lightly press together to mix all the ingredients. As a result, some cabbage juice will appear.
6. Wash and dry well the enamel pot. Put the workpiece in it and tamp it tightly. The denser the cabbage is packed, then the better the fermentation result will be.
7. Lay the cabbage leaves removed in advance on top. Install oppression. If you are fermenting a lot of cabbage in a large saucepan, you can use a wooden circle as oppression. For small pots, use a suitably sized plate. Press down on top of either a bottle of water or something else heavy in weight.
8. During fermentation every day, you need to pierce the cabbage with a large knife to release the gas bubbles. If there is a thin rolling pin for rolling out the dough, then use it. Immediately put oppression back on.

It remains to wait for the result, when the cabbage is ready to eat. The higher the temperature in the room where the pan is placed, the faster the result will be. After fermentation is complete, the cabbage can be transferred to jars.

Sourdough cabbage at home for the winter

For long-term storage, cabbage is fermented with apples, cranberries, beets and other vegetables. Each recipe is worthy of your attention.

How to ferment cabbage at home in Georgian

The Georgian recipe for making cabbage for the winter involves the use of large quantities of dark red beets and carrots. Georgian sauerkraut is served as a savory snack on the festive table when the faithful are fasting.

Ingredients for sourdough cabbage:

• a head of cabbage weighing 2.5-3 kg;
• one carrot and one burgundy beet;
• head of garlic;
• optional 6 black peppercorns, one hot pepper and one onion.

Prepare brine from a liter of water, 50 g of salt, 200 g of vinegar and 100 g of sugar.

Cooking steps:

1. Wash and dry the vegetables well. Cut the beets with carrots into large strips, and the onions into half rings.
2. Cut the head of cabbage, peeled from the top leaves, into quarters. Remove the stumps from each part and cut into large pieces.
3. Finely chop hot pepper and garlic with a knife.
4. Put all ingredients for preparation in a large bowl and mix gently.
5. Put the cabbage with vegetables in the bottle.
6. Fill with hot brine and close with a clean nylon cap. Keep the cabbage bottle warm for 12 hours.

After 12 hours, you can try sauerkraut with beets and carrots.

You can store sauerkraut in a normal cool room.

Sour delicious cabbage with apples

Just three days after cooking, you can already taste the cabbage sauerkraut with apples and spices.

Ingredients for fermentation:

• white cabbage - 3 kg;
• 300 g of apples and carrots;
• ginger root - 45 g;
• dill and cumin seeds, 1.5 tsp;
• an incomplete teaspoon of ground black pepper;
• 75 g of salt.

Step by step cooking:

1. Chop the cabbage in any way. You can even use a food processor.
2. Place the cabbage in a bowl and add the grated carrots.
3. Add spices and salt. Mix everything well.
4. Cut the pre-washed apple into thin slices.
5. Peel and cut the ginger root into thin slices.
6. Put cabbage, apples and ginger in layers in a jar. It's good to seal everything.
7. Cover with a lid and store in a cool place for three days.
8. Use a thin wooden stick to pierce the cabbage in the jar at least once every day.
9. On the fourth day, you can try cabbage. Close the lid tightly and keep in the refrigerator.

How to ferment cabbage at home with cranberries in a bucket

Sour lingonberries or cranberries enhance the taste of sauerkraut.

A set of ingredients for the preparation:

• 8 kg of white cabbage;
• 500 g fresh or frozen cranberries;
• 3 kg of carrots;
• 150 g of rock salt.

The amount of ingredients is given in a ten-liter enamel bucket.

Step by step cooking:

1. Remove the top leaves from the cabbage and set aside. Chop the rest of the cabbage.
2. Peel and grate washed carrots.
3. Wash and dry the bucket well.
4. Put the cabbage leaves set aside earlier on the bottom.
5. In a large bowl, stir in 1/3 of the carrots, cabbage and salt. When stirring the cabbage will begin to secrete juice.
6. Place this portion in a bucket and seal well.
7. Divide the cranberries into 2 parts. Put one on top of the cabbage tightly packed in a bucket.
8. Do the same with the remaining ingredients.
9. Put a plate of a suitable size on top of the cabbage. Place a water bottle or stone on top of the plate.
10. Keep the workpiece in a warm room for 3 days. Stick the cabbage every day with a stick to release gas.
11. After fermentation is complete, transfer the sauerkraut with cranberries to the jars. Store jars in the refrigerator or cellar.

For sourdough cabbage, use only a whole bucket without any chips.

There are many options for sourdough cabbage for the winter and each time you get a completely new taste of the preparation. Instead of cranberries, they use raisins, lingonberries and even mushrooms. Apples are added whole or cut. There are recipes for quick preparation of sauerkraut, and there are preparations for slow fermentation. The choice always remains with the hostess.

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