deepocean: My Weck jars are smaller. I mainly use them to keep my pipe tobacco fresh.

Hadn’t thought of using Weck jars for sauerkraut until I saw the photo.

quote:

Originally posted by Bisleyblackhawk:

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:
I'm going to give it a go. The German in me loves some sauerkraut. Do a pork roast in it - that is some good chow.

Sounds good ...any recipes or links one might try?

Just put some kraut in a dutch oven. Brown a pork roast in a skillet with a little garlic, and add it to the dutch oven. Enough to go about a third of the way up the roast. Bake at 350 for 15 to 18 minutes a pound. Check part way through to make sure it doesn't dry out. It is great with mashed potatoes.

I remember as a kid in my mom's kitchen having to use a section of two by four to pack shredded cabbage in a crock helping her make it.

I own that crock now, it goes back to my grandmother and perhaps my great-gran, nobody's sure. Makes good kraut, though. I think it's two gallon.

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:

Just put some kraut in a dutch oven. Brown a pork roast in a skillet with a little garlic, and add it to the dutch oven. Enough to go about a third of the way up the roast. Bake at 350 for 15 to 18 minutes a pound. Check part way through to make sure it doesn't dry out. It is great with mashed potatoes.

Thank you jhe888...that sounds both simple and good

For people contemplating trying home fermentation, but perhaps worried about the safety of leaving food out on the counter for a month sitting in some salt water... (I get it, it's scary, your momma always told you to keep everything in the fridge. Me, too.)

Home fermentation of raw vegetables is is very safe. Fermentation of raw vegetables has been used for ~10,000 years.

Here's a publication from Frederick Breidt (https://www.ars.usda.gov/people-locations/person?person-id=616), a USDA microbiologist:

https://www.ars.usda.gov/ARSUs...ublications/p337.pdf

quote:

Fermented and acidified vegetable products, such as sauerkraut, kimchi, olives, and cucumber pickles, not only have desirable sensory qualities, but also have an excellent safety record with no known reported cases of foodborne illness.

That's right: there are no reported cases of food poisoning from fermented (including home-fermented) raw vegetables. EVER. In HISTORY.

Of course, if you ferment unwashed veggies covered in pesticide, the pesticide might make you sick.

Note also that this doesn't necessarily apply to commercially available "pickles" and other "pickled" things, most of which are not fermented, they're just soaked in vinegar.

I would assume heating up on a stove before eating would kill the beneficial bacteria, so don't heat it right?

pizza , weiners, reubans, w/ pork roast and dumplings and of course with Brats.

We add a can of chicken broth to the pot ,half way through the roast cooking,
15 minutes before the roast and broth are done we add the s.k. and the drop style dumplings,

do not under any circumstances lift the lid after adding the dumplings.

20 minutes for the dumplings , no more no less

My WW2 friend Walter would cook Hillshire Farms keilbasa in it, add carroway seeds, salt and pepper. I could eat kraught like that 5 nights a week. I will share the health benefits information with a friend here.

Many people in a gardening group I'm in rave about these fermenting kits.

I don't grow cabbage so I don't have first hand knowledge.

My only question that nobody seems to be able to answer about the probiotic benefits is where do these organisms come from, how is the cabbage acidified by adding salt, and how are they not made available if you eat raw cabbage?

i like sauerkraut now and then. as far as probiotics, i also make kefir (using kefir grains) and have it for breakfast almost every day. throw in some chia seeds the night before. and every now and then some non-dutched un-sugared cocoa powder.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: f2,

quote:

Originally posted by 280nosler:
My only question that nobody seems to be able to answer about the probiotic benefits is where do these organisms come from, how is the cabbage acidified by adding salt, and how are they not made available if you eat raw cabbage?

It isn't exactly mysterious.

Microorganisms are too small for you to see. Nothing is ever clean. Everything is always covered in and full of bacteria and other microorganisms.

Fermenting pickled foods makes use of these omnipresent microorganisms. Examples besides pickling things include wild sourdough starters (in which you culture naturally occurring yeast and acid-producing bacteria in a mixture of flour and water) and wild fermentation beer and wine (in which you culture naturally occurring yeast and acid-producing bacteria in wort or fruit juice).

https://www.kingarthurflour.co...dough-starter-recipe

http://www.milkthefunk.com/wik...taneous_Fermentation

Now, microorganisms come in two categories, those that need oxygen (aerobic) and those that don't (anaerobic). Mold and many potentially harmful bacteria are aerobic.

By keeping the food you are fermenting under water, you greatly reduce the presence of oxygen, making it so that aerobic microorganisms can't grow. This is why, in normal fermentation containers, it is very important that all the food be kept completely submerged in the brine - anything that sticks out can and will spoil. It's also why a lot of people use fermentation containers with airlocks like those in tatortodd's link. The small amount of oxygen in the container quickly gets used up and then the airlock keeps any more oxygen from entering the container. This makes it not quite as critical that everything stay completely submerged in the brine.

So, now only anaerobic microorganisms can grow.

The salt in the brine keeps many anaerobic microorganisms from being able to grow. This includes, for example, yeast, which is why vegetables fermented in brine turn acidic rather than alcoholic. It also includes a lot of potentially harmful bacteria.

One type of anaerobic bacteria that is perfectly happy in a salty, anaerobic environment is a group called Lactobacillales. These are bacteria that consume carbohydrates and produce lactic acid. They feed on the carbohydrates in the vegetables and produce the lactic acid that acidifies the brine and vegetables.

There are some other, potentially harmful bacteria that can grow in a salty, anaerobic environment, but they grow slowly, and the Lactobacillales grow quickly, so before those bad bacteria can really get going, the environment becomes a salty, ACIDIC, anaerobic environment, which they can't grow in.

So then you have an environment in which only the Lactobacillales can grow.

How good a job do Lactobacillales do of producing an environment in which nothing else can grow? A really, really, good one. If you look through the USDA link I posted earlier, you'll find this snippet:

quote:

A combination of several factors, including organic acids from the fermentation (up to 2 to 3% organic acids may be produced), complete fermentation of available sugar, terminal pH values around 3 to 3.5, and salt, can serve to destroy most vegetative bacterial cells, including human pathogens. Desirable textural and nutritional properties of the fermented vegetables may be maintained during storage in the fermentation brine for extended periods of time (a year or more) without refrigeration.

So, to answer your overall question, you're eating some Lactobacillales every time you eat anything uncooked, but fermented foods have vastly, tremendously more of them.

As far as the "probiotic health benefits" of eating Lactobacillales... no idea. I just like eating pickled stuff.

quote:

Originally posted by ridewv:
I would assume heating up on a stove before eating would kill the beneficial bacteria, so don't heat it right?

Good point, and it looks as though you’re right:

“…Live probiotic cultures are destroyed at around 115°F, meaning that fermented foods like miso, kimchi, and sauerkraut should be used at the end of cooking if you want to preserve their gut health benefits…”

https://www.google.com/amp/s/a...cook-probiotic-foods

How much sauerkraut a day? I didn't see that in the article. A couple of spoonfuls?

I would much rather have sauerkraut as a “gut cleanser” than using the re-surfaced version of turpentine. What’s next, “Tide pods”?

https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2...entine-health-craze/

I remember in Munich they had these out door markets. The sauerkraut vendors had wooden barrels of product. They put the sauerkraut in the paper cones that street vendors use. It was a bit crunchy, tangy and delicious. Almost a treat. That was before probiotics.

quote:

Originally posted by 280nosler:
My only question that nobody seems to be able to answer about the probiotic benefits is where do these organisms come from, how is the cabbage acidified by adding salt, and how are they not made available if you eat raw cabbage?

Probably the same place as paramecium come from when you soak straw in water for a week or so (my favorite microscope activity as a kid)...it's like they are already there awaiting "activation"

My Fido jar came today and I will start my sauerkraut "experiment" tomorrow...my brother has been using the crock/pounding method...so I will compare the linked recipe to his crock method ...

SIGForum rocks!

Crate and Barrel has the 2 liter Fido jars for about $7 with free in store pickup and there is a link for a 10% off coupon for first time orders on their website.

quote:

Originally posted by Bisleyblackhawk:
...
My Fido jar came today and I will start my sauerkraut "experiment" tomorrow...

I ordered a pair of the 2L size, and they are due to be delivered today.

I'll be starting mine this weekend. Going to do one just straight-up, and the other with some caraway seed added.

quote:

Originally posted by Bob at the Beach:
I remember in Munich they had these out door markets. The sauerkraut vendors had wooden barrels of product. They put the sauerkraut in the paper cones that street vendors use. It was a bit crunchy, tangy and delicious. Almost a treat. That was before probiotics.

Germany has been making sauerkraut in wooden barrels for 1,000 years or longer.

I learned to make Bavarian-style sauerkraut there as a young US Army cook working as an apprentice in a special exchange program in a local Gasthaus

They would rinse the fresh sauerkraut in cold water very well, then let it drain thoroughly. In a large pan, they would fry up chopped bacon, then add chopped onion and apple, cook that down. Add the kraut, some Riesling, some sugar and caraway seed. Cook it down until tender. It was DELICIOUS and not at all "sour" which is what turns a lot of people off to sauerkraut.