This paragraph should be hidden.
Add some zest to your favourite BBQ meal with this homemade sauerkraut.
8 STEPS
WHAT YOU'LL NEED
Discard outer leaves from cabbage. Rinse under cold running water and drain. Quarter cabbage and remove cores. Shred or slice cabbage, removing any large pieces. You should have about 9 kg of cabbage.
Next, add 2kg of shredded cabbage to a clean crock. Your crock may be made of stone, glass, food grade plastic or stainless steel. Mix with 3 Ttbsp pickling salt and let sit 15 minutes for juices to flow. Press firmly on cabbage to squeeze out juices. Repeat with another 2 kg until all cabbage and salt are in crock, ensuring that the cabbage is at least 10 cm below the rim of the crock.
Following, insert a clean dinner or glass pie plate on top of the cabbage inside the crock. The plate must be slightly smaller than the crock opening, yet large enough to cover most of the shredded cabbage. To keep the plate under the brine, weigh it down with 2 or 3 clean mason jars filled with water and covered with lids. Cover the container with a clean, heavy bath towel to keep out airborne particles.
Store for 3 to 4 weeks at 21 to 24ºC, checking 2 to 3 times per week to remove any scum that forms. Fermentation is complete when bubbling ceases.
When sauerkraut has fully fermented, store tightly covered in the refrigerator for several months or process as follows to preserve in jars.
Place nine clean 1-litre mason jars on the rack in a boiling water canner. Cover the jars with water and heat to a simmer. Heat sealing discs in hot, not boiling, water. Keep jars and sealing discs hot until ready to use.
Pack sauerkraut into a hot jar, leaving 1 cm of headspace at the top. Using a spatula, remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if required, by adding more sauerkraut. Wipe the jar rim clean to remove any food residue. Place lids and bands on jars and screw tight until resistance is met. Do not over tighten. Return the filled jar to the rack in canner and repeat for remaining jars.
Cover the jars with water. Cover canner and bring water to full rolling boil before starting to count processing time. Boil filled jars for 15-25 minutes.
Remove canner lid, wait 5 minutes, then remove jars without tilting and place them on a protected work surface. Cool undisturbed for 24 hours. Do not retighten screw bands.
After cooling check jar seals by pressing the top of each seal. If they do not bounce back it means the seals have taken. Remove screw bands and wipe and dry bands and jars. Store screw bands separately or replace loosely on jars. Label and store jars in a cool, dark place. For best quality, use within 6 months.

When you visit any website, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to. The information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.
Canadian Tire Privacy Charter
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies, the aggregated data will not include your visit.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then some or all of these services may not function properly.