Let The Kraut Making Begin!!

Today was a historic day in the history of The Compound:  it was the day that we made sauerkraut.  Lots of sauerkraut.

We started out using six heads of very tender, young cabbage that the 'Rents carefully and lovingly grew out in Farmtown.  We shredded it all using a very sharp mandolin slicer that our dear friend Krazy K let us borrow.  It was a simple, but lengthy process.  For each head of cabbage, you used one tablespoon of sea salt.  We did it in batches to cut down on waiting time.  When one head was shredded, I would mix and knead it by hand, letting the salt do its thing to draw out the water and make a brine.  Once we it was kneaded enough, it was transfered over to the old school crock that belonged to Gram, and it was smashed and tampped down.  When the next batch was ready, we did the same thing until all six heads were in the crock.  After a few more minutes of tampping it down, we put a wooden disk on it, and put a heavy cast iron bacon press on top to weight it down.  And now, we wait 30 days for the fermentation.  I would have posted some pictures now, but they wouldn't be very exciting to see.  We'll wait till the kraut is ready to be put into jars and then I'll show you the finished product.

As always, I'll keep you posted.