How to Kraut

File this one under ‘old world magic.’
Sauerkraut is nothing short of vegetable wonder tonic. But unlike kombucha, 100-year-old sourdough start, or psychotropic mushrooms, sauerkraut takes just a couple minutes to make and costs literally less than dirt. We never knew, until we jammed a couple batches for the Hot Knives Oktoberfest freak-out. Our healthy, handmade bacteria-slaw elevated the beer brats from simple to ridiculously rich and salty.
It seems silly now, but we sought out advice for how to kraut. And we came upon our fermentation yogi, whose book we looked to for pickling. His granola-hippy-brain-dead cooking videos aside, Sandor Katz is a kraut-master. He even credits the stuff with helping keep him healthy despite HIV/AIDS. Still doubt its power?
Let’s start with the basics: cabbage, salt and time. Crunch the cabbage in your hand with some salt and you immediately have a brine. Poof. We went from there to adding a couple choice ingredients – beet and garlic with caraway seeds seems to have won the ‘which gallon of kraut will get eaten first’ contest. But decide for yourself. Or make something new.

2 cabbages
6 Tbs. Kosher salt
4-liter vessel (ceramic crock, food grade plastic)
1. Shred the cabbage: We urge a chef’s knife and a mandolin of some sort (you will end up with a rougher-cut kraut without a mandolin). Start by quartering the cabbage (rounded dome facing up), and cutting out the stem. Shred each cabbage quarter on the mandolin, gripping the outer folds of the cabbage, slicing inner layers first. You may not get all the way down to the interior levels on the mandolin – so fold what’s left of each quarter and thinly slice the cabbage with your knife. Place shredded cabbage in a large mixing bowl.
2. Peel, grate, press and/or slice the other vegetables and set aside in a separate bowl. For instance, peel and grate the raw beet, or slice red peppers, peel and press the garlic etc.
3. Now the fun part: Combine the ingredients into a new, large mixing bowl and mix (we suggest starting with half the cabbage, half the other veggies and working in 2 batches). Once veggies are equally distributed in the bowl, add a generous 2 Tbs. of salt and start squeezing cabbage with your hands. Mix and squeeze until the batch has significantly shrunk. As you squeeze hard, much of the water from the cabbage should be released.
4. Pack the well-squeezed cabbage mixture into your vessel, pressing down hard so that the brine you’ve created just about covers the cabbage.
5. Repeat as needed to finish the batch.
6. Use a plate or other weighted object (a plastic bag filled with more brine works) to keep the cabbage below the liquid’s surface.
7. Store in a warm nook, out of direct light, for 1-2 weeks. Taste it everyday.

Borscht Blast
(Right)
2 purple cabbages
1 beet
6 cloves garlic
6 Tbs. Kosher salt
2 Tbs. caraway seeds
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/8 cup red wine
Sweet Dill
(Left)
2 green cabbages
2 carrots
1 red bell pepper
6 Tbs. Kosher salt
2 Tbs. dill seed
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/8 cup whole grain mustard
Beverage: The Bruery’s Hottenroth Berliner weisee
Soundtrack: Low’s “Time is the Diamond”