Sauerkraut

About three weeks ago I started some sauerkraut. I don't have a crock so I used a clean food grade 5 gallon bucket.

First I sliced thin about 20 lbs. of cabbage. I then mixed in about a cup of kosher salt. I let that set for a few hours. I then decided it needed some water so the cabbage would be under water so I added water until the cabbage was submerged.

Then I set a plate on top of the cabbage and weighted the plate down with two clean jars of water.

I put a towel over the whole thing and carefully slid it under one of the bunks. Every once in a while I would check it and wash the plate and jars. Finally I left it alone for about two weeks.
Today I checked it and there was some scum on top so I removed the jars and plate and scooped the scum off the top of the kraut. Underneath that was the best sauerkraut ever. Jeff scooped some kraut up into a bowl and I made Reuben sandwiches for lunch.

That was the best sauerkraut we have ever had. Course we have only had store bought. Never again. I will can it up this week or next week when I have time.

The beauty of it is it can wait until I have time to can it. And I can steam can it and not have to pressure can it.

I am going to can it in pint jars because while we like sauerkraut we don't want to eat it all the time. Pints 10 min. Quarts 15 min.

Depending on how many jars I get I may start another batch of kraut. It was almost free because about half of the cabbage came from a friend who got way too much from the food bank and didn't want to waste it.

I learned how to make sauerkraut from this blog: http://canninggranny.blogspot.com/2011/10/making-and-canning-sauerkraut.html