Recipes and tips for making
sauerkraut, kimchi, and pickles
Thank you for purchasing the Pickle, Sauerkraut, and KimChi Maker or Harsch crock!
This web page has resources and recipes to help you make a successful batch.
For your first time making kraut, follow the recipes on the instructions:
http://www.TheRawDiet.com/pdf/KrautInstructions.pdf
After you learn how to use it, you may then experiment with different recipes and
ingredients.
It is important to properly mix the salt into the grated cabbage. This video
demonstrates how to salt the cabbage:
Sandor Katz video about making sauerkraut:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i77hU3zR-fQ
These are some ingredients I used for my last few batches of kraut:
1) Cabbage, celery, wakame, hijiki, dulse, small piece of horseradish, ginger, Celtic
sea salt.
2) Cabbage, bok choy, celery, daikon radish, horseradish, ginger, Himalayan salt, hot
pepper
3) Cabbage, bok choy, celery, daikon, horseradish, galangal root, ginger, turmeric,
hot pepper, Utah Real Salt
4) Cabbage, celery, horseradish, ginger, dill, Celtic sea salt
I also use carrots, beets, burdock root, and other hard vegetables. You can slice the
vegetables with a knife, or grate them up in a food processor with the grating blade,
or use the Roma Wooden Box Cabbage Slicer. The Wooden cabbage slicer is wide
enough to fit a cabbage, and it has three blades so that every time you slide the
cabbage, it makes three cuts.
There are many good spices and herbs you can add to pickles and sauerkraut. The
company Frontier has some good pickling spices and spice blends ranging from Mild,
sweet, to spicy. You simply add the spices into your batch of pickles or sauerkraut:
Click Here for Frontier Pickling Spices
More info on pickling on the Frontier website
I always add a Starter Culture to my sauerkraut and kimchi. The starter culture is the
good bacteria, also called flora or probiotics. These are what culture the vegetables
into sauerkraut and kimchi. There are naturally occuring probiotics on the cabbage
although I am not sure which ones they are.
I use the E3Live Probiotics and I mix in two tablets into one gallon of sauerkraut. I
mix the probiotics, cabbage, and salt together and then pack them into the crock or
jar.
Your local health food store should have a good selection of probiotic powders. Some
good brands include Jarrow, Garden of Life Primal Defense, and Udo's Choice.
About a half teaspoon of powder or two capsules will be enough for one gallon. I also
use Miso as a starter culture, which can be found at your health food store.
Some people use whey, or you can mix in a big spoonful of sauerkraut into your new
batch. Your health food store should have some unpasterized sauerkraut, such as
the Bubbies brand, or Rejuvenative Foods, and you can mix some of this sauerkraut
into your new batch.
This is a good article discussing the probiotic starter culture:
Sauerkraut and KimChi Recipe by Viktoras Kulvinskas. Viktoras also gives a recipe for
"No Salt" sauerkraut, and has tips for making sauerkraut in 24 hours!
There are some recipes in the book "Wild Fermentation" by Sandor Katz
It's important to use high quality salt. Common table salt is toxic to the body and
cannot be utilized. High quality unprocessed salt contains over 70 ionic minerals in a
form that our body can absorb.
There are three brands of salt that I recommend: Himalayan Salt, Celtic Sea Salt, and
Real Salt from Utah.
This is a neat article discussing the differences between table salt and Celtic sea salt:
http://curezone.com/foods/saltcure.asp
Here are a couple neat articles by Dr. Andrew Weil:
Savoring Sauerkraut by Dr. Weil
Sold on Sauerkraut by Dr. Weil
Dr. Andrew Weil writes "The salt draws water from the cabbage. Because Dr. Weil
uses only garden-fresh cabbage, a brine usually forms in a few hours. But if, after 24
hours, enough brine has not formed to cover the cabbage, which can happen with
older, drier vegetables, "you can just add salted water," at a concentration of roughly
one teaspoon of salt per cup."
The brine will bubble out of the glass jar through the lid and airlock. Keep the jar on
a plate or bowl to capture the liquid brine. If too much brine bubbles out, you may
need to add extra salted water.
The temperature of the room is not that important. If it is cold in the room, it will
take longer to ferment. It depends on the recipe you are following but in cold
weather it may take 7 to 10 days to finish in the jar. It may take 4 weeks or more in
the Harsch.
If probiotics are added, it will take less time to finish fermenting.
If it is warm in the room, above 80 degrees Farenheit, and probiotics are added, then
it may only take 24 hours to 3 days to finish fermenting.
Question: How do I know if the sauerkraut / kimchi turned out correctly?
If the batch went bad, you will be able to tell by the texture, smell, and taste. If the
food has gone rotten, it will smell bad, it will feel slimey and soft, it will taste bad, and
it will not look good.
Correctly made sauerkraut will taste good and be slightly crunchy. To taste what real
unpasteurized sauerkraut tastes like, try the brands Bubbies or Rejuvenative Foods,
which are available in the refrigerated section of most health food stores. If you live
in Portland, Oregon, try the brand called
It's Alive Sauerkraut. http://www.itsalivefood.com/
For questions call Mike Snyder at 503-771-3904. I am located in Portland, Oregon in
the Pacific time zone. Call anytime between 8:00am and 9:00pm.
Best Regards,
Mike Snyder
Contact info:
Phone: 503-771-3904
email: mike (at) therawdiet.com
Address:
5803 SE 83rd Ave.
Portland, Oregon 97266
Recipes:
Real Pickles recipe
from Wild Fermentation
http://www.chelseagreen.com/2004/items/wildfermentation/Excerpt
KimChi recipe:
Ultimate Kimchi http://www.treelight.com/health/nutrition/UltimateKimchi.html
Note about the Brine
Quote from Wild Fermentation:
http://www.wildfermentation.com/resources.php?page=vegetables
""...The simple key to successful vegetable fermentation is to make sure your
vegetables are submerged in liquid. That’s it, the big secret.
Usually the liquid is salty water, also known as brine, but fermentation can be done
without salt, or with other liquids, such as wine or whey.
Typically, when fresh vegetables are chopped or grated in preparation for
fermentation—which creates greater surface area—salting pulls out the vegetable
juices via osmosis, and pounding or tamping the vegetables breaks down cell walls to
further release juices, so no additional water is required. However, if the vegetables
have lost moisture during long storage, occasionally some water is needed; if brine
hasn't risen to submerge the weighted vegetables by the following day, add a little
water."
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Hot and Spicy Kim Chee
From 'Rainbow Green Live Food Cuisine'
by Gabriel Cousens
4 Cups green cabbage, shredded (save 3-4 outer leaves)
2 Cups Napa cabbage, shredded
2 Cups carrots, grated
1 Cup Daikon radishes, grated
Mix vegetables in a large bowl
4 jalapeno chilies
2 Tablespoons ginger, grated
1 Tablespoon Miso, any type (I prefer the brand South River Miso) www.
southrivermiso.com or use a teaspoon of probiotics, or use a previous batch of
sauerkraut as a starter
Blend Chilies, ginger, and miso with 2 Cups water and stir into mixed vegetables.
Spoon mixture into crock or gallon glass container. Pound mixture to release juices
and remove all the air.
Top off (to cover cabbage) with a little water if mixture is dry. Cover with outer
cabbage leaves to create a tight seal with edge of container. Set a plate on top of
cabbage leaves and weight down with suitable-sized rocks (or other object). (The
small lid in the Kraut jar takes the place of the heavy weight).
Leave Kim Chee in warm (60 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit) place for 5 days. Do not
uncover during this period.
After 5 days, remove covering, scraping away top layer of vegetables (do not be
concerned if you see mold; remove top layer and the rest is good to eat).
Kim Chee will become acidic as it ferments, but it takes on a sweeter smell and flavor
when it is ready to eat. If you have never tasted Kim Chee, Rejuvenative Foods sells
a raw version that you might want to try to help you determine when your own batch
is done.
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Pickled Vegetables
From Rainbow Green Live Food Cuisine
by Dr. Gabriel Cousens
4 Carrots, cut into rounds
4 whole dried chilies
2 zucchini, cut into rounds
2 Cucumbers, finely chopped
2 red bell peppers, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic
3 sprigs fresh oregano
2 Tablespoons coriander seeds
2 Tablespoons cumin
2 Tablespoons fresh ground black pepper
1 1/2 Tablespoons Celtic Sea Salt
Raw apple cider vinegar
Add all dry spices to a gallon jar and place vegetables on top. Fill the jar two thirds
full of apple cider vinegar (I like the Braggs brand).
Fill the last third with water and close the jar; shake well. Keep in the refrigerator,
shaking every day for at least 1 week before eating.
~*~*~*~*~*~*
~*~*~*~*~*~*
quote from "The Lovers Diet" by Victoras
Kulvinskas, page 163 .
Acidophilus, Bifidus, and Probiotics: Internal Enzyme Factories
Over 25 years ago at the Hippocrates Health Institute I pioneered the fermentation
process. I not only based it on totally non-animal milks but also found ways to
accelerate the fermentation.
In the past, to get successful results, one had to add salt and ferment the cabbage
for weeks. With my system, the kraut are ready in 2 to 3 days, and salt is
unnecessary.
By starting a batch of the following recipes with 1 teaspoon of pro-biotics (friendly
bacteria), you will be giving your intestinal bacteria a major boost. In a matter of 1
hour, 1 bacteria becomes two, within another hour it becomes 4.
If this is allowed to keep on for 8 hours, the total bacteria count in a preparation
increases by 256 times.
Remember though, that the fermentation process produces a high lactic acid
content, so you do not want to over-use fermented foods in your meal plan.
Experiment with a few tablespoons or more; find out what works.
Because of the acid component, the ferments are NEVER to be combined in the same
meal with starchy foods such as bread, rice, and other grains, root vegetables, ect.
Although sunflower seeds (which I find the most delicious of the lot) are most often
used for cheese or yogurt, you could just as well use almonds or a mix of sesame
with sunflower (comes out quite sharp), pumpkin, cashew, tofu, ect.”
~*~*~*~*~*
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Live Sauerkraut Recipe
by Elaina Love
5 cabbage (red or green)
(You may also substitute some of the cabbage for other vegetables such as carrot,
daikon radish, beets, sea vegetables, bok choy, turnips, a small piece of horseradish
or ginger, or other hard root vegetables.)
1 to 3 tablespoons Himalayan Crystal Salt or Celtic Sea Salt
1/2 cup lemon juice
4 Tbs. dried dill or
1/2 cup fresh dill chopped
2 Tbs. caraway seeds
4 to 8 cloves garlic, crushed
Equipment required:
- Harsch Kraut pickling crock pot with weighting stone,
0r
- 1 gallon glass sauerkraut kimchi jar.
- Also helpful is either a food processor or wooden box mandoline slicer from
Germany for slicing cabbage.
1. Slice the cabbage using the 1mm setting on a mandolin or food processor, or cut
paper thin with a knife. Discard the outer leaves.
2. Mix all the ingredients together and massage it with your hands. Continue to work
the cabbage until the liquid starts to release. You may need to let your hands rest,
so leave the cabbage sitting and come back to it every 1/2 hour until when you press
on the cabbage, liquid rises to the top. [If you have a Harsch Kraut pickling crock
pot with weighting stone, you just have to mix thoroughly, and the stone will do the
rest.]
3. Place the kraut in a 1 gallon glass sauerkraut kimchi jar.
Press the cabbage down until the liquid rises above it about 1/8 inch. The juice may
sink back down a little and that is okay.
4. Place a lid on the jar and let sit for 1-4 days, depending on desired sourness.
5. Once the sauerkraut is ready, place it in the refrigerator.
Sauerkraut will keep for up to 8 months in the refrigerator.
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~*~*~*~*~*~~*
Making Sauerkraut is Easy!
How to make raw cultured sauerkraut, recipe by Sandor Ellix Katz, the author of Wild
Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods (Chelsea Green,
2003) has earned the nickname "Sandorkraut" for his love of sauerkraut. This is
Sandorkaut's easy sauerkraut recipe, one of more than 90 ferments included in his
book.
Timeframe: 1-4 weeks (or more)
Special Equipment:
Harsch Ceramic Fermentation Crock Pot or a Sauerkraut / Pickle / KimChi Maker Jar
Weight or small plate that fits inside crock
Ingredients (for 1 gallon):
5 pounds cabbage
3 tablespoons sea salt
Process:
1. Chop or grate cabbage, finely or coarsely, with or without hearts, however you like
it. I love to mix green and red cabbage to end up with bright pink kraut. Place
cabbage in a large bowl as you chop it.
2. Sprinkle salt on the cabbage as you go. The salt pulls water out of the cabbage
(through osmosis), and this creates the brine in which the cabbage can ferment and
sour without rotting. The salt also has the effect of keeping the cabbage crunchy, by
inhibiting organisms and enzymes that soften it. 3 tablespoons of salt is a rough
guideline for 5 pounds of cabbage. I never measure the salt; I just shake some on
after I chop up each cabbage. I use more salt in summer, less in winter.
3. Add other vegetables. Grate carrots for a coleslaw-like kraut. Other vegetables I've
added include onions, garlic, seaweed, greens, Brussels sprouts, small whole heads
of cabbage, turnips, beets, and burdock roots. You can also add fruits (apples, whole
or sliced, are classic), and herbs and spices (caraway seeds, dill seeds, celery seeds,
and juniper berries are classic, but anything you like will work). Experiment.
4. Mix ingredients together and pack into crock. Pack just a bit into the crock at a
time and tamp it down hard using your fists or any (other) sturdy kitchen implement.
The tamping packs the kraut tight in the crock and helps force water out of the
cabbage.
5. Cover kraut with a plate or some other lid that fits snugly inside the crock. Place a
clean weight (a glass jug filled with water) on the cover. This weight is to force water
out of the cabbage and then keep the cabbage submerged under the brine. Cover
the whole thing with a cloth to keep dust and flies out.
6. Press down on the weight to add pressure to the cabbage and help force water
out of it. Continue doing this periodically (as often as you think of it, every few
hours), until the brine rises above the cover. This can take up to about 24 hours, as
the salt draws water out of the cabbage slowly. Some cabbage, particularly if it is old,
simply contains less water. If the brine does not rise above the plate level by the
next day, add enough salt water to bring the brine level above the plate. Add about a
teaspoon of salt to a cup of water and stir until it's completely dissolved.
7. Leave the crock to ferment. I generally store the crock in an unobtrusive corner of
the kitchen where I won't forget about it, but where it won't be in anybody's way.
You could also store it in a cool basement if you want a slower fermentation that will
preserve for longer.
8. Check the kraut every day or two. The volume reduces as the fermentation
proceeds. Sometimes mold appears on the surface. Many books refer to this mold as
'scum', but I prefer to think of it as a bloom. Skim what you can off of the surface; it
will break up and you will probably not be able to remove all of it.
Don't worry about this. It's just a surface phenomenon, a result of contact with the
air.
The kraut itself is under the anaerobic protection of the brine. Rinse off the plate and
the weight. Taste the kraut. Generally it starts to be tangy after a few days, and the
taste gets stronger as time passes.
In the cool temperatures of a cellar in winter, kraut can keep improving for months
and months. In the summer or in a heated room, its life cycle is more rapid.
Eventually it becomes soft and the flavor turns less pleasant.
9. Enjoy. I generally scoop out a bowl- or jarful at a time and keep it in the fridge. I
start when the kraut is young and enjoy its evolving flavor over the course of a few
weeks.
Try the sauerkraut juice that will be left in the bowl after the kraut is eaten.
Sauerkraut juice is a rare delicacy and unparalleled digestive tonic.
Each time you scoop some kraut out of the crock, you have to repack it carefully.
Make sure the kraut is packed tight in the crock, the surface is level, and the cover
and weight are clean. Sometimes brine evaporates, so if the kraut is not submerged
below brine just add salted water as necessary.
Some people preserve kraut by canning and heat-processing it. This can be done;
but so much of the power of sauerkraut is its aliveness that I wonder: Why kill it?
10. Develop a rhythm. I try to start a new batch before the previous batch runs out.
I remove the remaining kraut from the crock, repack it with fresh salted cabbage,
then pour the old kraut and its juices over the new kraut. This gives the new batch a
boost with an active culture starter.
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Fermented Dill Pickles (by the gallon)
Use the following quantities for each gallon capacity of your container.
4 pounds of 4-inch pickling cucumbers ( enough to fill jar to top )
2 Tablespoons dill seed, or 4 to 5 heads fresh or dry dill weed **
2 dried red peppers (optional)**
2 teaspoons whole mixed pickling spices (optional)**
3-6 Tablespoons salt (3 T to every 2 cups water)
1/4 cup raw apple cider vinegar (5 percent)
8 cups water and one or more of the following ingredients:
2 cloves garlic (optional, but yummy)
**You can also substitute the 5/8 oz packaged pickling spices that contains pepper
and bay leaves for the dill, peppers and pickling spice (usually found in the Mexican
spice section- it’s much less expensive too!) Divided in half per instructions below.
Wash cucumbers. Remove blossom end and discard, leaving 1/4 inch of stem
attached if you can.
Place half the dill and spices on bottom of a clean, suitable container. Add cucumbers,
remaining dill, and spices.
Dissolve salt in vinegar and water and pour over cucumbers. Add suitable cover and
weight.
Ferment pickles for 4 full days in Pickle Maker.
Fermented pickles may be stored for about 4 to 6 months or longer in the
refrigerator.
Real Pickles Recipe from Wild
Fermentation
Excerpt from Chapter 5: Vegetable Ferments, page 50–52
Sour Pickles
Growing up in New York City, experiencing my Jewish heritage largely through food, I
developed a taste for sour pickles. Most of what is sold in stores as pickles,and even
what home canners pickle, are preserved in vinegar. My idea of a pickle is one
fermented in a brine solution.
Pickle-making requires close attention. My first attempt at brine pickle making
resulted in soft, unappealing pickles that fell apart, because I abandoned it for a few
days, and perhaps because the brine was not salty enough, and because of the heat
of the Tennessee summer. And and and. "Our perfection lies in our imperfection."
There are, inevitably, fermentation failures. We are dealing with fickle life forces, after
all.
I persevered though, compelled by a craving deep inside of me for the yummy garlic-
dill sour pickles of Guss's pickle stall on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and
Zabar's on the Upper West Side and Bubbie's in upscale health food stores
elsewhere. As it turns out, brine pickles are easy. You just need to give them regular
attention in the summer heat, when cucumbers are most abundant.
One quality prized in a good pickle is crunchiness. Fresh tannin-rich grape leaves
placed in the crock are effective at keeping pickles crunchy. I recommend using them
if you have access to grape vines. I've also seen references in various brine pickle
recipes to using sour cherry leaves, oak leaves, and horseradish leaves to keep
pickles crunchy.
The biggest variables in pickle-making are brine strength, temperature, and cucumber
size. I prefer pickles from small and medium cucumbers; pickles from really big ones
can be tough and sometimes hollow in the middle. I don't worry about uniformity of
size; I just eat the smaller ones first, figuring the larger ones will take longer to
ferment.
The strength of brine varies widely in different traditions and recipe books. Brine
strength is most often expressed as weight of salt as a percentage of weight of
solution, though sometimes as weight of salt as a percentage of volume of solution.
Since in most home kitchens we are generally dealing with volumes rather than
weights, the following guideline can help readers gauge brine strength: Added to 1
quart of water, each tablespoon of sea salt (weighing about .6 ounce) adds 1.8%
brine. So 2 tablespoons of salt in 1 quart of water yields a 3.6% brine, 3 tablespoons
yields 5.4%, and so on. In the metric system, each 15 milliliters of salt (weighing 17
grams) added to 1 liter of water yields 1.8% brine.
Some old-time recipes call for brines with enough salt to float an egg. This translates
to about a 10% salt solution. This is enough salt to preserve pickles for quite some
time, but they are too salty to consume without a long desalinating soak in fresh
water first. Low-salt pickles, around 3.5% brine, are "half-sours" in delicatessen
lingo. This recipe is for sour, fairly salty pickles, using around 5.4% brine. Experiment
with brine strength. A general rule of thumb to consider in salting your ferments:
more salt to slow microorganism action in summer heat; less salt in winter when
microbial action slows.
TIMEFRAME: 1 to 4 weeks
SPECIAL EQUIPMENT:
Harsch crock, Glass Sauerkraut Maker, or food-grade plastic bucket
Plate that fits inside crock, lid that fits in the jar, or a bucket
1-gallon/4-liter jug filled with water, or other weight
Cloth cover
INGREDIENTS (for 1 gallon/4 liters):
3 to 4 pounds/1.5 to 2 kilograms unwaxed cucumbers (small to medium size)
3_8 cup (6 tablespoons)/90 milliliters sea salt
3 to 4 heads fresh flowering dill, or 3 to 4 tablespoons/45 to 60 milliliters
of any form of dill (fresh or dried leaf or seeds)
2 to 3 heads garlic, peeled
1 handful fresh grape, cherry, oak, and/or horseradish leaves (if available)
1 pinch black peppercorns
PROCESS:
1. Rinse cucumbers, taking care to not bruise them, and making sure their blossoms
are removed. Scrape off any remains at the blossom end. If you're using cucumbers
that aren't fresh off the vine that day, soak them for a couple of hours in very cold
water to freshen them.
2. Dissolve sea salt in 1/2 gallon (2 liters) of water to create brine solution. Stir until
salt is thoroughly dissolved.
3. Clean the crock, then place at the bottom of it dill, garlic, fresh grape leaves, and a
pinch of black peppercorns.
4. Place cucumbers in the crock.
5. Pour brine over the cucumbers, place the (clean) plate over them, then weigh it
down with a jug filled with water or a boiled rock. If the brine doesn't cover the
weighed-down plate, add more brine mixed at the same ratio of just under 1
tablespoon of salt to each cup of water.
6. Cover the crock with a cloth to keep out dust and flies and store it in a cool place.
7. Check the crock every day. Skim any mold from the surface, but don't worry if you
can't get it all. If there's mold, be sure to rinse the plate and
weight. Taste the pickles after a few days.
8. Enjoy the pickles as they continue to ferment. Continue to check the crock every
day.
9. Eventually, after one to four weeks (depending on the temperature), the pickles
will be fully sour. Continue to enjoy them, moving them to the fridge to slow down
fermentation.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Enjoy your sauerkraut, kimchee, and pickles! Feel free to call me with any questions
or comments at 503-771-3904. Business hours are 8:00am to 8:00pm Pacific, seven
days a week.
Best Regards,
Mike Snyder
Visit The Raw Diet www.TheRawDiet.com Free Report on how the Living Foods
lifestyle will improve your vitality, give you more energy, and help you reach your
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sauerkraut, kimchi, and pickles
Thank you for purchasing the Pickle, Sauerkraut, and KimChi Maker or Harsch crock!
This web page has resources and recipes to help you make a successful batch.
For your first time making kraut, follow the recipes on the instructions:
http://www.TheRawDiet.com/pdf/KrautInstructions.pdf
After you learn how to use it, you may then experiment with different recipes and
ingredients.
It is important to properly mix the salt into the grated cabbage. This video
demonstrates how to salt the cabbage:
Sandor Katz video about making sauerkraut:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i77hU3zR-fQ
These are some ingredients I used for my last few batches of kraut:
1) Cabbage, celery, wakame, hijiki, dulse, small piece of horseradish, ginger, Celtic
sea salt.
2) Cabbage, bok choy, celery, daikon radish, horseradish, ginger, Himalayan salt, hot
pepper
3) Cabbage, bok choy, celery, daikon, horseradish, galangal root, ginger, turmeric,
hot pepper, Utah Real Salt
4) Cabbage, celery, horseradish, ginger, dill, Celtic sea salt
I also use carrots, beets, burdock root, and other hard vegetables. You can slice the
vegetables with a knife, or grate them up in a food processor with the grating blade,
or use the Roma Wooden Box Cabbage Slicer. The Wooden cabbage slicer is wide
enough to fit a cabbage, and it has three blades so that every time you slide the
cabbage, it makes three cuts.
There are many good spices and herbs you can add to pickles and sauerkraut. The
company Frontier has some good pickling spices and spice blends ranging from Mild,
sweet, to spicy. You simply add the spices into your batch of pickles or sauerkraut:
Click Here for Frontier Pickling Spices
More info on pickling on the Frontier website
I always add a Starter Culture to my sauerkraut and kimchi. The starter culture is the
good bacteria, also called flora or probiotics. These are what culture the vegetables
into sauerkraut and kimchi. There are naturally occuring probiotics on the cabbage
although I am not sure which ones they are.
I use the E3Live Probiotics and I mix in two tablets into one gallon of sauerkraut. I
mix the probiotics, cabbage, and salt together and then pack them into the crock or
jar.
Your local health food store should have a good selection of probiotic powders. Some
good brands include Jarrow, Garden of Life Primal Defense, and Udo's Choice.
About a half teaspoon of powder or two capsules will be enough for one gallon. I also
use Miso as a starter culture, which can be found at your health food store.
Some people use whey, or you can mix in a big spoonful of sauerkraut into your new
batch. Your health food store should have some unpasterized sauerkraut, such as
the Bubbies brand, or Rejuvenative Foods, and you can mix some of this sauerkraut
into your new batch.
This is a good article discussing the probiotic starter culture:
Sauerkraut and KimChi Recipe by Viktoras Kulvinskas. Viktoras also gives a recipe for
"No Salt" sauerkraut, and has tips for making sauerkraut in 24 hours!
There are some recipes in the book "Wild Fermentation" by Sandor Katz
It's important to use high quality salt. Common table salt is toxic to the body and
cannot be utilized. High quality unprocessed salt contains over 70 ionic minerals in a
form that our body can absorb.
There are three brands of salt that I recommend: Himalayan Salt, Celtic Sea Salt, and
Real Salt from Utah.
This is a neat article discussing the differences between table salt and Celtic sea salt:
http://curezone.com/foods/saltcure.asp
Here are a couple neat articles by Dr. Andrew Weil:
Savoring Sauerkraut by Dr. Weil
Sold on Sauerkraut by Dr. Weil
Dr. Andrew Weil writes "The salt draws water from the cabbage. Because Dr. Weil
uses only garden-fresh cabbage, a brine usually forms in a few hours. But if, after 24
hours, enough brine has not formed to cover the cabbage, which can happen with
older, drier vegetables, "you can just add salted water," at a concentration of roughly
one teaspoon of salt per cup."
The brine will bubble out of the glass jar through the lid and airlock. Keep the jar on
a plate or bowl to capture the liquid brine. If too much brine bubbles out, you may
need to add extra salted water.
The temperature of the room is not that important. If it is cold in the room, it will
take longer to ferment. It depends on the recipe you are following but in cold
weather it may take 7 to 10 days to finish in the jar. It may take 4 weeks or more in
the Harsch.
If probiotics are added, it will take less time to finish fermenting.
If it is warm in the room, above 80 degrees Farenheit, and probiotics are added, then
it may only take 24 hours to 3 days to finish fermenting.
Question: How do I know if the sauerkraut / kimchi turned out correctly?
If the batch went bad, you will be able to tell by the texture, smell, and taste. If the
food has gone rotten, it will smell bad, it will feel slimey and soft, it will taste bad, and
it will not look good.
Correctly made sauerkraut will taste good and be slightly crunchy. To taste what real
unpasteurized sauerkraut tastes like, try the brands Bubbies or Rejuvenative Foods,
which are available in the refrigerated section of most health food stores. If you live
in Portland, Oregon, try the brand called
It's Alive Sauerkraut. http://www.itsalivefood.com/
For questions call Mike Snyder at 503-771-3904. I am located in Portland, Oregon in
the Pacific time zone. Call anytime between 8:00am and 9:00pm.
Best Regards,
Mike Snyder
Contact info:
Phone: 503-771-3904
email: mike (at) therawdiet.com
Address:
5803 SE 83rd Ave.
Portland, Oregon 97266
Recipes:
Real Pickles recipe
from Wild Fermentation
http://www.chelseagreen.com/2004/items/wildfermentation/Excerpt
KimChi recipe:
Ultimate Kimchi http://www.treelight.com/health/nutrition/UltimateKimchi.html
Note about the Brine
Quote from Wild Fermentation:
http://www.wildfermentation.com/resources.php?page=vegetables
""...The simple key to successful vegetable fermentation is to make sure your
vegetables are submerged in liquid. That’s it, the big secret.
Usually the liquid is salty water, also known as brine, but fermentation can be done
without salt, or with other liquids, such as wine or whey.
Typically, when fresh vegetables are chopped or grated in preparation for
fermentation—which creates greater surface area—salting pulls out the vegetable
juices via osmosis, and pounding or tamping the vegetables breaks down cell walls to
further release juices, so no additional water is required. However, if the vegetables
have lost moisture during long storage, occasionally some water is needed; if brine
hasn't risen to submerge the weighted vegetables by the following day, add a little
water."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Hot and Spicy Kim Chee
From 'Rainbow Green Live Food Cuisine'
by Gabriel Cousens
4 Cups green cabbage, shredded (save 3-4 outer leaves)
2 Cups Napa cabbage, shredded
2 Cups carrots, grated
1 Cup Daikon radishes, grated
Mix vegetables in a large bowl
4 jalapeno chilies
2 Tablespoons ginger, grated
1 Tablespoon Miso, any type (I prefer the brand South River Miso) www.
southrivermiso.com or use a teaspoon of probiotics, or use a previous batch of
sauerkraut as a starter
Blend Chilies, ginger, and miso with 2 Cups water and stir into mixed vegetables.
Spoon mixture into crock or gallon glass container. Pound mixture to release juices
and remove all the air.
Top off (to cover cabbage) with a little water if mixture is dry. Cover with outer
cabbage leaves to create a tight seal with edge of container. Set a plate on top of
cabbage leaves and weight down with suitable-sized rocks (or other object). (The
small lid in the Kraut jar takes the place of the heavy weight).
Leave Kim Chee in warm (60 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit) place for 5 days. Do not
uncover during this period.
After 5 days, remove covering, scraping away top layer of vegetables (do not be
concerned if you see mold; remove top layer and the rest is good to eat).
Kim Chee will become acidic as it ferments, but it takes on a sweeter smell and flavor
when it is ready to eat. If you have never tasted Kim Chee, Rejuvenative Foods sells
a raw version that you might want to try to help you determine when your own batch
is done.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
~*~*~*~*~*
~*~*~*~*~*
Pickled Vegetables
From Rainbow Green Live Food Cuisine
by Dr. Gabriel Cousens
4 Carrots, cut into rounds
4 whole dried chilies
2 zucchini, cut into rounds
2 Cucumbers, finely chopped
2 red bell peppers, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic
3 sprigs fresh oregano
2 Tablespoons coriander seeds
2 Tablespoons cumin
2 Tablespoons fresh ground black pepper
1 1/2 Tablespoons Celtic Sea Salt
Raw apple cider vinegar
Add all dry spices to a gallon jar and place vegetables on top. Fill the jar two thirds
full of apple cider vinegar (I like the Braggs brand).
Fill the last third with water and close the jar; shake well. Keep in the refrigerator,
shaking every day for at least 1 week before eating.
~*~*~*~*~*~*
~*~*~*~*~*~*
quote from "The Lovers Diet" by Victoras
Kulvinskas, page 163 .
Acidophilus, Bifidus, and Probiotics: Internal Enzyme Factories
Over 25 years ago at the Hippocrates Health Institute I pioneered the fermentation
process. I not only based it on totally non-animal milks but also found ways to
accelerate the fermentation.
In the past, to get successful results, one had to add salt and ferment the cabbage
for weeks. With my system, the kraut are ready in 2 to 3 days, and salt is
unnecessary.
By starting a batch of the following recipes with 1 teaspoon of pro-biotics (friendly
bacteria), you will be giving your intestinal bacteria a major boost. In a matter of 1
hour, 1 bacteria becomes two, within another hour it becomes 4.
If this is allowed to keep on for 8 hours, the total bacteria count in a preparation
increases by 256 times.
Remember though, that the fermentation process produces a high lactic acid
content, so you do not want to over-use fermented foods in your meal plan.
Experiment with a few tablespoons or more; find out what works.
Because of the acid component, the ferments are NEVER to be combined in the same
meal with starchy foods such as bread, rice, and other grains, root vegetables, ect.
Although sunflower seeds (which I find the most delicious of the lot) are most often
used for cheese or yogurt, you could just as well use almonds or a mix of sesame
with sunflower (comes out quite sharp), pumpkin, cashew, tofu, ect.”
~*~*~*~*~*
~*~*~*~*~*
Live Sauerkraut Recipe
by Elaina Love
5 cabbage (red or green)
(You may also substitute some of the cabbage for other vegetables such as carrot,
daikon radish, beets, sea vegetables, bok choy, turnips, a small piece of horseradish
or ginger, or other hard root vegetables.)
1 to 3 tablespoons Himalayan Crystal Salt or Celtic Sea Salt
1/2 cup lemon juice
4 Tbs. dried dill or
1/2 cup fresh dill chopped
2 Tbs. caraway seeds
4 to 8 cloves garlic, crushed
Equipment required:
- Harsch Kraut pickling crock pot with weighting stone,
0r
- 1 gallon glass sauerkraut kimchi jar.
- Also helpful is either a food processor or wooden box mandoline slicer from
Germany for slicing cabbage.
1. Slice the cabbage using the 1mm setting on a mandolin or food processor, or cut
paper thin with a knife. Discard the outer leaves.
2. Mix all the ingredients together and massage it with your hands. Continue to work
the cabbage until the liquid starts to release. You may need to let your hands rest,
so leave the cabbage sitting and come back to it every 1/2 hour until when you press
on the cabbage, liquid rises to the top. [If you have a Harsch Kraut pickling crock
pot with weighting stone, you just have to mix thoroughly, and the stone will do the
rest.]
3. Place the kraut in a 1 gallon glass sauerkraut kimchi jar.
Press the cabbage down until the liquid rises above it about 1/8 inch. The juice may
sink back down a little and that is okay.
4. Place a lid on the jar and let sit for 1-4 days, depending on desired sourness.
5. Once the sauerkraut is ready, place it in the refrigerator.
Sauerkraut will keep for up to 8 months in the refrigerator.
~*~*~*~*~*~*
~*~*~*~*~*~~*
Making Sauerkraut is Easy!
How to make raw cultured sauerkraut, recipe by Sandor Ellix Katz, the author of Wild
Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods (Chelsea Green,
2003) has earned the nickname "Sandorkraut" for his love of sauerkraut. This is
Sandorkaut's easy sauerkraut recipe, one of more than 90 ferments included in his
book.
Timeframe: 1-4 weeks (or more)
Special Equipment:
Harsch Ceramic Fermentation Crock Pot or a Sauerkraut / Pickle / KimChi Maker Jar
Weight or small plate that fits inside crock
Ingredients (for 1 gallon):
5 pounds cabbage
3 tablespoons sea salt
Process:
1. Chop or grate cabbage, finely or coarsely, with or without hearts, however you like
it. I love to mix green and red cabbage to end up with bright pink kraut. Place
cabbage in a large bowl as you chop it.
2. Sprinkle salt on the cabbage as you go. The salt pulls water out of the cabbage
(through osmosis), and this creates the brine in which the cabbage can ferment and
sour without rotting. The salt also has the effect of keeping the cabbage crunchy, by
inhibiting organisms and enzymes that soften it. 3 tablespoons of salt is a rough
guideline for 5 pounds of cabbage. I never measure the salt; I just shake some on
after I chop up each cabbage. I use more salt in summer, less in winter.
3. Add other vegetables. Grate carrots for a coleslaw-like kraut. Other vegetables I've
added include onions, garlic, seaweed, greens, Brussels sprouts, small whole heads
of cabbage, turnips, beets, and burdock roots. You can also add fruits (apples, whole
or sliced, are classic), and herbs and spices (caraway seeds, dill seeds, celery seeds,
and juniper berries are classic, but anything you like will work). Experiment.
4. Mix ingredients together and pack into crock. Pack just a bit into the crock at a
time and tamp it down hard using your fists or any (other) sturdy kitchen implement.
The tamping packs the kraut tight in the crock and helps force water out of the
cabbage.
5. Cover kraut with a plate or some other lid that fits snugly inside the crock. Place a
clean weight (a glass jug filled with water) on the cover. This weight is to force water
out of the cabbage and then keep the cabbage submerged under the brine. Cover
the whole thing with a cloth to keep dust and flies out.
6. Press down on the weight to add pressure to the cabbage and help force water
out of it. Continue doing this periodically (as often as you think of it, every few
hours), until the brine rises above the cover. This can take up to about 24 hours, as
the salt draws water out of the cabbage slowly. Some cabbage, particularly if it is old,
simply contains less water. If the brine does not rise above the plate level by the
next day, add enough salt water to bring the brine level above the plate. Add about a
teaspoon of salt to a cup of water and stir until it's completely dissolved.
7. Leave the crock to ferment. I generally store the crock in an unobtrusive corner of
the kitchen where I won't forget about it, but where it won't be in anybody's way.
You could also store it in a cool basement if you want a slower fermentation that will
preserve for longer.
8. Check the kraut every day or two. The volume reduces as the fermentation
proceeds. Sometimes mold appears on the surface. Many books refer to this mold as
'scum', but I prefer to think of it as a bloom. Skim what you can off of the surface; it
will break up and you will probably not be able to remove all of it.
Don't worry about this. It's just a surface phenomenon, a result of contact with the
air.
The kraut itself is under the anaerobic protection of the brine. Rinse off the plate and
the weight. Taste the kraut. Generally it starts to be tangy after a few days, and the
taste gets stronger as time passes.
In the cool temperatures of a cellar in winter, kraut can keep improving for months
and months. In the summer or in a heated room, its life cycle is more rapid.
Eventually it becomes soft and the flavor turns less pleasant.
9. Enjoy. I generally scoop out a bowl- or jarful at a time and keep it in the fridge. I
start when the kraut is young and enjoy its evolving flavor over the course of a few
weeks.
Try the sauerkraut juice that will be left in the bowl after the kraut is eaten.
Sauerkraut juice is a rare delicacy and unparalleled digestive tonic.
Each time you scoop some kraut out of the crock, you have to repack it carefully.
Make sure the kraut is packed tight in the crock, the surface is level, and the cover
and weight are clean. Sometimes brine evaporates, so if the kraut is not submerged
below brine just add salted water as necessary.
Some people preserve kraut by canning and heat-processing it. This can be done;
but so much of the power of sauerkraut is its aliveness that I wonder: Why kill it?
10. Develop a rhythm. I try to start a new batch before the previous batch runs out.
I remove the remaining kraut from the crock, repack it with fresh salted cabbage,
then pour the old kraut and its juices over the new kraut. This gives the new batch a
boost with an active culture starter.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Fermented Dill Pickles (by the gallon)
Use the following quantities for each gallon capacity of your container.
4 pounds of 4-inch pickling cucumbers ( enough to fill jar to top )
2 Tablespoons dill seed, or 4 to 5 heads fresh or dry dill weed **
2 dried red peppers (optional)**
2 teaspoons whole mixed pickling spices (optional)**
3-6 Tablespoons salt (3 T to every 2 cups water)
1/4 cup raw apple cider vinegar (5 percent)
8 cups water and one or more of the following ingredients:
2 cloves garlic (optional, but yummy)
**You can also substitute the 5/8 oz packaged pickling spices that contains pepper
and bay leaves for the dill, peppers and pickling spice (usually found in the Mexican
spice section- it’s much less expensive too!) Divided in half per instructions below.
Wash cucumbers. Remove blossom end and discard, leaving 1/4 inch of stem
attached if you can.
Place half the dill and spices on bottom of a clean, suitable container. Add cucumbers,
remaining dill, and spices.
Dissolve salt in vinegar and water and pour over cucumbers. Add suitable cover and
weight.
Ferment pickles for 4 full days in Pickle Maker.
Fermented pickles may be stored for about 4 to 6 months or longer in the
refrigerator.
Real Pickles Recipe from Wild
Fermentation
Excerpt from Chapter 5: Vegetable Ferments, page 50–52
Sour Pickles
Growing up in New York City, experiencing my Jewish heritage largely through food, I
developed a taste for sour pickles. Most of what is sold in stores as pickles,and even
what home canners pickle, are preserved in vinegar. My idea of a pickle is one
fermented in a brine solution.
Pickle-making requires close attention. My first attempt at brine pickle making
resulted in soft, unappealing pickles that fell apart, because I abandoned it for a few
days, and perhaps because the brine was not salty enough, and because of the heat
of the Tennessee summer. And and and. "Our perfection lies in our imperfection."
There are, inevitably, fermentation failures. We are dealing with fickle life forces, after
all.
I persevered though, compelled by a craving deep inside of me for the yummy garlic-
dill sour pickles of Guss's pickle stall on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and
Zabar's on the Upper West Side and Bubbie's in upscale health food stores
elsewhere. As it turns out, brine pickles are easy. You just need to give them regular
attention in the summer heat, when cucumbers are most abundant.
One quality prized in a good pickle is crunchiness. Fresh tannin-rich grape leaves
placed in the crock are effective at keeping pickles crunchy. I recommend using them
if you have access to grape vines. I've also seen references in various brine pickle
recipes to using sour cherry leaves, oak leaves, and horseradish leaves to keep
pickles crunchy.
The biggest variables in pickle-making are brine strength, temperature, and cucumber
size. I prefer pickles from small and medium cucumbers; pickles from really big ones
can be tough and sometimes hollow in the middle. I don't worry about uniformity of
size; I just eat the smaller ones first, figuring the larger ones will take longer to
ferment.
The strength of brine varies widely in different traditions and recipe books. Brine
strength is most often expressed as weight of salt as a percentage of weight of
solution, though sometimes as weight of salt as a percentage of volume of solution.
Since in most home kitchens we are generally dealing with volumes rather than
weights, the following guideline can help readers gauge brine strength: Added to 1
quart of water, each tablespoon of sea salt (weighing about .6 ounce) adds 1.8%
brine. So 2 tablespoons of salt in 1 quart of water yields a 3.6% brine, 3 tablespoons
yields 5.4%, and so on. In the metric system, each 15 milliliters of salt (weighing 17
grams) added to 1 liter of water yields 1.8% brine.
Some old-time recipes call for brines with enough salt to float an egg. This translates
to about a 10% salt solution. This is enough salt to preserve pickles for quite some
time, but they are too salty to consume without a long desalinating soak in fresh
water first. Low-salt pickles, around 3.5% brine, are "half-sours" in delicatessen
lingo. This recipe is for sour, fairly salty pickles, using around 5.4% brine. Experiment
with brine strength. A general rule of thumb to consider in salting your ferments:
more salt to slow microorganism action in summer heat; less salt in winter when
microbial action slows.
TIMEFRAME: 1 to 4 weeks
SPECIAL EQUIPMENT:
Harsch crock, Glass Sauerkraut Maker, or food-grade plastic bucket
Plate that fits inside crock, lid that fits in the jar, or a bucket
1-gallon/4-liter jug filled with water, or other weight
Cloth cover
INGREDIENTS (for 1 gallon/4 liters):
3 to 4 pounds/1.5 to 2 kilograms unwaxed cucumbers (small to medium size)
3_8 cup (6 tablespoons)/90 milliliters sea salt
3 to 4 heads fresh flowering dill, or 3 to 4 tablespoons/45 to 60 milliliters
of any form of dill (fresh or dried leaf or seeds)
2 to 3 heads garlic, peeled
1 handful fresh grape, cherry, oak, and/or horseradish leaves (if available)
1 pinch black peppercorns
PROCESS:
1. Rinse cucumbers, taking care to not bruise them, and making sure their blossoms
are removed. Scrape off any remains at the blossom end. If you're using cucumbers
that aren't fresh off the vine that day, soak them for a couple of hours in very cold
water to freshen them.
2. Dissolve sea salt in 1/2 gallon (2 liters) of water to create brine solution. Stir until
salt is thoroughly dissolved.
3. Clean the crock, then place at the bottom of it dill, garlic, fresh grape leaves, and a
pinch of black peppercorns.
4. Place cucumbers in the crock.
5. Pour brine over the cucumbers, place the (clean) plate over them, then weigh it
down with a jug filled with water or a boiled rock. If the brine doesn't cover the
weighed-down plate, add more brine mixed at the same ratio of just under 1
tablespoon of salt to each cup of water.
6. Cover the crock with a cloth to keep out dust and flies and store it in a cool place.
7. Check the crock every day. Skim any mold from the surface, but don't worry if you
can't get it all. If there's mold, be sure to rinse the plate and
weight. Taste the pickles after a few days.
8. Enjoy the pickles as they continue to ferment. Continue to check the crock every
day.
9. Eventually, after one to four weeks (depending on the temperature), the pickles
will be fully sour. Continue to enjoy them, moving them to the fridge to slow down
fermentation.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Enjoy your sauerkraut, kimchee, and pickles! Feel free to call me with any questions
or comments at 503-771-3904. Business hours are 8:00am to 8:00pm Pacific, seven
days a week.
Best Regards,
Mike Snyder
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