Airlock Lids and Homemade Sauerkraut

Use 1 1/2 Tablespoons of Salt for 1 Medium Head of Cabbage

I recently decided to try making homemade sauerkraut for the first time.  

After reading a bit about the process and making my intentions known, my husband asked if I was going to bury it in the backyard.

Although it is a bit "from the old country" of me to make my own sauerkraut, I didn't need to go that "old country."

Making Sauerkraut

I was able to make safe, delicious, just-the-right-amount sauerkraut using 3-piece airlock fermentation lids (affiliate link) sold by Quality Reliable Products.

I started by

1. chopping a medium head of cabbage into small bits, 
2. stirring it by hand in a large mixing bowl with 1 1/2 tablespoons of sea salt until it got juicy, then 
3. packing it down into 2 large-mouth mason jars using a small jelly jar and a wooden spoon.

Using Fermentation Lids

After that came the super easy part, which did not include burying anything in the backyard.  

The next steps included 

1. screwing down the airlock lids, 
2. slowly twisting the airlocks into the holes in the lids, then 
3. carefully filling the airlocks half full of water so that none of the water got into the jars and lastly, 
4. fitting the lids onto the airlocks and placing the jars in a safe storage area for about 4 weeks.

More About Sauerkraut

Now, according to this very thorough sauerkraut-making post by Lea from Nourishing Treasures and posted on the Food Renegade blog by Kristen Michaelis, my first attempts were more than just a happy accident.  Because I used the airlock lids, my set-up prevented many unwanted problems, including mold, slime, and otherwise dangerous and icky circumstances.  The secret is keeping the oxygen out while allowing gasses to escape.  

So, although I am a sauerkraut-making newbie, the airlock fermentation lids I used made it possible for me to get in touch with my roots and produce an excellent sauerkraut in my own kitchen.

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Copyright Amy Lynn Hess.  Please contact the author for permission to republish.