Hot take: skipping the salt brine for kraut worked better than I expected

I got tired of waiting for my cabbage to sweat enough liquid for proper fermentation, so I just dumped dry salt straight onto shredded cabbage and massaged it hard for 5 minutes. Turns out, that drew out way more juice than letting it sit overnight in a brine. My 3rd batch of sauerkraut came out perfectly crunchy after 14 days. Has anyone else tried the dry salt method over a liquid brine?

3 comments

3 Comments

ryand262d ago

Wait, did you massage it by hand or did you use some kind of tool? I got a similar surprise when I tried making kimchi last month. I was in a rush and skipped the whole "let it sit with salt for an hour" step, just mixed everything together and crammed it in the jar. Three days later it was bubbling like crazy and came out super tangy, but I think I overdid the fish sauce. Have you messed with adding any extra spices or vegetables to your kraut to mix things up?

lucas_carr242d ago

Wait, did you actually skip the salting step for the kimchi or just rush it a bit? I made that mistake once with sauerkraut and ended up with a batch that fermented way too fast and got kind of slimy on top. For me, hand massaging works better than any tool because you can feel when the cabbage gets that wilty texture. When I want to mix it up with my kraut, I'll toss in some shredded carrot or a sliced jalapeno, but I learned the hard way to keep any additions under 20% of the total weight or the fermentation gets thrown off. Have you noticed a big difference in how fast your ferments go when you skip the salt rest?

alicem292d ago

Try adding grated ginger next time like @lucas_carr24 suggested for a livelier flavor kick.