8 Best Sauerkraut Recipes and tips on How to make It Perfect

Sauerkraut is a traditional Russian dish. With the onset of the first frost, the best time for cooking sauerkraut comes. But everyone has their own recipes for sauerkraut.

Previously, they started chopping cabbage from September 27 on the day of the feast of the Exaltation: "On Vozdvizhenie the first lady-cabbage!", " Then chop the cabbage that from the Vozdvizhenie!", " At the good peasant on Vozdvizhenev day and cabbage pies!". On this day, cabbage dishes were always put on the table. Cabbage was fermented, salted, stewed, made from it fillings for pies and kulebyak.

We cut the head for cooking sauerkraut

Our current topic is autumn sauerkraut. To make the cabbage delicious, juicy, crispy and not spoiled for a long time, you need to follow a few rules. They say that excellent sauerkraut with a special ringing crunch is obtained on the new moon. But this is a folk sign, and we will tell you about culinary secrets.

The choice of heads for sauerkraut

Grate the carrots on a large grater

We chop the head for the preparation of sauerkraut

Cumin, juniper berries, fennel or coriander seeds are good. Sauerkraut turns out piquant and tart.

Rub the cabbage with your hands until the juice is released

Together with carrots, you can add radishes or turnips, grated on a large grater. Try to introduce garlic, ginger and even jalapeno pepper into the cabbage mass. If you want sweets, use sweet peppers, grapes, beets, pumpkin. The aroma will be added by a unique fragrant antonovka. And, of course, they are friends with sauerkraut lingonberries and cranberries.

Previously, cabbage was fermented in wooden tubs or barrels, stored in a cold basement or basement. Now many people store them in refrigerators or on the balcony (if the weather is already cold). At room temperature, cabbage can not be stored, at least, it will lose its crispness.

The ideal container is large glass jars. The diameter of the neck is very important. It is necessary to conveniently lay and take out the sauerkraut, as well as ensure sufficient air flow during the fermentation process. The optimal diameter is at least 12 cm.

Mix the carrots and cabbage, and then it's a matter of technique — put them in jars and wait

If your cabbage was cooked in an enameled saucepan, immediately after cooking, transfer it to jars. Enameled dishes are suitable only for short-term storage of sauerkraut!

The ideal lid for sauerkraut is "with a lock", that is, with a zippable handle, as well as a silicone or rubber gasket. Silicone is better — it does not change its shape during sterilization.

The temperature is also important. The storage temperature of sauerkraut should be approximately 0 °C. If the cabbage freezes, it will become soft — the crunch will be lost, and there will also be less useful properties in it.

Sauerkraut is ready

Classic sauerkraut from Olga Syutkina

Olga not only shared with us a family recipe, but also advised us to pour a glass of vodka on cabbage, laid out in cans, for crispness and astringency. And I noticed that the salt used for fermentation adds not only taste, but also enhances the effect of lactic acid — a preservative. And sugar increases fermentation and also improves the taste. Sugar and salt should be taken at the rate of 5 kg of cabbage-100-120 g of salt and 50-60 g of sugar.

Classic sauerkraut from Olga Syutkina

To prepare a classic 3-day sauerkraut, you need:

Unlike the previous recipe, this sauerkraut will be ready in just 24 hours. This is very convenient, especially on the eve of home holidays. This rapid fermentation is due to vinegar.

Instant sauerkraut

To prepare sauerkraut, ready in a day, you need:

This is a recipe from our user Gennady Usachev from Zaporozhye. The peculiarity of the recipe: there is no exact "dosage" in it, but the cooking technology is prescribed in as much detail as possible. Consider this a mini-instruction for cooking sauerkraut. For example, here is Gennady's advice on choosing salt:

Sauerkraut with bay leaf

To prepare sauerkraut with bay leaf, you need:

The peculiarity of this almost classic recipe is the use of slices of rye bread. They give a slight sourness in the taste and contribute to the sauerkraut. Bread helps the fermentation of cabbage.

Sauerkraut with slices of rye bread

To prepare two 2-liter cans of sauerkraut, you need:

As we wrote above, you can pickle cabbage not only with carrots. From such sauerkraut you get two pleasures at once — you crunch and warm up. Only, of course, you need to remove all the seeds and partitions from the chili pepper. After all, we are not cooking Mexican fire food!

Another feature of this recipe: cabbage, spread out in cans, is filled with drinking water for cooking speed. Instead of waiting for the formation of cabbage juice, it can be immediately filled with water. This trick goes well with not very juicy cabbage. Plus, the taste of the brine will be softer and more neutral.

Sauerkraut with chili pepper

To prepare sauerkraut with chili pepper, you need:

Cranberries add an interesting flavor to sauerkraut and enrich it with an additional dose of vitamin C, which is important in the flu and cold season. In sauerkraut with cranberries, you can add a little cumin and grated fresh horseradish root. The taste will become even richer, and horseradish will prevent the preparation from spoiling.

Sauerkraut with cranberries

Serve sauerkraut with cranberries in natural form or season with sunflower fragrant oil, thinly sliced sweet onions and finely chopped favorite herbs. If desired, you can season with sugar.

To prepare sauerkraut with cranberries, you need:

There are people who do not understand why apples are added to sauerkraut. If it is Antonovka — for a special Russian spirit. The remaining varieties of apples are for a sweet and sour taste. At the same time, apples do not need to be chopped and mixed with cabbage and carrot mass. They are laid in sauerkraut differently. How? Read in this recipe.

Sauerkraut with apples

To prepare sauerkraut with apples, you need:

Our constant and loyal reader Tamara from Rostov-on-Don (@Konstanta) also makes cabbage:

Sauerkraut in honey filling

To prepare sauerkraut in honey filling, you need:

For 1 liter of drinking boiled water, refueling:

And now for fixing the material-a video recipe for cooking sauerkraut.

How to sterilize cans for sauerkraut and not only

The classic method: a wide saucepan filled with boiling water, at the bottom of which a towel is placed so that the jars do not touch and do not crack when boiling. Usually, with this method, a 10-minute boiling is enough. But there are also more "advanced" options!

If you have a dishwasher, use it. Just put the cans in the dishwasher and turn on a short washing program, setting the temperature to 90 °C — at the end you will get ready-made dry cans. Be careful with the lids: there are screw lids, covered from the inside with a layer of plastic, which should "weld" to the jar when twisting, it does this only once at a temperature of 80 °C.

Even small cans can be sterilized in a microwave oven. To do this, pour cold water into each jar for about 1/3 and turn on the microwave at full power for 5-8 minutes — the cans are sterilized with both water and the resulting steam. After that, the water should be poured out, and the cans should be thoroughly dried.