Making Homemade Sauerkraut is Easier Than I Thought.

Disclosure: I was compensated with a free Fermentools Starter Kit in exchange for my honest opinions and review of the kit. All opinions expressed in this post are my own.

Fermenting sauerkraut is so, so much easier than I imagined. It was about a month ago when I exchanged a few emails with the folks at Fermentools and received the Starter Kit. The kit sat on my desk for a couple weeks, until I got off work early one day and had a few hours on my hands.

Little did I know that I wouldn't need more than 30 minutes to whip up a quart of sauerkraut, and just a week or so to let it ferment before eating.

First, I gathered all the supplies, which was the Fermentools starter kit that includes Himalayan salt and one head of local, organic red cabbage from our favorite food co-op.

The Fermentools kit comes with a brief, easy to understand instruction booklet for making sauerkraut, as well as a few other fermented goodies. (You can find a few recipes here.)

From start to finish, making sauerkraut was extremely easy. I simply thinly sliced a head of cabbage, which was the second-most labor intensive part of the process.

Then, I grabbed a wide mouth quart jar, a measuring spoon, and a wooden spoon. I filled the far about half full of cabbage, added 1/2 tablespoon of the Himalayan salt, and began pounding and mushing and smooshing the cabbage with the handle of the wooden spoon.

If you have a cabbage pounder, this will make your work a little easier. I pounded and smooshed for about 10 minutes, adding more and more cabbage and another tablespoon of salt until about 3/4 of the head fits into the quart jar.

You can stop pounding the cabbage when it releases liquid; enough liquid that it rises up above the cabbage. Then, to hold the cabbage down below the liquid to properly ferment, simply drop the glass weight on top.

You'll eventually remove this glass weight when you've let your cabbage ferment for about a week. Until now, let it hang out. The most labor intensive part of this process is complete!

Next, add the gasket and special lid to the top of your jar, and use one of your own rings to make a seal. You'll insert the fermenting tool inside the hollow rubber stopper, and use that to plug the hole in the top of your jar. 

Finally, pick a cool, dry, dark place to store your cabbage for about a week. I picked a cupboard that I don't access too often.

While you are waiting, you can also check out the rest of the Fermentools products. I am eyeing a few additional glass weights and another Single Kit or two.

Have you fermented your own goodies before? Tell me about it and leave a comment.