13
My sauerkraut kept getting mushy until I tried a weird trick with the jar lid
I was making my usual batch of kraut, the kind with just cabbage and salt, and it kept coming out soft instead of crisp. I ferment in my kitchen in Cincinnati, and the summer humidity was making it worse. After three failed jars, I got desperate and tried something different. I stopped using the regular metal lid that came with the mason jar. Instead, I put a small, clean cabbage leaf directly over the shredded cabbage before weighting it down, and then just loosely covered the jar with a cloth. That leaf acted like a cap, keeping the bits underneath fully submerged and away from air. The next batch was perfectly crunchy after two weeks. Has anyone else found that the lid material itself can mess with the ferment?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
matthew_hart259d ago
Honestly, that seems like overkill. A regular lid works fine if you just burp the jar now and then. You probably just got lucky with that batch.
0
the_patricia9d ago
Nah, I've been doing it this way for years and never had a batch go bad. The airlock just takes the guesswork out of it for me.
0
xena3736d ago
My mom just uses a coffee filter and rubber band.
3