Warning: My sauerkraut was a total failure until I started weighing the salt.

For months, my batches were either too soft or way too salty. I was just using a few pinches of salt per head of cabbage. Three weeks ago, I got a cheap kitchen scale and started using 2% salt by weight. The last batch I pulled out yesterday is perfect, crunchy and tangy. Has anyone else had this kind of turnaround from just one simple change?

3 comments

3 Comments

king.stella1mo ago

Weighing everything just kills the soul of it for me. My grandma never owned a scale and her kraut was always perfect, just going by feel and taste. Turning a living food into a math problem strips away the craft. Maybe some people need that exactness, but it feels like you're just following a lab manual instead of cooking.

troythompson25d ago

You bring up a good point about grandma's perfect kraut (and honestly, who can argue with grandma?). But I guess my question is, how do you handle tiny variables like different salt brands having different grain sizes? Seems like that could throw off the whole batch in a big way. And hey @taylor_hayes25, that 2% rule works great for getting a consistent result every time, even if you're just starting out. Maybe it's less about killing the soul and more about giving people a solid starting point so they don't accidentally ruin it.

taylor_hayes251mo ago

That "2% by weight" thing is the real game changer. It makes the whole process feel less like guesswork and more like a real recipe.