Chef Klaus
Apfelmus
The apple-harvest preserve of the German kitchen, cooked low until the fruit collapses, then kept smooth, tart, and ready for potato pancakes or warm Mehlspeisen.
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Sauerkraut
Created by
The foundation ferment of the German winter larder: cabbage, salt, weight, and time, with the brine doing the preserving and not a spoon of vinegar in sight.
Sauces & Condiments
German
Make Ahead
Batch Cooking
Budget Friendly
45 min
Active Time
0 min cook•P21DT45M total
YieldAbout 2kg sauerkraut
Sauerkraut is the winter larder in its plainest form. White cabbage is cut fine, salted, pressed under its own juice, and left until lactic acid does the work. No vinegar. Nicht aus dem Glas. The sourness is made by time and salt, not poured in from a bottle.
It belongs everywhere on the German table, but not in one way. In the north it sits beside smoked pork, sausages, and dark bread; in Swabia it meets Schupfnudeln, little rolled potato noodles; in the Palatinate and Alsace border country it goes into great cabbage-and-pork pots; in Bavaria it is often softened with onion, caraway, and a little apple. Im Norden anders, im Süden anders. Same cabbage, different stove.
The technique that decides it is submersion. Salt draws water out of the cabbage, and that brine must cover every shred because lactic acid bacteria work safely without air while mold wants the surface. Press it down, weight it, and check it. If the cabbage floats dry, you've made a compost bucket, not Sauerkraut.
Use a tight, heavy head of cabbage, cut it evenly, and weigh the salt at two percent of the cabbage weight. Then leave it alone at cool room temperature until it smells cleanly sour and tastes alive. Das braucht seine Zeit. Erst verstehen, dann kochen.
Fermented cabbage was established across German-speaking central Europe by the medieval period, long before refrigeration, because salt and lactic fermentation turned a cheap autumn crop into vitamin-rich winter food. Captain James Cook famously carried sauerkraut on his 18th-century voyages to fight scurvy, which shows the same preservation logic that kept German households fed through the cold months. Regional use still splits clearly: Swabia puts it with Schupfnudeln, the Palatinate with heavy pork dishes, and the north with smoked meats and rye.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
white cabbage
Quantity
2kg
outer leaves reserved, core removed, finely shredded
fine sea salt or pickling salt
Quantity
40g
2 percent of cabbage weight
caraway seeds (optional)
Quantity
1 teaspoon
tart apple (optional)
Quantity
1
grated
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| white cabbageouter leaves reserved, core removed, finely shredded | 2kg |
| fine sea salt or pickling salt2 percent of cabbage weight | 40g |
| caraway seeds (optional) | 1 teaspoon |
| tart apple (optional)grated | 1 |
Equipment Needed
- •Large mixing bowl
- •Kitchen scale
- •Cabbage slicer, mandoline, or sharp knife
- •2 litre fermentation crock or wide-mouth glass jar
- •Fermentation weight or clean small jar used as a weight
Instructions
- 1
Prepare the cabbage
Pull off two clean outer leaves and set them aside, then quarter the cabbage, cut out the hard core, and shred the leaves finely. Thin, even shreds give the salt more surface to work on, so the cabbage gives up its juice quickly instead of sitting dry in the crock.
Weigh the cabbage after trimming. The salt is based on the edible weight, not the whole head with the core still in it. - 2
Salt by weight
Mix the shredded cabbage with 40g salt, or exactly 20g salt for every 1kg cabbage. This two percent salt level pulls water from the cabbage, firms the texture, and gives the right bacteria the advantage while the wrong ones lose interest. Add caraway or grated apple now if you're using them.
- 3
Work out brine
Massage and squeeze the cabbage for 5 to 10 minutes, then let it stand 20 minutes and squeeze again. The bowl should collect a salty green-white brine. Don't add vinegar. The cabbage must make its own liquid, because that liquid is the beginning of the ferment.
- 4
Pack it tight
Pack the cabbage into a clean crock or wide-mouth jar in handfuls, pressing hard after each addition so the brine rises above the surface. Air pockets are the enemy here; packed cabbage ferments evenly, while loose cabbage traps oxygen and turns soft.
- 5
Weight under brine
Lay the reserved cabbage leaves over the shreds, then set a fermentation weight or a clean small jar filled with water on top. The brine must cover the cabbage by at least 2cm. Submersion is the whole safety rule: under brine, lactic acid bacteria work; above brine, mold gets invited.
- 6
Ferment cool
Cover the vessel loosely or use an airlock lid, set it on a plate, and leave it at 18C to 21C for 2 to 4 weeks. A sealed active ferment builds gas, so don't clamp it shut unless the lid can vent. Taste after 10 days, then every few days. When it smells cleanly sour and tastes bright enough for your table, it is ready.
- 7
Store it cold
Move the finished Sauerkraut to clean jars, press it under its brine, and refrigerate it. Cold slows the ferment so the cabbage stays crisp and sour instead of racing toward softness. Keep every spoonful under brine, and use clean utensils. Weggeworfen wird nichts, but fuzzy mold, pink slime, or a rotten smell means the batch goes out.
Chef Tips
- •Buy cabbage that feels tight and heavy for its size. A loose old head has less juice, and without enough juice you fight for brine from the first minute.
- •Use a scale. Sauerkraut is not where you guess at salt by handfuls; two percent gives preservation, flavour, and texture in one number.
- •If the cabbage will not make enough brine after pressing, mix 20g salt into 1 litre of boiled and cooled water and add just enough to cover. The brine must match the ferment or you dilute the protection.
- •A thin white film can be kahm yeast; skim it, clean the rim, and keep the cabbage submerged if the smell is cleanly sour. Fuzzy, coloured mold or a foul smell is different. Throw it away.
- •For eating warm, cook finished Sauerkraut gently with onion, apple, bay, juniper, and a spoon of lard or goose fat. Boil it hard and you drive off the clean sourness you waited weeks to build.
Advance Preparation
- •Start Sauerkraut 2 to 4 weeks before you want to serve it. The exact time depends on room temperature and how sour you like it.
- •Once fermented, keep it refrigerated under brine for several months. It will keep getting sharper, just more slowly.
- •For a Sunday plate, cook the finished kraut a day ahead with onion, apple, and smoked pork rind or bacon rind if you have it. The flavour settles overnight, and Weggeworfen wird nichts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 100g)
Calories
20 calories
Total Fat
0 g
Saturated Fat
0 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
0 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
785 mg
Total Carbohydrates
4 g
Dietary Fiber
3 g
Sugars
2 g
Protein
1 g
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