How To Make Sauerkraut

This homemade sauerkraut recipe is an easy way to get gut healthy probiotics in your daily diet. Enjoy it as a side to a meal or add it to your favorite sandwich.

A wooden spoon scooping out sauerkraut from a large mason jar.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe:
Tools You May Need
Ingredients
Homemade Sauerkraut Variations
How To Make Homemade Sauerkraut
Tips For Making Homemade Sauerkraut
Recipe FAQ’s
More Fermented Foods From The Farmhouse Kitchen
How To Make Sauerkraut Recipe

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Now more than ever we are seeing the importance of gut health to our overall well-being. Probiotics play a big role in the state of our gut.

You could spend $50 a month or even more on supplements, or you could incorporate fermented foods into your daily diet instead!

This homemade sauerkraut is one of our favorite ways to get our probiotics in, along with raw milk yogurt in the instant pot, milk kefir, and water kefir sodas.

It only takes about 15 minutes of hands on time and a little patience waiting for it to ferment. Add it to a cold cut sandwich wedged between two slices of sourdough rye bread or even on top of a grilled hot dog on a sourdough hot dog bun.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe:

Easy and delicious – All you need are two simple ingredients – salt and cabbage – to make this tangy, crunchy dish.

Inexpensive – True fermented raw sauerkraut at the grocery store that hasn’t been canned, which kills the good bacteria, can be pricey. Making a large batch yourself is a fraction of the price. Plus, homemade always tastes better!

Packed with gut-healthy probiotics – When salt and cabbage are massaged together and allowed to sit for a few days, lactobacillus bacteria, the good kind also known as probiotics, starts to populate. Regular consumption of fermented foods have been shown to have many health benefits, including improved digestion, increased immunity, and reduced inflammation (source).

Tools You May Need

Jar of sauerkraut next to a wooden pummel, fermentation lid and glass weight.

Fermentation kit – You can get away without one, but if you plan to do a lot of fermenting, this really comes in handy!

Glass jar or fermentation crock – I usually just use a large mason jar.

Ingredients

Salt – Choose sea salt, kosher salt, or pink Himalayan salt.

Cabbage – I typically use green cabbage, but you can use other varieties. I also try to buy organic if I can.

Homemade Sauerkraut Variations

You can add in a variety of ingredients to add flavor to your sauerkraut. Here are a few of our favorites:

Caraway seeds
Juniper berries
Dill
Shredded fennel or fennel seeds
Beets – Also try my fermented beets recipe!
Garlic

How To Make Homemade Sauerkraut

Step 1: With clean hands, pull off a few of the outer leaves from the top of the cabbage and set aside for the last step.

Next, core the head of cabbage and cut it into pieces small enough to fit in your food processor. If you do not have a food processor, just cut it into shreds or grate with a box grater. If you do have one, this part will go a little faster.

Place into a food processor and shred.

A large stainless steel bowl filled with shredded cabbage.

Step 2: Put the shredded cabbage in a bowl and sprinkle with salt.

For 5 pounds of cabbage, use 3 tablespoons of salt. I had 3.5 pounds, so I used 2 tablespoons.

Work the salt in with your hands until it starts to get juicy. The juice that is created when massaging the cabbage and salt together is the brine. You may have to work it for several minutes before it creates enough brine to move onto the next step. You can also use a wooden spoon to do this.

A wooden fermentation tool smashing down the cabbage in a mason jar so everything is underneath the brine.

Step 3: Next, put all the fresh cabbage and the brine into a clean jar (you could use a fermentation crock, half gallon, or quart jars). Punch it down until all the cabbage is submerged beneath the brine.

Fold up the leaves you reserved earlier and place layers of cabbage on the top to keep all the cabbage down beneath the brine.

Step 4: Place a fermentation weight on top and press down making sure there is enough brine to cover all of the cabbage.

You could also place rocks in a ziplock bag and place the ziplock on top of the folded up cabbage leaves and the weight should be enough to keep all of your shredded cabbage beneath the brine. If any raw cabbage is above the liquid it will be exposed to oxygen and possibly mold, so that is why it is so important to keep it under the liquid.

Add a lid or a fermentation lid to the top of the jar.

Three jars filled with fermenting cabbage.

Step 5: Leave it out on the counter at room temperature for 5 days to 3 weeks, preferably out of direct sunlight. It will just become more pungent as it sits. Taste after a few days to see if the desired tangy flavor has occurred. If this is your first time trying homemade sauerkraut, it may be better to ferment it for less time.

You may want place the jars on a pan or baking dish just in case the brine spills over. The jar may also need to be burped if not using a fermentation lid.

A fork scooping sauerkraut out of a mason jar.

Step 6: Remove fermentation weight and folded up cabbage leaves, put the lid on the jar and store in the fridge.

Serve as a snack or side to dinner, like my easy salmon burgers.

Tips For Making Homemade Sauerkraut

I love using glass fermentation weights, but if you don’t have any you can use clean rocks in a sealed ziplock bag.
Those who are new to sauerkraut may want to try fermenting for 3 days at first before any longer fermentation period.
If any cabbage is above the liquid it will be exposed to oxygen and possibly mold, so that is why it is so important to keep it under the liquid.
A food processor makes this process really simple, if you don’t have one you can just chop it as finely as possible.
Not using enough salt may cause harmful bacteria to grow. The point of the salt is to keep the unwanted bacteria out and only allow the good bacteria to flourish. For every 5 pounds of cabbage, use 3 tablespoons of salt.

Recipe FAQ’s

Is it worth it to make your own sauerkraut?

Sauerkraut is sliced cabbage that has been fermented. Regular sauerkraut from the store may not have been fermented as long or has been canned killing a lot of the beneficial lactic acid bacteria.

How long should homemade sauerkraut ferment?

It can take 5 days to 3 weeks for sauerkraut to ferment. It will depend on the environment and temperature during the fermentation process. Warmer conditions speed up the fermentation.

How long does homemade sauerkraut last?

Properly prepared and stored in dark cold storage (like the refrigerator), it can last at around 6 months.

Look for any signs of mold, an even color throughout, and that it still looks edible. Make sure to keep the lid tight in refrigeration storage (after the fermentation process).

Use your nose to see if it still smells as it should. It shouldn’t smell off and make sure the texture is still good, and not mushy. Lastly, give it a little taste to make to make sure it tastes good.

How should I serve sauerkraut?

You can eat it warm or cold, but for probiotic purposes you should eat it cold since heating it can destroy the beneficial bacteria. Here are a few ways to enjoy it straight from the fridge:

– As a side to lunch or dinner. It is especially good on nights we serve my best homemade meatloaf recipe or sourdough fried chicken.
– As a topping to a salad, sandwich, or hot dog.
– As an additional topping to a freshly baked sourdough pizza. It may sound odd, but I promise it is really yummy.

More Fermented Foods From The Farmhouse Kitchen

If you try this recipe and love it, I would love it if you could come back and give it 5 stars! Tag me on Instagram @farmhouseonboone.

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