Fermented Ginger Sauerkraut with Orange and Sesame

Ingredients You’ll Need to Make Ginger Sauerkraut with Orange and Sesame

• Cabbage: I suggest green cabbage for this recipe. A small head of cabbage will make about two jars of sauerkraut using this recipe. Look for a cabbage that still has outer leaves at the store. Usually, if a cabbage still has its outer leaves, it’s more hydrated and fresh, which means more brine! Yay! You are welcome to try napa cabbage in the recipe too.
• Orange Juice: Adding orange juice to this recipe was quite fun! I enjoy experimenting with small amounts of fruit added to cabbage fermentations. For this recipe, use freshly squeezed orange juice, and I also added a slice of orange to make the photography more enjoyable.
• Sesame Seeds: Sesame seeds are one of my favorite seeds. I was excited to find that a light sesame flavor developed through the fermentation process.
• Ginger: You can use dried, powdered ginger here, but I prefer freshly grated ginger in this recipe. All the flavors are so light and juicy, and fresh ginger adds a nice zing.
• Sea Salt: I like to use unrefined solar-evaporated sea salt, and any pure sea salt will do. If you like experimenting with fancy sea salt in fermentation recipes, I suggest trying French grey sea salt.
• Water: I add some water to all of my cabbage fermentation recipes, and water is still drawn out of the cabbage when salt is added. However, having water as a part of this recipe accounts for seasonal changes in produce hydration levels. So no matter where you are in the world or what your cabbage is like, you should have success with this recipe.

Using Fruit Juice in Ginger Sauerkraut

I write a lot about food safety and fermentation on our blog. Generally, the more sugar in the starting ingredients for fermentation, the less likely you’ll have successful lactic acid fermentation.

Through extensive recipe development and testing, I’ve found that it’s best only to incorporate fruit into cabbage-based fermentation projects. The first reason is that the cabbage microbiome is phenomenal for wild fermentation and balances out any addition of fruit sugars.

Secondly, I’ve found that if the fruit or fruit juice only makes up 1/4 of the ingredients (by mass), then the fermentation microbiome doesn’t vary by much from cabbage ferments without fruit.

Supplies You’ll Need to Ferment Ginger Sauerkraut

Kitchenaid Dual Platform Scale

Wide Mouth Fermentation Weights

Australian Sea Salt

Regular Mouth Rust Proof Mason Jar Lids

Plastic pH Test Strips (pH 0-14)

32 Oz Mason Jars

How to Ferment Sauerkraut with Orange, Sesame, and Ginger

During the first few days of fermentation: carbon dioxide and bubbles will be produced. Sometimes, jars will become full of liquid, and this liquid can seep out. 

• If using a standard mason jar lid: remove the lid and tamper everything back down using a gloved hand, tamper, or spoon. Ensure everything, including the weight, is submerged below the brine.

Always Trust your sense of smell: Fermented cabbage should smell pleasantly sour and like strong cabbage. Never eat anything that smells repulsive or yeasty.

Never eat anything that has mold growing on it: By following directions, you should not encounter this problem. 

Taste test at three weeks: If you prefer the sauerkraut to be more tart and sour, you can let it ferment for four weeks. 

What Temperature Should I Keep My Sauerkraut at While it Ferments?

Keep your fermenting cabbage at a temperature between 70-80 degrees F. Keep out of direct sunlight

How Long Should I Ferment My Homemade Sauerkraut?

After three weeks, remove the fermentation weight and smell and taste test. Your fermented cabbage should smell pleasantly sour and taste tart, lightly salty, and cabbagey.  

Do I Need to Refrigerate Sauerkraut?

After fermenting for three weeks, remove the weight, place a regular mason jar lid on the jar, and refrigerate. Consume within six months for full probiotic benefits.

Ginger Sauerkraut with Orange and Sesame

If you follow our recipe and directions, your timeline of sauerkraut fermentation should approximately match ours.

24 – 48 hours: All contents in the jar should be submerged beneath the brine. At this time, Gram-negative bacteria and possible pathogens are still present.

48 hours – 5 days: After 48 hours, you should start to see lots of bubbles being produced. This is when the ferment enters stage two of vegetable fermentation, Leuconostoc bacteria begin to thrive, and Gram negative organisms die off by day 5.

5 – 10 days: The bubbles in the brine will decrease as the ferment leaves stage two and enters stage three. The ferment will become cloudy, the color will change, and a pleasant sour smell will develop. Lactobacillus species begin to thrive in this period. Sometimes Leuconostoc bacteria can thrive and produce bubbles up to 14 days into fermentation.

10 – 21 days: Lactobacillus comprise most or all microbial populations. They produce copious amounts of lactic acid, making the fermented cabbage smell even more pleasantly sour. This is when the vegetable mixture becomes sauerkraut and is preserved.

More Sauerkraut Recipes to Try

• How to Ferment Sauerkraut in a Mason Jar
• Fermented Beet and Red Cabbage Sauerkraut
• Roasted Garlic Sauerkraut with Black Pepper

Sauerkraut & Kimchi

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Fermented Ginger Sauerkraut with Orange and Sesame

Learn how to ferment ginger sauerkraut with orange and sesame. With only six ingredients and some patience, you can make this flavorful sauerkraut with fresh orange, sesame seeds, and freshly grated ginger root. This wild-fermented sauerkraut contains billions of gut-healthy microorganisms, vitamins, and prebiotic fiber.

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• Prep: 15 Minutes
• Cook: 0 Minutes
• Total Time: 15 Minutes

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Ingredients

• 500 grams green cabbage
• 20 grams unrefined sea salt
• 150 grams filtered water
• 20 Grams Ginger, Grated
• 2 Teaspoons Sesame Seeds
• 50 Grams Orange Juice, Freshly Squeezed

Instructions

1. Wash your fermentation equipment (jar, weight, and lid).
2. Remove the outer leaves of your cabbage and lightly rinse with cool water. Using a knife, chop the cabbage to your desired thickness. Grate the ginger.
3. Place your kitchen scale on the counter. Turn it on and set it to weigh in grams.
4. Measure out all of your ingredients using your kitchen scale.
5. Mix all the ingredients, including the water, in a large bowl. Lightly massage the cabbage and break up any large pieces. 
6. Pack it all, including the water, into a clean jar with a rust-proof lid. (a 32-ounce jar works best)
7. Place a fermentation weight in the jar, making sure to submerge the cabbage pieces and weight fully into the liquid. If you don’t have quite enough liquid, place your glass fermentation weight in the jar and submerge as much as possible. Over the next 12 hours, the cabbage should release more liquid and you can press the fermentation weight down below the brine.
8. Secure the lid (you do not need to tighten it all the way. Just secure the lid but leave it ever so slightly loose so the gas doesn’t build up too much). You can keep the jar in a glass dish to catch any spills.
9. Burping the jar: It should get bubbly in the first few days. If you have a tightly secured lid, you will need to burp the jar. You should also wash off the lid to keep it clean and re-adjust the fermentation weight whenever needed. Anytime the weight comes up out of the brine, with clean hands press hard on the weight to tamper everything back down into the liquid.
10. Ferment at room temperature for 21-28 days, then remove the fermentation weight and refrigerate.
11. If you try this recipe and love it, please leave a five-star review below!

Notes

• This recipe works best with a 20-32 ounce jar
• Taring/zeroing the scale with a container on it subtracts the weight of the container, allowing you to weigh only what is added to the container. After taring/zeroing the scale, it should read 0.0 with the container on it.
• I only added an orange slice for decoration. You can do the same without adjusting the recipe.

Kaitlynn Fenley Author, Educator, Food Microbiologist

Kaitlynn is a food microbiologist and fermentation expert teaching people how to ferment foods and drinks at home.

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