Old Fashioned Sauerkraut
My old-fashioned sauerkraut recipe is basically a scaled-down version of my oak barrel sauerkraut recipe. I spent seven years perfecting my barrel-fermented sauerkraut recipe. When we ended our food business, I wanted this tried-and-true, tested recipe to live on. So I created this quart-size jar version, perfect for home fermentation. Caraway seeds are totally optional! I love it with and without.
The Best Cabbage for Sauerkraut
Over the years, so many students have asked me, “What is the best cabbage for sauerkraut?”
The answer is whatever highest-quality cabbage you have access to! Organic green cabbage is my favorite for classic, old-fashioned sauerkraut. But any green cabbage will do, like savoy and napa cabbage. Even chopped up bok choy works great with this recipe.
Can you make this sauerkraut with red cabbage?
Yes! Absolutely. The only thing to note is that red cabbage has a tad more sugar than green cabbage, so your sauerkraut may be even more sour in the end. I always tell my students to start with green cabbage the first few times they ferment. It’s an easier color to work with because you can more easily see if something went off.
As long as you use the recommended amount of salt, keep everything submerged, and keep the lid clean, you shouldn’t have any issues with red cabbage.
How should my sauerkraut look and smell while it ferments??
Temperature affects how quickly sauerkraut ferments. This timeline is applicable between 70-80°F. If your home is colder, the process will be slower. If your home is warmer, it will be faster.
- 24 – 48 hours: All contents in the jar should be submerged beneath the brine. The brine will be pretty clear, but will start to get a bit murky, and you’ll see little bubbles forming in between the cabbage pieces. There won’t be a ton of bubbles until about day 3, though. (This is stage one of fermentation, and there’s not much going on that you can see)
- 48 hours – 10 days: After 72 hours, you should start to see lots of bubbles. You need to burp the jar if you are using a rust-proof mason jar lid (as I recommend). Sauerkraut at this stage should change color from light green to pale olive. You will also notice the brine becomes very cloudy. Leuconostoc bacteria begin to thrive, producing lots of carbon dioxide, lactic acid, and acetic acid. You can open the jar whenever to ensure everything is submerged and the lid stays clean. If anything is floating to the surface, scoop it out with a clean spoon. If the lid looks dirty, wash it with hot, soapy water, then put it back on the jar.
- 10-21 days: Bubbles in the brine will decrease as the sauerkraut leaves stage two and enters stage three of fermentation. The brine will be quite cloudy and start to develop a pleasantly sour smell. You’ll probably start to see sediment at the bottom of the jar, and the bubbles will stop completely. Lactobacillus species are most abundant. Feel free to taste test and pop the jar in the fridge now if you like how it tastes. Or, let the sauerkraut ferment longer for a sourer, more complex flavor!
- 21 – 28 days: Lactobacillus makes up the majority or all of the microbial population now. They produce copious amounts of lactic acid, making the sauerkraut smell even more pleasantly sour. At this time, you can smell, taste, and refrigerate! The sauerkraut should have a pH of 4 or below and is now super probiotic and well preserved.
Old Fashioned Sauerkraut Tips
- During the first few days of fermentation, carbon dioxide and bubbles will be produced. Sometimes jars will become very full of liquid, which can seep out. Keep the jar in a bowl of dish to catch spills. Remove the lid and tamper everything back down using a gloved hand, tamper, or spoon. You can rinse the lid with hot, soapy water to keep it clean. Ensure everything, including the weight, is submerged below the brine and replace the lid to continue fermenting.
- 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 with mold growing on it: You shouldn’t encounter this problem if you follow the directions. If you are super wary of mold, or have had trouble with it while fermenting in the past, throw some chopped fresh garlic in the sauerkruat. Two cloves will do. Through reader feedback on my recipes, I’ve found that sauerkrauts with garlic have the lowest rate of problems.
- Taste test at three weeks: If you prefer the sauerkraut to be more tart and sour, let it ferment at room temperature longer.
How to Make Old Fashioned Sauerkraut with Caraway Seeds
Enjoy this delicious old fashioned sauerkraut recipe made with or without caraway seeds. In this step-by-step recipe, you will learn to make traditional sauerkraut in a mason jar. If you are new to fermentation, this is one of the best and easiest recipes to get you started.
- Prep: 30 Minutes
- Ferment: 21 days
Ingredients
- 550 grams green cabbage
- 20 grams unrefined sea salt
- 200 grams filtered water
- 5 grams caraway seeds (optional)
Instructions
- Wash your fermentation equipment (jar, weight, and lid)
- Remove the outer leaves of your cabbage and lightly rinse the cabbage with cool water.
- Chop the cabbage.
- Place your kitchen scale on the counter. Turn it on and set it to weigh in grams.
- Measure out all of your ingredients using your kitchen scale.
- Mix all the ingredients, including the water, in a large bowl. Lightly massage the cabbage and break up any large pieces.
- Pack it all, including the water, into a clean jar with a rust-proof lid. (a 32-ounce jar works best)
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.*
- Ferment at room temperature for 21-28 days, then remove the fermentation weight and refrigerate.
- If you try this recipe and love it, please leave a five-star review below!
Notes
- For softer kraut massage the cabbage vigorously in step 6. For crunchier kraut, gently mix the cabbage.
- When things are bubbly: If it looks like you’ve lost brine and cannot re-submerge the contents by pressing down on the weight, top it off with raw apple cider vinegar. It slightly changes the flavor, but it doesn’t harm the sauerkraut’s microbes and prevents mold. You need to give it a good stir when it’s done fermenting to mix up the flavors.
- Taring/zeroing the scale with a container on it subtracts the container’s weight, allowing you to weigh only what is added to it. After taring/zeroing the scale, the scale should read 0.0 with the container on it.
Does this recipe scale to a bigger batch? I’ve been doing 2 heads of cabbage in my 5 liter crock with 2% salt. All the recipes I’ve tried call for massaging the cabbage much longer and I find my sauerkraut always ends up mushy. Im excited to try your method with less massaging and adding water.
Apologies for the late reply on this comment! Just now seeing it. The recipe does scale up. This recipe makes about 0.45 liters, so just multiply the recipe amounts by 10 and you should have right around a 5 liter quantity! ?
How much carraway am I going to put?
Can I ask a question regarding water? Do you always need to add water with the salt and cabbage if using a bowl method or is this just for the jar method? I used a different recipe before which was just salt and cabbage and massaged/mixed which then created the salty brine but I didn’t feel there was a lot of liquid there for the cabbage to ferment in. It came out smelling and tasting okay just a little salty so I will use your calculation next time. Thanks
Adding water is not a requirement for a successful sauerkraut fermentation, but it helps keep batches consistent. Having water as part of our recipe also helps with consistency amongst all people who use our recipe. How old a cabbage is, what season it was grown in, and how long it’s been sitting in your fridge all influence how much brine can be created from using just salt and cabbage. So, adding water eliminates a lot of possible issues and unnecessary troubleshooting.
Thank you so much.
Than you for the information you provide on your website. Can I use red cabbage for this recipe & is the cabbage crunchy when fermented. If not can I add anything to keep it crunchy. Thank you in advance if you reply.
You’re welcome! you can absolutely use red cabbage. If you follow the recipe here, go easy and gentle on mixing the cabbage and salt, don’t pound it or mash it, it will stay crunchy! Since this recipe calls for some water, there’s no need to mash the cabbage to get the water out.
How do I compute for the amount of water needed?
The amount of water is listed in the recipe. If you want to learn my techniques for developing fermentation recipes you can visit our online school!
I don’t know what I messed up – I followed the recipe to a T (I was quite anal about the details) – made the recipe 4x in 4 separate jars and 3 out of the 4 have mold on day 13 – I have no idea what I did differently ….
Did you use a fermentation weight? What kind of jar and lid did you use? How did you clean your jars and equipment before you began?
I just made 2 double batches since I have 2 jars 34oz each. This is my first time fermenting anything…thank you for the info! You mention to ferment at 70-80 degrees. We keep our house between 64 and 68 degrees in the winter. I am assuming this will slow down the process. If that’s correct, how much slower should I expect it to be? In other words what is the timeline that applies to me, since it will be different than the one you provide?
Thank you so much! I save several other recipes and can’t wait to try them!
May I ask this question to remove any confusion. I see some recipes where they use hot water bath for their sauerkraut after the fermentation process. I believe so that they can store it on the shelf instead of the fridge. Will this destroy the probiotics after the hot water bath? ‘Thank you .
Yes, some people use canning methods to make the sauerkraut shelf-stable. This usually kills all the beneficial bacteria so fermentation will not continue at room temperature, but it depends on the temperature and canning method.
How many days are you supposed to burp the jar? I’m on day 6.
As long as it is bubbling, usually about 7 days.
Hi, first of all thank you so much for your amazing work and all the free resources and knowledge you give to us! I have a question regarding the lids you use. The plastic tough tops are very hard to get in Germany, so I was wondering what their benefit is exactly. Aren’t normal mason jar lids leak proof and airtight, too? Or why do you use the plastic ones during fermentation and the normal ones after? Thanks in advance for your help. Cheers, Patsi
Hi there! You are welcome.
The plastic lids do not rust, that’s the only benefit really; they last longer. They’re also easier to open. I use normal mason jar lids all the time. Sometimes I switch between lids, because I only have a few plastic ones, so I use those while the ferments are bubbly so my metal lids don’t rust. When the bubbling stops I’ll switch to a regular metal lid, so I can use the plastic one for a different ferment.
Since the lid is closed, is there risk of the jar bursting during fermentation?
No, you burp the jar daily during the bubbly phase of fermentation. There’s information about burping the jar in the body of this blog post, above the recipe card.
I am planning on making this recipe today hopefully! But was wondering if my water needs to be anything special?? Filtered? Distilled? Can I just use filtered tap water?
Filtered tap water works great!
I'[m at day 20 and I don’t see any mold, and it smells pretty good. But my brine has not been above the cabbage for a week or so now. I had a lot of brine during the bubbly phase but once the bubbles stopped it seems like there is not enough. I have every few days been opening it up and pressing down my weight to move the brine up , but within a few minutes the brine sinks down below my cabbage, about 0.5 inch. Is this okay? I am almost ready to taste test but didn’t want it to not be properly fermented. Thanks for all your help! This is my first time doing this
Yeah, that’s okay. It happens to mine in the later days of fermentation sometimes too. If it smells nice, and looks fine, you can taste test and refrigerate!
I made this and love it! Such a good recipe… it will be a staple in our fridge! One question I had, once you’ve moved it to the fridge… how long would you say it’s good and safe for? Do ferments tend to stay good for a while?
So glad you loved it! We’d appreciate it if you give the recipe 5 stars 🙂
it’s good in the fridge for a year or more! I generally eat it all before that point.
Loved this recipe! So easy to follow and turned out perfect!
I have a strange question, but how strong does this smell? How does it compare it canned sauerkraut? Does the whole fridge smell like it? My husband is particular about smells and I don’t want to make it and then not have him like it.
It can smell during the bubbly part of fermentation, but I don’t think it’s bad. I’ve been fermenting for over 10 years though, so I don’t really notice the smell.
I just tried this recipe for my first time, forgot
To burp daily, maybe only did it a couple of times. I’m on day 23 and I tested it and it didn’t taste good. Is that mean I let it go too long? Or do I need to keep letting it ferment?
Are you familiar with the taste of sauerkraut? “didn’t taste good” does not tell me enough about your experience. If you can elaborate more, I can help you determine what, if anything, went wrong.
Hi Kaitlynn, I have just made my first batch of sauerkraut and I can not get all of the caraway seeds to stay under the ferment weight. Do I need to be concerned about this?
Thank you!
It should be fine, mine do not all stay under. I just make sure the seeds don’t stick to the lid. When it is bubbling and you burp the jar just open it up and rinse the lid off if there are seeds stuck to it.
Thank you!
Hello, discovered your recipes today and have spent some time printing a # of them. I really appreciate your back ground as a micro biologist ! Since it is an anaerobic process promoting lactic acid why do you recommend removing the rubber seal from the jar ? Could you use what I would call a French jar with the spring loaded sealed jars ? I have occasional flare ups of Diverticulitis & store bought sauerkraut helps. Can’t wait to make my own , I think it would be much better. Thanks again for your expertise . Tom 🙂
hi there! I’m glad to hear you are enjoying the recipes. I recommend removing the seal from weck jars so that gas can escape from the jar without needing to burp it, and it won’t break. Yes, vegetable fermentation is an anaerobic process… within the brine. Everything submerged in the liquid is anaerobic. It doesn’t matter if a little air gets in the top of the jar as long as everything is submerged in the anaerobic brine with a fermentation weight.
First of all, LOVE your web sight – wonderful recipes! I’m quite a cook and read recipes for fun; your recipes are fantastic. I’ve made sauerkraut before to poor results. I like the measuring in gms – very accurate.
When I made sauerkraut via your recipe & it smelled wonderful but the liquid got below the level of the cabbage because it kept seeping out of my airlocks (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075LRMRDQ?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1). The top level of sauerkraut had what looked like black stuff on it so I sadly threw the batch out (tho again, it smelled GREAT).
My question is – should I try again using airlocks? If liquid seeps out, should I add more brine? If so, what would the water to salt measurement be?
So glad you are loving the website. I don’t suggest using airlock lids, they cause issues. I recommend using fermentation weights.