Fresh Kraut

This past weekend I had DH lug the crock of sauerkraut up from the basement and into the kitchen.  It had been done fermenting for a few weeks, but being as there is no real rush to can the finished kraut, I hadn't worried about trying to squeeze a canning session in with our power outages and Christmas parties and ice storms and deep snows and bitter cold weather that we've so far experienced since the kraut reached it's six weeks of fermentation mark.  In the old, old days, people left the kraut in the crock for months and just dipped out of it whenever they wanted to eat some.

I, however, have always canned mine once it was done fermenting.  That way I was sure it would stay clean (always a challenge when you have a houseful of kids) and good, for as long as we wanted to wait between being done fermenting and eating the very last bit of that year's batch.

We ate the first of it on Sunday, along with potatoes from the cellar and some Polish sausage DH and his friend had made right after the New Year started.  It was go-oood!

I confess I am not normally a fan of sauerkraut.  In fact, before I started making my own (solely because DH loves it), I refused to eat sauerkraut at all.  I had never tasted any brand that I liked.  But that first batch I made, back around 1999 or so, I found somewhat tolerable.  I mean, I could choke down about 1/4 cup of the stuff with kielbasa cooked in it.  (Sauerkraut from the store I refuse to cook all the kielbasa in; reserving a couple chunks of meat that I fry up separately for myself).  Hmmm.  That was a big deal in itself--the fact that I could eat even 1/4 cup of sauerkraut without gagging.  One more thing that is definitely better homemade than mass produced for the grocery store.

Anyway, on Sunday we had fresh sauerkraut for dinner.  And I think it is the best batch yet.  I mean, I ate an entire cup of kraut!!  I will actually say I liked it, actually called it good.  Out loud.  To DH, who has heard me berate sauerkraut for 23 years.

Now I'm wondering if this year's awesome tasting kraut (I can't believe I used awesome as an adjective to sauerkraut!!) has anything to do with the varieties of cabbage that it was made from.  In 2013 I went totally away from the common cabbage that I'd grown for years with varying success (some years we had enough to make kraut, most we didn't) and I grew three varieties I had never heard of before.  One in particular was marketed as being a really good cabbage for kraut. I got the seeds from an heirloom/organic seed type place.  And they grew well. This picture was taken in October when I harvested the vast majority of the cabbage:

Yes, that is a tractor bucket full of cabbage.  Probably two-thirds of that cabbage went into my crock, all chopped and salted and packed down for kraut.

weighted down with bags of water to keep cabbage submerged in salt brine

covered and ready for fermenting in the basement

And here is the finished product:

canned for storage

leftovers from Sunday's dinner become DH's Tuesday lunch

The best kraut I have ever tasted, hands down.  I will definitely be growing those 'new' varieties of cabbage again.  In case you are interested in checking them out for your own garden (and kraut!), they are Fiedlerkraut, Copenhagen, and Perfection Drumhead.