hello folks I'm trav and this is the mason jars suite today we'll process a cabbage that's right we're making sauerkraut classic easy delicious we'll also make a couple of variations one that's just green sauerkraut and another one with all kinds of propellers and things in it and demonstrate how easy and flexible making sauerkraut really is the word sauerkraut is German in English it means sour cabbage which is what it tastes like in a good way but people have been fermenting cabbage and other things since long before Germany was a thing it's an easy way to preserve stuff it takes no cooking no stovetop no electricity or anything and stuff can keep for a long long time even if you don't put it in the refrigerator now many people are nervous about their first forays into the wide world of fermentation it's okay we'll be good will it be safe what about mold what if it becomes sentient and tries to take over my town leaving everything I've ever loved in ruins but after fermenting a few foods most people gain the confidence that the things they make are really tasty and that if you take a vegetable and submerge it in water with some salt good stuffs gonna happen we're going to make two kinds of sauerkraut today simple green one and the really pretty colorful one that's got carrots and peppers in it you can also add garlic you could turn up so you could add beets you could every whatever you want usually it's best to start by peeling all the outer leaves off of the cabbage and then giving that cabbage a good rinse just help to keep any contaminants down a lot of people touched that thing from field to processing facility to packing in the boxes HIDs and all the other people with the fingers all over things chop the cabbage in half cut it in half again and then take that core out slice the cabbages up how thick doesn't matter experiments you can make a batch out a little tiny thin shredded strips or you can just have big chunks and pack it into a thing and see how it tastes I tend to like them a little less than 1/4 inch thick which is about the width of my pinky now you can do it with a knife or use a cabbage board these days we call them mandolins but not the kind you play bluegrass now let's talk about what sauerkraut is easy you certainly can haphazardly without really measuring take a bunch of cabbage and cut it up and take some amount of salt and put it on there and say that looks like a good amount of salt and then pack it into a thing and it'll be fine the thing is if you want to be consistent then you should measure I like to measure by weight if I know the weight ratio of salt cabbage I can easily calculate it to 5 pounds of cabbage or 10 pounds of cabbage err 575 pounds of cabbage if I want that's math we're making two different batches of sauerkraut in two different styles with the same technique they're both gonna be five pound batches so we have five pounds of green cabbage and in another container we're gonna weigh out four pounds of red and green cabbage all mixed together and then to that four pounds are gonna add one more pound of other stuff in this case we're just gonna use the carrots we're gonna use peppers it also add the garlic it also adds spices you could also add more cabbage so into my five pounds of cabbage I'm putting 1/3 cup of salt or about three ounces of salt mix that cabbage and salt use your hand you wash them and mush the cabbage and salt together really work that salt in then take that whole container of cabbage and salt and leave it there on the counter stick it in the corner put it away or something for about 10 minutes now this is flexible too you could leave it for 10 minutes or you can leave it overnight some people prefer that just out at room temperature and into the next batch we put four pounds of cabbage which is red and we use dreams we also thought what else would we like to put into this cabbage and with great for thought we said well let's see what else is in the fridge and it turned out we have some gorgeous heirloom variety carrot so we slice those up fairly thin we chopped up some peppers because we really wanted a little bit of heat to get spread all through Oh same amount of salt for five pounds of vegetables ten minutes or an hour or however long after mixing all that salt with the cabbage we're gonna pull it back out set it down in front of us we're gonna just take a good look and we're gonna say oh my goodness it's covered in little droplets of water that's exactly what we want give it another mix just to make sure it's all evenly distributed and then start packing it into your vessels five pounds of cabbage makes about 3/4 a gallon a pack down credit we'll put the green kraut in two vessels one a half-gallon mason jar and then the other a little quart mason jar the super magical rainbow trout will go into another container that fits just about three quarts the perfect size for this batch these are the vessels where it's gonna sit somewhere in your house for about two weeks or so the fermentation to happen now pack it into jars punch it if you got that kind of energy working through your system and press it down and really just do your best to work that cabbage down into the bottom of your jar or your ceramic crock or your plastic food grade bucket or whatever other vessel you're using just make sure that it's as clean as possible and that it's something that's food safe and won't bleed put a little bit in and punch and press and then put a little bit more in and punch and press and if you're using glass then on the side you'll be able to see all these little air bubbles and we want to force those out more you press and the more you press and the more you press the more water is gonna be pushed out of the cabbage and is going to create the brine in which the cabbage since we're trying to create an environment that is perfect for all the little critters that are gonna live inside this mix and turn it into sauerkraut now we need to put a fairly heavy weight on top of our vegetables to keep them under the surface of the water that's important because if they're exposed to air up at the top that's when you're gonna get some mold and we don't like mold if it does mold it's okay you can get rid of it and everything below the surface is gonna be fine find a plate or a piece of plastic or something and in the case of mason jars you can take a little half-pint mason jar which i think is just adorable fill it with water let's put a lid on and then just carefully press that right down on your cabbage you don't have too many little chopped things to float up around the side of it that's perfect you can also use a food grade plastic bag and that works really well now just in case the bag leaks we want to fill it not with water but with a 5% saltwater brine that way if it leaks at least the cabbage is still sitting in salt water and that's what we want if you use a good heavy duty like freezer bag I'd recommend putting the two of them together one inside the other if you use on those thin plastic bags you go and get stuff from the bulk food bin at Whole Foods and things from but I want to put three or four more of those together cuz that they break now I recommend taking those containers of kraut and putting them into another vessel with some sides just in case it leaks often as everything settles and your weight gets pressed down a little a level of the liquid Rises and it comes up at the top and it makes a big mess and since you put it somewhere to forget about for two weeks you actually get about it and then you come back and find out that this gross stuff all over the floor then clean it up so put it in a vessel and then put it in your garage or your basement if you don't have a nice cool room like that then put it there or over there or somewhere it'll be fine well done and now hmm two weeks have passed let's see how our sauerkraut looks pull out that kraut just grape away just a little from the top give it a good smell it smells like sauerkraut put it in your mouth cautiously perhaps it tastes like sauerkraut and then dump a bunch in a bowl and eat it put it on a sandwich and put it in the fridge leave it there for I don't know a week a mom mom ideally you want to eat it within a few weeks a couple of months perhaps because that's when the texture and the flavors gonna be the best but in reality I have forgotten about sauerkraut for a long time in the back of my fridge and it's still delicious that's it that's sauerkraut on the mason jar sweet please leave comments below tell us what you think tell us how you make sauerkraut and send us links to pictures of this sauerkraut if indeed you make this one I would love to see that and also hit the red subscribe button if you'd like to be notified with more of the mason jars sweet is released