Home · Recipes · Historical Cookbook · Preserving Vegetables

Sauerkraut or Cabbage

4 servings

Ingredients

• 1 bucket White cabbage (Kappus), shredded
• Salt (handful)
• Caraway seeds (a little)
• Dill (a little)
• Sour apples (a little)

Instructions

1. Use large, firm heads of white cabbage or Kappus.
2. Remove the outer bad leaves, cut the heads in half, and remove the thick stalks.
3. Shred the cabbage with a cabbage slicer, not too finely.
4. For every bucket of sliced cabbage, take a handful of salt and mix it in, along with caraway seeds, as you shred.
5. Mix the shredded cabbage thoroughly again and pack it firmly into a prepared barrel whose bottom is covered with large cabbage leaves.
6. If desired, dill or sliced sour apples can be pressed in with it, and the caraway seeds can also be omitted.
7. Use a stomper (heavy wooden block on a handle) to pack it down firmly.
8. Once the cabbage is tightly packed, cover it with cabbage leaves, place a clean linen cloth on top, then a fitting wooden lid, and weigh it down with a stone.
9. First, place the barrel in a less cool location to speed up fermentation, then store it in the cellar.
10. After 3-4 weeks, the cabbage can already be used; it will keep all winter if it is well covered and weighted down each time.

Modernized from a treasured 19th-century German cookbook.