# Homemade sauerkraut **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 10, 2005, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homemade-sauerkraut/316470 "2005-08-10T17:33:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Zjestika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/8edcca/32.png) [@Zjestika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zjestika)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homemade-sauerkraut/316470/1 "2005-08-10T17:33:25Z")
I was reading a book about probiotics called **The Life Bridge** , and there was a part about the health benefits of sauerkraut, it being fermented and full of antioxidants and reccommended heartily by a certain Dr. Pasteur. The book had a very simple, in an almost passing reference, recipe that said if you put ground raw cabbage in a sanitary container and maintain it at room temperature, voila, eventually there will be sauerkraut. So I chopped up some red cabbage (free from the culled veggies at work: I have a great job) and put it into a pint plastic container (also from work, used to pack deli items) and stuck the cabbagy container on a shelf, assuming that it will maintain itself at room temperature. My question: am I going to make myself sick? The recipe was vague at best so I don’t know if perhaps a glass container would have been better, or if there will be other, less awesome bacteria present than _Leuconostoc mesenteriodes_ that will, like, kill me. So, is it a good idea to eat my experiment? ZJ ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homemade-sauerkraut/316470/2 "2005-08-10T17:49:40Z")
Sauerkraut is fermented, **salted** cabbage. Without the salt, your cabbage is just going to wilt and eventually rot. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homemade-sauerkraut/316470/3 "2005-08-10T17:59:12Z")
[Sauerkraut](http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_27001,00.html) from Good Eats. The plastic container is also a bad idea. After four weeks, it will reek of cabbage and visa versa. ---
**Author:** ![Zjestika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/8edcca/32.png) [@Zjestika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zjestika)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homemade-sauerkraut/316470/4 "2005-08-10T18:22:49Z")
Cool. Thanks guys. ZJ ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homemade-sauerkraut/316470/5 "2005-08-10T18:29:14Z")
> [@cher3](#): > > Sauerkraut is fermented, **salted** cabbage. Without the salt, your cabbage is just going to wilt and eventually rot. Yes, you definitely need to get some salt going there. You need enough salt to kill the bacteria you don’t want, and not so much to overpower the bacteria you do want. [Here’s another solid, basic recipe](http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art11364.asp) for homemade saeurkraut. You can add juniper berries and caraway seed to taste. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homemade-sauerkraut/316470/6 "2005-08-10T18:31:53Z")
A couple of anecdotes here [http://www.sauerkrautrecipes.com/health.shtml](http://www.sauerkrautrecipes.com/health.shtml) suggest it could work, but most of the other references say too little salt can affect quality and safety. I’ll speculate that without salt other conditions like temperature become critical.