What happened to my homemade Sauerkraut?

Cafe Society
1

A couple of weeks ago, I attempted to make my first batch of sauerkraut at home. I had bought the book Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz after listening to an interview with him, and it seemed like a dead simple thing to tackle for my first attempt at fermenting something. The farmer’s market had some nice looking cabbage, so it seemed like the opportune time.

I shredded one large head of cabbage and set it up in a one gallon fermentation crock. As I was packing and salting the cabbage, I thought, "no way is this going to work. There’s just no way that enough water is going to get pulled out of the cabbage to submerge this whole mass. I weighted the wooden lid and, sure enough, within six hours sufficient water had been expressed to completely submerge the cabbage. Success!

Over the next 4 days or so I peeked in on it a couple of times a day (I draped a cloth over it to keep bugs away) and all seemed to be going well. Suddenly, on Day 5, I looked and there was no visible brine. It seemed like overnight someone had just dumped a bunch of the liquid out. It smelled like sauerkraut, but since it was no longer submerged in liquid I got nervous and threw it out. I didn’t know what kind of aerobic bacteria might have taken up residence in there.

So, any ideas what might have happened? It had been hot outside the for the preceding few days and the air conditioner had been running full bore. Could it be that the air just got so dry that it evaporated off too much brine? Do I just need to keep a closer eye on it and add brine along the way, to make up for evaporation?

Anyone else make their own fermented vegetables and have this happen? Any other suggestions?

2

Evaporation sounds plausible enough. I use a large ziplock full of brine to weigh down my kraut, that way it’s easy to top off if the level looks a little low.

You probably didn’t need to throw out your kraut. I would have cooked it and tasted it, at least, but I understand that one tends to be cautious in new hobbies. Especially ones you eat!

3

So you have to cook this homemade sauerkraut before you eat it?

4

Normally you don’t need to cook it, but if I questioned the integrity of a batch I would probably heat it up just for peace of mind.

5

I suspect with all the salt that goes into it, you’d have been fine. I haven’t made sauerkraut in ages, but I’ve had the brine come under the top level of cabbage leaves for a day or two and it hasn’t been an issue.

6

Haven’t made it in years, as well, so I don’t know.

Just wanted to mention that there is a quart jar method that may work better for you since you make small amounts anyway.

7

It’s unlikely to be evaporation if it’s been doing fine the previous 4 days. It’s more likely that there was a leak in your crock somehow. Fill the crock up with plain water and leave it in a bowl overnight to check.