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Yesterday, I traveled an hour and a half to spend over three hours in a noble pursuit…I helped my father-in-law make sauerkraut.  We can only hope that when it begins to ferment, all our effort will not be in vain, and a good brew will be happening.  Ideally, the sauerkraut will be ready for consumption by New Year’s Day, with a pork roast or maybe pork meatballs.

Unfortunately, I completely forgot my husband’s advice to document the process photographically.  When I walked into the house, my father-in-law had everything all set up to begin, and I was so excited I never even thought about the camera.

So armed with forty pounds of fall cabbage (which had to be cleaned, quartered, and cored), two antique sauerkraut shredders, kosher salt, a ten gallon crock (also antique), and a recipe book from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (published 1944), we set to work.  And what work it was.  Despite our best efforts and all the clean sheets on the floor, we still managed to spread cabbage bits all around the kitchen.  It was on our shoes, up to our elbows, and the salt made me itch.  It was great!

My father-in-law and I talked, too,  about everything from gas prices to Rush Limbaugh.  Come to think of it, what a remarkable confluence of hot-air producing things…kraut, methane, and more methane.  We bonded (my father-in-law and me, not me and Rush).

Making sauerkraut is not difficult, but it takes time and patience.  Physically laborious, the process involves mixing five pounds of shredded cabbage with three and half tablespoons of salt, and packing and tamping each batch on top of each other in the crock.  When you’re through with that, you must cover the cabbage with a big plate, a wet cloth, and a heavy weight.  And everything must be scrupulously clean so as to insure a good fermentation. 

My part was over at the end of the day, but my father-in-law will be checking the crock a couple of times a week to de-scum it and wash the cloth on top.  I’ll resume my duties at some point in the New Year, armed with a knife and fork.