I just learned a nifty little tip from friends. Did you know that you can "can" RAW sauerkraut and keep it raw?? NO heat needed! Just prepare your raw Kraut ( Shred cabbage, fill a jar, salt it and smash it down until the juices rise enough to just cover the top of the kraut and let sit) put your regular canning jar lid on and put it away on a shelf (NO REFRIGERATION NEEDED!!) It seals itself and stays rawlicious for a year + on the shelf!! No canner needed - still raw. That is how my local homesteading friends do it! I was so excited to learn this little tip! I don't care for cooked kraut, but this will be a wonderful way to have raw kraut stored it in our pantry!
I am wondering, is this common knowledge? Am I "the last one to know" this?? :-) Is this the same also for Kimchee and fermented carrots??
Simply wonderful!!
* UPDATE* July 8, 2012
I just thought I would update this post a little. As you may notice on the blog, I have been experimenting with lacto-fermented foods sine I wrote this post. I thought you might like to know that I have preserved raw lacto-fermented sauerkraut in this way for over nine months now., It is FABULOUS! I have done it with our without whey. I have also done it with and without caraway seeds. It's all keeps well good...it is just a matter of personal preference. I keep mine in a cool place (for us that is the root cellar- for others that could be a basement. I have a friend in AL who has neither a basement or root cellar and she just wrote me and said she is going to try it in the crawl space of her house! (I will have to get back to you next year, as to her results! :-))
I am researching and experimenting with storing other varieties of lacto-fermented foods. I hope to post more of my findings and results from my experiments. If anyone knows of a good resource that has documented lacto-fermentation and food storage..PLEASE TELL ME! I have been looking! :-)
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13 comments:
Hi Pamela! It's new to me too; this is what I made the whey for this week! I used a fraction of salt and double that potion of whey. We were so excited to make our first batch!!! It's sitting out on my bench fermenting as we speak I mean type! Lol! There was an article about it quite a while back which I linked to recently. I read this aloud over dinner to the family. Christine has been making kimchee for some time like this I believe. Thanks for letting me know about the cream cheese too! Christine had told me the same thing and I made spiced pumpkin muffins with a cream cheese filling! I'm so enjoying learning these things.
Happy sauerkrauting!!!!
Love Lusi x
Lus, I have been making raw kraut fro years (you get spoiled once yu try it!) I have done it with or without whey. I think the whey gives added benefit of lacto action. However, I always stored it in the fridge. My friend whp make big batches from their garden and just store it on the shelf, do not use the whey - only salt. So I thought I would try both and see if it keeps with the whey like that too. If it seals - it seems like it would! I am curious if any one knows that for sure. Do you know if Christine stores her kimchee on the shelf long term or only in the fridge?? I'll have ot emial her and ask her. It might even be in my Nourishing Traditions book - I haven't cracked that open in a long time.
Eww eww - do post that pumpkin muffin with cream filling recipe won't you?? :-) Sounds delish!
DO you simmer your lid like in regular canning to soften the sealing agent? This is great! I'm going to have to store some on my shelves, my fridge is tiny.
Krista,
Nope, you can just do it on cold jar with rims and lids. She said, however that you want to leave some head room because of the fermentation process. I am guessing an inch or two. (I still have yet to get my cabbage in this year to try it.) Don't be surprised if it seeps some, because of the activity.(Keep that in mind as to WHERE you store it. You might like to set something under the jars just in case.) I think she has it written down too, so will try to copy it and share it here. (It will take some time though - they are off off grid in the process of many things and we are an hour away.)
I appologizr for not having an exacting recipe to share right up front. I was just so excited to try it myself an share it before I forgot. (My blog is my "other brain".) :-)
Sorry Pamela! I feel so silly posting about the whey now!!! I thought that you had been cooking up your sauerkraut which is that way I had been taught once before! I thought that was the only way to make it! Lol! And here you are having been making it for years already!!! It's good to know about using just the salt and keeping it on the bench. You are so lovely!
Lus x
this is how i was told to can saurkraut too and i need to get around to it like i had planned- thanks for the push!
Lusi,
No worries. My post was very short and that could easily be misunderstood. So could all the typos in my comments, I just re- read it(yowser!). :-)
I have to giggle sweet sis, because Yah always echos the Bible in my brain when I am humbled. (I used to fight being humbled - now I embrace it, becasue I know He is moving me closer to Him.) This time - it is 1Cor 13 (toward the end, when Paul said) "For now I know in part and prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. For when I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child, but when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For NOW I know in part, THEN I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."
I see things in patterns and object lessons paralelled with Scripture all the time now since He has been teaching me Torah (His Istructions/target). I know you know what I am talking about!
The comments on this post are great example - Check it out:
1. I have been doing it a while, but I hardly "new it all" I got alot right but was still doing unessessary things that I thought were necessary. I was also unclear in commuinicating my "latest" revelation to others, even though it connected the dots so clearly for ME. I am so excited I am telling people about it even before I am able to put this little piece into action. (My friend who showed me is further along than I.)
2. You happen to also be 'right there' The only difference is that you are JUST discovering this certain thing, and in the process but putting into action for the first time. (Not on the bench thinking about it.) It is still awkward and you are just gaining your experiance with it. But you know enough to wonder, why on earth did I ever do it the other way?? This is SO much better, for us. It tastes so much better - who knew there was this whole other level? And it's really nothing to be "afraid of" - quite the opposite! There is so much more!
3. Others are just introduced to the idea for the first time and still mulling it over, collecting data and considering it from a distance. Standing on the oustide looking in..if you will.
4. Yet others have been taught this, believe it, know it to be true, and needed one last bit of something to start the process of walking it out.
Do you see what I see? :-) I LOVE IT! This is a shadow picture of our process in walking with YHVH through the Scriptures too. All these hurdles and revelations we go through as He teaches us His ways and transforms our thinking and our lifestyle into one of worshiping Him. No matter where we are in this, we are all still his children with only partial understanding of His ways. He accepts us and loves us right where we are. No matter how long we have been doing it, or how much we THINK we know, or how well we "perform" since it is our faith and obediance or which He jusdegs us. The reality is that we ONLY know in PART. HOWEVER, HE WILL bring it all to pass , when He comes to finish the job at His Appointed Time ...one day on that LAST GREAT DAY. :-) What an awsome day that will be!
OK - now that I have scared absolutly everyone (except for maybe you - tee hee) from commenting on my blog again...by turning suaekraut into a spiritual discussion in the comments.... I just can't help it. :-) It's so beautiful. He's so beautiful and so are you my friend!
See, that's why I LOVE you Pamela!!!! That's what will continue to bring me back here! These are the sorts of things I imagine us talking about while rocking on your porch in the sun drinking cool teas! I love reading through the parables that Yeshua used and seeing the underlying spiritual lessons He gave to us. I can imagine him using this lesson on blogging and sauerkraut to explain things just as you have about the beautiful truths in His Word. What treasures! And you are a great blessing to me!
Much love Pamela,
Lus x
Ps: Brett and I have looked online at the property you have listed on your sidebar more than once! Sigh :-) If only! Lol :-)
Lus, Don't tease me so! ;-) If Yah says so...than that is quite another matter and you need to email me ASAP in that case. :-) Until then...we keep fermenting oceans away from one another - in HIS Shalom. :-)
Much Love, p
hi!
just wondering if anyone has a handy recipe for this "canning" kraut without heat dealio.
sounds awesome!
question: if the lids are screwed on the mason jars after packing...how can it seep?
(i'm a noob, and need help!)
hopefully someone will post soon! i will check back.
Hi Annonamous,
It is my understanding that you can just prepare the raw Kraut as described above and put the lid on...I have a case of cabbage I am playing with right now (and had suer krat with dinner tonight actually!) and was planning on making six jars and putting them in my root cellar. I was going open one every 2 months this year. ( think I might lable them -so I don't forget) and see how it unfolds. It really is suppose to be THAT simple!
Thanks for the quick response!
Do your jars "seep" after screwing the lids on?
Curiously yours.
Curiously Yours,
Since I am just trying to put sonme up on the shelf for the first time this week - I can not speak from experiance. (I have always kept mine in the fride, just making one jar at a time as needed.) HOWEVER, my friend that does this normally, says that it CAN seep a little bit, but it doesn't always. It is still fine when it does...UNLIKE regular canned goods. :-) She just warned me about this in regards to housekeeping. I don't understand the science of it fully (how it can seep and still be sealed safely), I would speculate it is the pressure of the fermentation and the "vacuum" kind of work simultaniously...but again...not sure. :-)
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