IngredientsPreserves
Sauerkrautfermented cabbage
Finely shredded white cabbage that ferments in its own juice. Lactic acid bacteria eat the sugar in the cabbage and turn it into acid. No vinegar goes near it.
That is the whole difference from a pickle: fermentation against vinegar. Pickled vegetables taste sharp and flat; fermented cabbage tastes round and smells of cabbage and yeast.
Selbst machenmaking it yourself
Shred white cabbage, weigh it, add two percent of that weight in salt. Knead until it runs juice, press it hard into a jar, keep everything under the brine.
Four weeks is the number for a cool cellar. It is easier than it sounds and needs no starter culture.
Geschmacktaste
Sour on its own is not yet German. That comes from the caraway cooked with it: alcaravea, not comino.
Without caraway the cabbage is merely sour. With cumin the plate walks over to Mexico.
Kaufenwhere to buy it
Chucrut in jars turns up at City Market and on Mercado Libre.
Jarred or tinned kraut is pasteurised, meaning cooked: the bacteria are dead and the taste stays put. Raw bagged kraut from the chiller keeps fermenting and turns sourer week by week.
Vorsichtwatch out
In the heat of Nayarit the ferment runs far faster than in a German cellar.
Taste it daily instead of counting weeks. When it tastes right, put it in the fridge; cold slows the ferment down.