Enjoying Fermented Cabbage
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Learn To Love Sauerkraut

Learn to love sauerkraut is all about teaching your tastebuds to enjoy this fabulous fermented cabbage dish.

As a lover of probiotics I know that homemade sauerkraut is one of the healthiest, most beneficial vegetables that a person can eat. Yet, despite that knowledge, it has taken me many years to get to the point where I can honestly say that I like it.

Well, I like my OWN homemade sauerkraut - and that is all that matters.

If you're struggling to get your tastebuds round this tangy fermented dish, you might well find my approach helpful.

How I learnt to love sauerkraut

• Find an expert source on making sauerkraut. This is the site I learnt through.

• Make your first batch a small one. I started with half a cabbage in a large jar. We're not trying to feed the extended family through a harsh winter at this stage. We're learning to love fermented cabbage! Keep it in the kitchen where it is always on view and accessible.

• 24 hours into your first sauerkraut making venture - dig a small fork full out and taste it. It will taste very much like raw cabbage dipped in sea salt, crisp and crunchy and certainly not unpleasant at all. At this point it won't be full of the Lactobacillus plantarum and others bacteria that will be there at the end but the fermentation process has started.

• Continue tasting it each and every day as it gradually ferments. You'll find that you take a source of pride from your own homemade sauerkraut that helps get you over any taste problems. Each day it will taste a little sourer and a little saltier.

• At some point it might be (it was for me) that even the pride of this being your very own fermented cabbage just can't quite reduce the saltiness enough - at that point start giving your forkfull of sauerkraut a quick rinse under the kitchen tap. This will reduce the saltiness without making any real impact on the bacteria levels - they are mostly within the strips of cabbage.

• Each day when I had my little taste I would rinse of the plate that was keeping the 'kraut submerged and I never had any blooms or moulds start on the surface. You're probably going to find, as I did, that I actually finished my container of fermented cabbage before it got to be fully fledged sauerkruat. Once you see this is going to happen then start another container off.

This system works on two levels. First, it's like the legend of the farmer that picked up a calf each day and eventually could pick up a fully grown bull! Okay, we know that can't really happen but you get the idea - accustom yourself to that taste getting ever so slightly sourer and saltier each day.

And it works because this jar of slowly fermenting cabbage is a little like a pet pup! It's YOURS and you're involved with it every day. You're like a proud momma or poppa watching your puppy grow! And just like with a pet pooch you put up with a little more yard wrecking and muddy footprints than if it was someone else's!

So after years of turning my nose up at sauerkraut, despite knowing how benficial it is, I can now say I am a genuine lover of sauerkraut! Join me!

If you really can't be bothered making your own fermented cabbage then buy this one - Barrel Sauerkraut . It has a very authentic flavor but understand that although you will get some of the benefits of sauerkraut, you will NOT get the beneficial bacteria - and really that's what it is all about.

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