Homemade Sauerkraut

My roommate, Eric, and I made homemade sauerkraut today.

He bought the whitest, crispest cabbage he could find and chopped it into quarters.

Next, he shred the cabbage into a bowl.

We added salt and caraway seed to the bowl, 

and I used a heavy cleaver to chop up the cabbage even more.

When it was cut up small enough,

I poured the cabbage into my fermenting crock.

Then I used a pounding stick to pound the cabbage.

I pounded, and pounded, and pounded,

until I could see lots of juice up over the cabbage.

The edge of your pounding stick should not be rounded.
If it has sharp edges, it will crunch the cabbage much quicker.
If I ever lost this pounder, made especially for kraut making,
I think I'd just cut off an old wooden baseball bat!

Then I put weights on top.

You can't see them but they look like these:

I put the lid on and put water in the well around the top.

And now it will go to "work" and in about one month,

we'll have the most EXCELLENT sauerkraut!

Here is a diagram of what goes on

inside that crock:

This is the brand crock I use.



Here are our three crocks of kraut,
sitting on the floor, farting kraut bubbles.
HOORAY!