How To Make Homemade Sauerkraut – Easy Recipe (Video)

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Learning how to make homemade sauerkraut is so much fun!  I’ve been making it for many years and it still amazes me how you can make such a probiotic rich food full of beneficial bacteria that is healthy for your gut from just two simple ingredients, raw cabbage and salt.  Homemade sauerkraut used to be stored in the cold room or root cellar back in the homesteading days of America, and eaten all winter long.  The salt serves as a preservative for this naturally fermented food.  

Nowadays it can be stored in the refrigerator following the fermentation process and enjoyed fresh with all of the probiotics that are so good for your immune system and your gut health.  You can also can it, which I show you how to do in the video below, and then you’ll have shelf stable sauerkraut in your pantry ready to be enjoyed all winter long.  Sauerkraut is one of the easiest fermented foods that you can make. It will increase your health and lower your grocery costs especially if you grow the cabbage yourself.  If you’ve never made sauerkraut, I would encourage you to give it a try.  It’s not as hard as you might think, and is not only healthy, but inexpensive to make as well.

Cabbage

We grow all of our own cabbage in our garden and enjoy it in many different ways throughout the growing season.  The trick to growing cabbage is to plant it early in the year when it’s still cool outside.  Cabbage can handle temperatures down to 20 degrees fahrenheit, so here in Nebraska we plant it outside during the month of April once the heavy snows are past.  It’s usually ready to harvest in June, and since it’s still fairly cool then, there is no pest pressure because cabbage butterflies don’t like to fly unless it’s above 90 degrees.  I like to plant some cabbage a little later in the season as well so it for fresh eating all summer, and so I can make more than one batch of sauerkraut if need be.

We enjoy making cabbage into coleslaw, cabbage steaks, runzas, or fried with hamburger.  I also make a huge batch of this homemade sauerkraut recipe every year.  We leave some in the refrigerator for fresh eating, and can the rest and put on our pantry shelves.  I also like to blanch and dry some cabbage pieces to use in soups throughout the winter.

Our Favorite Ways To Enjoy Sauerkraut

Hot with brats or hot dogs on a cool fall or winter day

Fried with hamburger and made into runzas which are basically a version of hot pockets.

Sauerkraut is a great addition to any burger or sandwich.  You can easily make them into Reubens by adding cheese and homemade thousand island dressing.

On reuben pizza with burger, cheese, onions and homemade thousand island dressing.

In tacos or burritos.

Sauerkraut is a great side dish for almost any meal.  Plain homemade sauerkraut is delicious and has a much better flavor than storebought kraut.

Tips For Making Homemade Sauerkraut

• You can use quart or gallon jars, or a large 5 gallon crock like I do in the video below.  The secret to great sauerkraut is keeping the kraut below the cabbage juice so that it doesn’t mold on top.  So whatever container you use, make sure you have a way to keep the cabbage underneath it’s juice.  (More tips below).
• Use good quality salt like Redmond Real Salt so you get all the vitamins and minerals possible for your body.
• Be patient while pounding the kraut and the salt together.  It takes a little while for the salt to make the cabbage release it’s natural juices.
• To keep the cabbage under the juice in your fermentation container, you can use a small pint or jelly jar that will fit into the top of your jar.  Fill it with water until it pushes down on the cabbage and the juice rises above the surface of the cabbage.  You can also use fermentation weights like these.
• There’s not an exact time for letting the cabbage ferment into sauerkraut.  I usually leave mine for 2-3 weeks.  If you leave it longer than that, it will be fine, it just might taste a little more sour.  You can always taste it after a few days and see if it’s as sour as you like it.  In the old days when they made this and stored it in their root cellars in large crocks, they would eat on it until spring and it would just be a little more sour as it got closer to spring.  It won’t spoil and hurt you, it just depends on how you want it to taste.  Of course, the more it ferments, the more probiotics will be developed into the sauerkraut.
• It’s best to cover your fermentation container with something that will keep the flies and fruit flies out like a towel or plastic wrap for a crock, or a coffee filter or cloth for a smaller container.  If you happen to get a few fruit flies in the top of the kraut (because this has happened to me before), don’t worry.  Just scrape off the top layer of kraut that might be a little nasty, and underneath you’ll have beautiful fresh kraut to enjoy.
• I usually pack some raw kraut into several quart jars and put lids on them and then store them in the refrigerator.  The rest I heat up gently and pack into quart jars and water bath so they will be seal and be shelf stable.  The cooked kraut does not have as many probiotics in it of course, but it’s still much better for you than what the grocery store has to offer because it’s made from homegrown organic cabbage.  It also only cost you pennies to grow the cabbage, so it’s almost like having free food on your shelf all year round.

Simple Ingredients

Fresh Cabbage

Organic cabbage is the best.  I like to use a mix of green and red cabbage if I have it, because it makes a beautiful pink kraut.  But you can you use whatever you have on hand.  In the video below I show making kraut with just green cabbage from the garden.  If you don’t have the opportunity to grow your own cabbage, you can order organic cabbage in bulk from Azure Standard during certain times of the year.  It makes wonderful kraut, and you can just order it ever few weeks and keep making new batches of kraut for fresh eating if you’d like.

Salt

Redmond Real Salt is the best, but if you don’t have that, just use whatever non-idodized salt you can fine.  It will work just as well.

Caraway Seeds (Optional)

If you are used to eating kraut from the grocery store that has caraway seeds in it, you can certainly add some caraway seeds to your kraut.

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Tools You May Need

Fermentation container

Large mason jars or a fermentation crock. I’ve always found the best way for making homemade sauerkraut is in a large 5 gallon crock. But you can also make it in large mason jars as well.

Kraut pounder or some kind of plastic or wooden mallet

This isn’t as necessary if you’re making sauerkraut in quart jars because you can just massage the salt into the cabbage and press it down firmly to make it juice.  But if you’re making a large crock full of kraut, you’re gonna want to a kraut pounder or mallet for pounding the cabbage and kraut together and making it juice.  In the old days they called it “stomping the kraut”.

Sharp knife or kraut cutter

I’ve always just used a sharp knife and thinly sliced the cabbage into kraut sized pieces.  If you want your kraut super fine, you might want to invest in a kraut cutter, but it’s totally optional.

Fermentation Weights

You need some way of keeping the cabbage below the surface of the brine or juice so that it doesn’t mold.  As mentioned above, you can use a small glass jar filled with some water to weigh the cabbage down. Or you can purchase fermentation weights.  You’ll see on the video below that I used one of my cheese making weights wrapped in plastic wrap for my big 5 gallon crock.  They also make large weights for fermenting in large crocks. You can also use one of the big cabbage leaves left from the outside of the cabbage, or even some large grape leaves to help hold the cabbage below the line of the juice.  Use what you have if you can, and be creative.  It doesn’t have to be fancy, but you do need to keep the kraut below the line of the cabbage juice.  

Canner

Water Bath Canner

Two Burner Camp Chef Stove

Camp Chef Stove

How To Make Homemade Sauerkraut

Make sure your fermentation container is clean.

Using a sharp knife or a kraut cutter, thinly slice the cabbage and place some in the fermentation container.

If using a jar, you’ll want to fill the jar a quarter of the way full, and then sprinkle with some salt before adding more cabbage.  The general rule of thumb is 1-2 tsp. Of salt per head of cabbage.   

If you’re using a crock, put 3-4” of cabbage in the bottom of the crock.  Sprinkle salt liberally on top of the shredded cabbage before adding another layer of cabbage.  

The general rule of thumb is 1 teaspoon of salt per head of cabbage.   I’ve never followed this rule exactly.  If your kraut doesn’t seem like it’s releasing it’s juice even after being worked awhile, just sprinkle a little more salt on the cabbage, and it will release it’s juice.

The idea is to layer cabbage and salt into your container, and using clean hands, massage and pound the salt and cabbage together, all while pressing down every so often, to encourage the cabbage mixture to release it’s own juice.  This is shown in the video below.

Pro Tip

It takes a little bit of time for the cabbage to fully release it’s juice so keep layering more cabbage and salt and be patient.  By the time your jar or crock is full, you should be able to press down on the cabbage and there should be enough liquid to cover the top of the cabbage.  

Place your fermentation weight on top of the cabbage, making sure that there is no cabbage sticking up above the cabbage juice.

Cover with some kind of cloth or plastic wrap and a rubber band to keep fruit flies out.  

Allow to sit at room temperature out of direct sunlight and preferable in a dark place for 2-3 weeks or until cabbage is fermented into sauerkraut and tastes the way you want it to taste.  It should have a delicious tangy flavor, and the cabbage will still be slightly crispy when the kraut is fresh.

Place some in the refrigerator for fresh eating by packing into clean jars and making sure there is enough juice to cover the cabbage. Place a lid on the jar and store in the refrigerator for up to 6 months.

Canning Homemade Sauerkraut

If you want to can some of your kraut, place it in heavy bottom stock pot and bring to a gentle boil.

Pack hot kraut into clean jars and assemble two piece canning lids.

Process for 20 minutes in a boiling water bath canner.  

After they cool and are sealed, remove the rings and place on the shelf for long term storage.

If you try this recipe and love it, please come back and give it 5 stars! Tag me on Instagram @wagonwheelhomestead21.  I can’t wait to see what all you make!