I bought a purple cabbage to make some red sauerkraut. I have made sauerkraut before, but this time I wanted to try it with red cabbage and see how it turned out.

I started by rinsing the cabbage and removing the core. Before doing anything else, I weighed the cabbage. It came in at 1500 grams.

I decided to use 2.5% salt, which meant I needed 37.5 grams of salt.

1500 grams × 0.025 = 37.5 grams of salt

I then removed the outer leaves and set them aside. I kept those leaves because I would use them later to cover the sauerkraut. The leaves need to be included in the total weight when calculating how much salt to use because they will eventually be under the brine along with the rest of the cabbage.

Next, I cut the cabbage into pieces small enough to fit into my food processor. I put the slicing blade in and ran the cabbage through until it was all sliced.

I put some of the sliced cabbage into a large bowl, sprinkled some of the salt over it, added more cabbage, and then added the rest of the salt. I mixed everything together and let it sit for about half an hour. This gave the salt time to start working its way into the cabbage and get the cabbage releasing some of its juice.

After it had sat for half an hour, I started crushing the cabbage to get as much juice out of it as I could. I spent about 20 minutes working the cabbage with my hands, squeezing and crushing it to release the juice.

You want to get as much liquid out of the cabbage as you can because you need enough brine to completely cover the cabbage once it is packed into the container.

If your hands get tired, take a break. There is no rush. Let the cabbage sit for a while and then go back to it and work it some more. The more juice you can get out of the cabbage, the easier it is going to be to keep everything covered with brine.

Once I was satisfied with the amount of juice I had released, I put the cabbage and all of the juice into a one-gallon ice cream pail. I took the outer cabbage leaves I had saved earlier and laid them over the top of the sliced cabbage.

I pressed everything down as well as I could, but at that point the brine didn’t quite cover the cabbage.

To keep the cabbage submerged, I put a freezer bag over the top and filled the bag with a 2.5% salt-water brine. The bag acts as a weight and presses down on the cabbage, while the brine in the bag is there in case the bag leaks. I covered the pail with a towel and left it to ferment.

About four hours later, I checked on it. By then, the brine had risen enough to cover the cabbage leaves and everything underneath them.

The next day, there was even more brine, and it was well above the top of the cabbage. From then on, I checked on the sauerkraut every day to make sure everything was staying submerged.

On the 12th day, I noticed a small amount of white growth along the edge of one of the cabbage leaves. I simply removed that part of the leaf and continued with the fermentation.

By the 16th day, I decided it was time to stop the fermentation. I tasted the sauerkraut and it was starting to lose some of its crunch, so I decided that 16 days was long enough for this batch.

I packed the sauerkraut into pint jars, put the lids on, and moved them into the refrigerator.

You can also process sauerkraut in a boiling water bath if you want to store it on the shelf instead of keeping it refrigerated. The fermentation process creates probiotics, but the heat from water-bath canning kills those live probiotics. The heat also creates postbiotics from the probiotics that were produced during fermentation, so even though canned sauerkraut no longer contains the same live probiotics as refrigerated sauerkraut, you still get the benefits of the postbiotics.

Water-Bath Canning Sauerkraut

If you want to store your sauerkraut on the shelf instead of keeping it refrigerated, you can process it in a boiling water bath. There are two ways you can pack the jars: raw pack or hot pack.

Raw Pack

For the raw-pack method, pack the fermented sauerkraut into clean, hot pint jars, leaving ½ inch of headspace. Ladle the sauerkraut’s brine over the cabbage, making sure the sauerkraut is covered while still leaving the required headspace.

Remove any air bubbles by running a nonmetallic spatula or bubble remover around the inside of the jar. Wipe the jar rims clean, place the prepared lids on the jars, and screw on the bands until they are fingertip tight.

Place the jars into the boiling water bath, making sure the water covers the jars by at least 1 inch. Bring the water back to a full boil before starting the processing time.

Process pint jars for 10 minutes. If you are canning at an altitude above 1,000 feet, adjust the processing time according to the altitude recommendations for your location.

Hot Pack

For the hot-pack method, put the fermented sauerkraut and its brine into a large pot and slowly bring it to a simmer. Stir it occasionally while it heats. You don’t want to cook the sauerkraut for a long time; the idea is simply to heat it thoroughly before filling the jars.

Ladle the hot sauerkraut and brine into clean, hot pint jars, leaving ½ inch of headspace. Remove any air bubbles by running a nonmetallic spatula or bubble remover around the inside of the jar. Wipe the jar rims clean, place the prepared lids on the jars, and screw on the bands until they are fingertip tight.

Place the jars into the boiling water bath, making sure the water covers the jars by at least 1 inch. Bring the water back to a full boil before starting the processing time.

Process pint jars for 10 minutes. If you are canning at an altitude above 1,000 feet, adjust the processing time according to the altitude recommendations for your location.

When the processing time is finished, turn off the heat and carefully remove the jars from the canner. Place them upright on a towel and leave them undisturbed for 12 to 24 hours.

After the jars have cooled, check the seals. Any jar that hasn’t sealed should be refrigerated and used first. Remove the bands from sealed jars, wipe the jars clean, label them, and store them in a cool, dark place.

How Much Salt Should You Use?

When making sauerkraut, the amount of salt you use can be anywhere from 1.5% to 2.5% of the weight of the cabbage. I used 2.5% for this batch, and I found that it makes a pretty salty sauerkraut.

If this is your first time making sauerkraut, I would recommend starting with 2% salt. That gives you a good starting point without making the finished sauerkraut as salty as this batch. Once you have made a batch, you can adjust the amount of salt up or down to suit your own taste.

That’s all there is to making red sauerkraut. Get the salt ratio right, work the cabbage until you have plenty of juice, and most importantly, keep the cabbage under the brine while it ferments.

This batch turned out great. The red cabbage made a beautiful sauerkraut, and the 16-day fermentation gave it a good sour flavor while still leaving some crunch. It’s a pretty simple process, and once you get the cabbage packed down and covered with brine, most of the work is just letting time do its thing.