The best time-tested country style sauerkraut recipes

Sauerkraut is one of the traditional and healthy snacks, a versatile way of storing vegetables for a long time. The simplest recipe is rustic. It does not involve complex culinary manipulations, does not require special cooking skills and does not involve expensive products.

Today we will tell you how to properly ferment country-style cabbage, store it and use it.

Selection and preparation of starter product

To choose high-quality white cabbage for sourdough, it is recommended to buy it in the fall when ripe late varieties, suitable for winter sourdough... Early salad varieties are green, not as dense as autumn heads of cabbage, and do not lend themselves to pickling due to the specific chemical composition. Summer cabbage does not crunch and deteriorate from exposure to brine.

When buying forks, squeeze them in your hands - "correct" heads of cabbage will not deform... Examine them for rotten or frostbitten sheets, and for signs of pests. The stalk of white cabbage suitable for winter sourdough has a light color - any spots and rings on it indicate putrefactive processes inside the fork.

Remove all green or missing leaves from forks, wash away dirt... From heads of cabbage, which are fermented whole, cut off the protruding part of the stump.

How to ferment correctly

The rustic sauerkraut recipe doesn't involve a lot of spices, fruits, vegetables, or berries.

Ingredients:

• cabbage - 2 kg;
• vegetable oil - 150 ml;
• vinegar - 150 ml;
• carrots - 2 pcs.;
• bay leaf - 3 pcs.;
• allspice peas - 3 pcs.;
• sugar - 3 tbsp. l .;
• salt - 2 tbsp. l .;
• garlic - 6 cloves.

Preparation:

1. Cabbage is chopped into small strips.
2. Chop the carrots on a coarse grater.
3. Mix vegetables.
4. Chopped garlic is added.
5. Pour in the marinade, put the cabbage in a container.
6. Pickled for a day, sometimes stirring.

Marinade:

1. Put a pot of water on fire.
2. Salt, sugar, oil, pepper and bay leaf are added to the water.
3. After boiling, add vinegar.
4. Stir.

Recipe variations

There are several options for the recipe for country-style sauerkraut. They differ in ingredients, cutting and pickling methods.

Take a note:

Cooking amazing sauerkraut with grapes

How to cook dumplings according to the most delicious recipes

How to properly ferment cabbage in a bucket

Chopped

Cabbage is chopped, not chopped, for which not only a special tool is used, but also a container. Contact with the hands of the cook during the cooking process is minimal, which excludes the entry of pathogenic bacteria.

Ingredients:

• cabbage - 4.5-5 kg;
• medium-sized carrots - 1-2 pcs.;
• salt to taste.

Preparation:

1. White cabbage is cut into 8-10 large pieces.
2. Put the vegetable in a container for chopping (for example, a wooden trough).
3. Chop with a special spatula, avoiding contact with the hands.
4. The vegetable is salted so that the crystals react immediately with the vegetable juice.
5. Chop the carrots on a coarse grater.
6. The vegetables are mixed.
7. The workpiece is rammed into three-liter jars.
8. Cover the container with gauze and leave in a warm place for 3-4 days.
9. During all 3-4 days, the cabbage is pierced with a long pointed stick and gas is released from it.

With beets

Spicy cabbage of bright pink color is prepared with the addition of beets, which gives the workpiece not only color, but also a lot of useful substances: vitamins, sugars and minerals.

Ingredients:

• white cabbage - 1.3 kg;
• beets - 450 g;
• garlic - 6 cloves;
• water - 1 l;
• allspice - 3 pcs.;
• cloves - 3 pcs.;
• bay leaf - 1 pc .;
• salt - 2 tbsp. l .;
• sugar - 150 g;
• vegetable oil - 50 ml;
• vinegar (9%) - 150 ml.

Preparation:

1. The cabbage is cut into 8 pieces.
2. Beets are cut into thin half rings.
3. Cut the garlic cloves in two.
4. The first layer of cabbage, garlic and beets is rammed to the bottom of the container.
5. The layers are repeated, filling the container to the top.
6. Allspice, cloves, bay leaf, salt, sugar, vegetable oil, vinegar are added to the water in a saucepan and brought to a boil.
7. Pour vegetables with boiling marinade.
8. Cover with a lid and leave at room temperature for a day.
9. After the workpiece is placed in the refrigerator for another day, after which it can be eaten.

Rustic style with hot peppers and herbs

Spicy cabbage with herbs is a snack version of village cabbage, suitable for feasts with strong alcohol.

Ingredients:

• cabbage - 10 kg;
• carrots - 500 g;
• pepper (bitter) - 2 pods;
• garlic - 4 heads;
• sugar - 800 g;
• salt - 400 g;
• water - 9 l;
• parsley - a bunch;
• dill or caraway seeds - one pinch.

Preparation:

1. The stumps are removed.
2. White cabbage is cut into large pieces.
3. The water is brought to a boil and the salt is dissolved in it.
4. The vegetable is placed in an enamel container and filled with brine.
5. They are put under oppression for 4 days.
6. Take the cabbage out of the pan and chop it finely (the brine is not drained from the container).
7. Carrots are washed, peeled and chopped on a coarse grater.
8. The garlic is peeled and passed through the garlic.
9. The pepper is washed and chopped.
10. Cabbage is placed on the bottom of a clean container, carrots, garlic, hot peppers, a pinch of dill or caraway seeds and parsley are evenly laid on top.
11. The cabbage brine is filtered, boiled and cooled.
12. The cabbage is poured with brine.
13. Leave for 2 days under oppression.
14. Add sugar and mix.
15. Placed in small containers.
16. Store in the refrigerator.

Country style without vinegar

Consider the simplest rustic sauerkraut recipe. It is available even for those who have no experience in harvesting vegetables.

Ingredients:

• cabbage - 2.5 kg;
• carrots - 2 pcs.;
• salt to taste.

Preparation:

1. Vegetables are washed, peeled and washed.
2. Combine carrots and cabbage.
3. Salt is added to taste.
4. Fill a clean container with vegetables.
5. Put under oppression at room temperature.
6. After 3 days, the workpiece is transferred to the refrigerator.

Read also:

How to prepare cabbage with horseradish: recipes from experienced housewives

How to prepare cabbage with vodka for the winter at home

How and with what to serve

White-headed rustic cabbage is widely used in Russian traditional cuisine... Fish for baking is stuffed with a blank, mixing a vegetable with caviar, it is put in pies and pies. Sauerkraut is the basis for sour cabbage soup and tomato borscht. Cabbage is part of a number of recipes from game, pork and lamb, the sour taste perfectly sets off fatty meats.

The preparation is added to vegetable stews and fresh vegetable salads, it is served as an independent snack, seasoning with fragrant oil and onion rings, decorating with berries, grapes, nuts, herbs, sun-dried tomatoes and fresh fruits.

Reference. The brine in which the workpiece is stored is an effective medicine against hangover syndrome. It restores the water-salt balance of the body poisoned with alcohol.

Terms and conditions of storage

Country-style sauerkraut is stored all winter... At the optimum temperature from +1 to +4 C ° - eight months. At room temperature, the vegetable will begin to oxidize after 3 days. You can preserve the freshness of the product by freezing it. Then it is stored for up to a year, but vitamin C is destroyed at the same time.

Important! When storing pickled vegetables for a long time, do not pierce it with a long stick to release gas. It is only recommended to ensure that the workpiece is completely covered with brine.

The vegetable is usually stored in glass three-liter jars or in plastic containersintended for food.

Tips from experienced housewives

On the Internet, housewives share the secrets of making sauerkraut.

Inga, Shakhty: “For shredding, I started using a special machine, I used to do it with my hands and spent a lot of time on the process. The machine looks like a grater, most often in an orange case, with which I shred vegetables for pickling. The machine has both vertical blades with different cutting widths and horizontal ones. For a rustic recipe, I chop vertically on a centimeter nozzle, which has square cells ".

Margarita, Novorossiysk: “For the rustic recipe, I always use fresh frozen carrots, they give the recipe a different flavor. Freshly frozen carrots shredded on a grater for carrots in Korean. The result is beautiful orange sticks that decorate the product. ".

Elizaveta, Magnitogorsk: “Once I made a mistake that I want to warn all the housewives against: I pickled white cabbage in a country style at the end of August ... It turned out that August cabbage is not suitable for harvesting for the winter, it hardly ferments, it becomes soft, loose and tasteless. Remember: green summer cabbage - in a salad, white September - in preparation ".

Conclusion

A white-boiled vegetable pickled according to village recipes is a traditional Russian dish consisting of farm products that are available both to those who have vegetable gardens and to city dwellers who buy vegetables at markets and shops.

An inexpensive and tasty preparation is included in complex recipes, eaten as a separate dish. Store the vegetable in the cold at a temperature of +1 to +4 C ° for eight months. At room temperature, the product will deteriorate in three days, and in the freezer it will lose valuable vitamin C. Delicious and useful preparations!