I'm glad you tried sauerkraut Andy! I was going to send you some of mine, but it didn't turn out well enough this year to be worth the cost of shipping. It's okay, but not amazing. My first batch I added too much salt. Between my first and second batches I realized I could put my crock into the dishwasher, and get it a lot cleaner, which I did. And it worked - no mold or funk or anything grew (all my other batches had some funk growing on the top side of the bags of water I use to weigh down and cover the kraut). And lo and behold, in addition to having no funk, the kraut turned out to also be lacking in flavor. I mean, we're enjoyed brats and sauerkraut with it, it's still going to make a pretty decent batch of sausage and sauerkraut, and it will figure in my Thanksgiving dinner, I'm sure. I'm sure there's something in there about the mess and funk in life providing all the flavor, but I'm too beat to work it out.
Here're the goods:
Mix together and form into balls:
2 lb sausage
2 large onions, chopped
2 c. rice - uncooked (I've always used white. You might be able to substitute brown since the dish has extra water and cooks for a while anyway).
2 eggs
Layer sausage balls with ~6 pounds of sauerkraut in a casserole dish, starting and ending with sauerkraut. (Kanga always used an enamel coated cast iron dish. Ceramic should work as well. I wouldn't use plain cast iron - I think the acid of the kraut might react badly with the metal.)
Cover with water to 1 inch over the top (if you're cutting the recipe in half, you'll probably need to cut down on how much water you use as well - maybe cover with 1/2 - 3/4 of an inch of water. You can always keep your eye on it and add more if necessary.) Simmer, covered for 1 1/2 hours. Serve with Dad's best mashed potatoes in the world.
Mmm, I'm totally going to make this as soon as it cools off a bit and we get some rain! Thanks for the reminder, Andy!
Missus, hunh?... : )
On scum and cleanliness:
ReplyDeleteHere is some info from this website:
http://www.paleotechnics.com/Articles/Pepperoncini.html
on what is going on with lacto-fermentation, the process for making sauerkraut, crock pickles, etc. The scum on the bag is caused by aerobic bacteria (basically bad if they take over). The process relies on lacto-fermenting (acid loving, lactic acid producing, anaerobic) bacteria which appear by magic if you are not too obsessive about cleaning everything. It’s kinda like sour dough starter; at the beginning you set it out and it captures wild yeast spores. So yes, the dishwasher may get you clean enough to avoid the scum, but it also eliminates the lacto-fermenting bacteria that you are counting on to do the job. Tim’s idea of cleaning with vinegar is a good once: the good bacteria are acid loving, the bad bacteria are not. For my pickle crock, I find it helps to take the bag out and wash it off occasionally. And eventually, you have either eat the pickles or put them in jars in the ‘fridge or they will go bad. The better your air seal, the longer they last, I believe.
Key concepts in lactic fermentation
you should become familiar with:
Acidity: Lactic bacteria, which produce the desired fermentation, thrive in an acidic environment. Most spoilage bacteria do not thrive in an acidic environment (including those which cause botulism), or at least not in the absence of oxygen. By spiking our brine with a little vinegar, we are creating conditions conducive to the growth of our friendly lactic acid producing bacteria, while discouraging common spoilage bacteria. Once the lactic bacteria begin to grow, they produce lactic acid which weeds out the competition further. Domination is the name of the game, and we create ideal conditions for the bacteria types that we want to encourage.
Anaerobiosis: Lactic bacteria can grow and dominate best in an anaerobic environment, which means in the absence of oxygen. Some bacteria and yeasts which require oxygen can spoil our ferment by consuming the acids in the solution, thereby raising the Ph. The culprits are visible as a scum growing on the surface of the brine. To exclude these undesirables we keep the jar sealed so that oxygen laden air cannot get in. Of course, there is some air in our jar, especially in the hollow cavities of our pepperoncinis, but the remaining oxygen is quickly used up by some organisms or other which must then die or go dormant. As long as you top up the jar with brine when you are done, opening your peppers a few times during fermentation is not a problem.
Cleanliness is always a good ideal to strive for when processing foods. However, I confess to being rather sloppy and incautious in the matter when it comes to pickling peppers. Part of this casual approach is due to laziness, part is because I want to know what I can get away with and part is because I have now experimented enough with pickling peppers sloppily that I do know what I can get away with. When pickling cucumbers which are prone to spoilage, I use the freshest fruits and clean jars and utensils.
My understanding is that the cabbage leaves have the bacteria that ferment the cabbage to make sauerkraut. Maybe that's why you wouldn't expect it to be different from one region of the country to another like you do with sourdoughs. Apparently, the bacteria to make sauerkraut is the same that makes yogurt. One tip I read which seemed to really help is to strain some yogurt and add the whey that drains out to the brine when you start your sauerkraut. It essentially spikes your culture with the good stuff, increasing the chances that the good stuff will out-grow the bad stuff. The one time I didn't do this, my sauerkraut just smelled like bread, which I took as an indication that yeast, instead of bacteria, were the main things growing. That batch sadly ended up in the trash.
ReplyDeleteThe salt that you add to the sauerkraut also helps suppress growth of the bad stuff (in addition to helping draw the water out of the cabbage leaves). I definitely added too much salt to my last batch under the premise that if some is good, more is better [at suppressing the growth of undesirables]. The sauerkraut is fine, but it's too salty, so I end up rinsing it and diluting the brine with plain water when I heat it up. I think I read that you should use 3T of salt to 5 pounds of cabbage. Also, it should be non-iodized salt. Something about the iodine suppressing the growth of the good stuff. I think you're also supposed to use non-iodized salt for pickles, because the iodine and other impurities makes the brine cloudy (though, it seems to me that cloudy brine isn't really a problem in and of itself).
Well I'm giving it a go here tonight. Really screwed things up with the whole timing thing. Waited to long to start the cabbage, and then decided to go build a bike and missed my optimum window for getting the mashers going, but...it will be okay I'm sure, just enough extra time for another dark beer. All of your thoughts about sauerkraut are also expressed in a great book about fermenting as a means of preservation called "Wild Fermentation." Worth checking out if you're feeling flush. I'll let you know how it all turns out. Just for the record, the brand new (previously owned) Mac Book is the jam. I know the whole business world is on the PC train, and Apple has a stranglehold on everything it creates, but man, they really make it user friendly for the common user.
ReplyDeleteThanks
Andy