EZ Hot Kraut


 
D

Dean Torges

R.I.P. 11/4/2016
Chopped cabbage
Hot peppers of your choice
1 tablespoon NON-IODIZED salt per quart

Shred cabbage as for slaw. Mix cabbage and chopped peppers together in large canning pot or any very large container. Pack into sterilized quart jars. Add 1 tablespoon kosher salt on top of each jar. Slowly pour boiling water into each pack. Use a wood spatula handle in side of jar so you can pour the water in without running it over and to rid brine of air bubbles. Fill to about 1 inch from top. Wipe top of jar with towel and seal and turn upside down for 5 minutes. The lids will seal tight. If it doesn't, no worries. It works and stores anyway. Requires shelving about a month for full flavor.

Difficult to prescribe hot pepper amounts. When we make we use 8 to 10 heads of cabbage and about a pound and half of mixed hot peppers, whatever is in the garden. This makes about 16 quarts. Some batches are considerably hotter than others. Again, no worries. When that happens, stuff some peeled carrots, cauliflour and other tidbits into the jar after you eat some, and they will come out great, smoothing the mix.

Great on sammitches and even on the plate sometimes with a solid meat meal. YOu will get addicted to this and it will often substitute for slaw. Meant to post this when cabbages were cheap about a mont ago. Try it with a head or two, trial basis. You will like.

Vote Jim Minion for KCBS Board of Directors, and to state legislature, too.

PS, failed to credit Betty Gable, the wife of an old h.s. chum for this recipe. She gave us a qt. and started the addiction. Her recipe above.
 
Dean, I'm getting ready to try a sample of your recipe since I'll be making some sauerkraut anyway.

Does your mixture actually ferment, as sauerkraut does, or is it more of a pickled cabbbage?

Thanks,
Rita
 
Rita, it does not ferment like crock kraut, so I guess you'd call it a pickled cabbage. The jars seal, but occasionally one will leak (ferment) a bit on the shelves with no harm to the contents. I've come to favor it on pulled pork and like it so much I have 14 assorted pepper plants in the garden going strong.

Since you are making kraut, try this method with a jar or two without peppers in it. Betty Gable no longer makes kraut in the crock and has encouraged me to try it this e-z way. She claims it comes out crisper and firmer and otherwise is indistinguishable from kraut. Haven't done it this way myself, but have no reason to doubt her. She also told me her mother never worried if the jars sealed or not.
 
Thanks very much, Dean. I'm anxious to try your method and will let you know in a month or so.

I see that you're using 1 tablespoon kosher salt, not non-iodized table or pickling salt. Which brand of kosher salt are you using for this...Diamond or Morton's?

Best,
Rita
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Rita Y:
I see that you're using 1 tablespoon kosher salt, not non-iodized table or pickling salt. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Read through the recipe before responding to your question and said to myself, "Now why did I put kosher salt there?" I use non-iodized table salt.
 
Thanks again, Dean. I'm glad I asked. I'll be getting my cabbage in the next few days. It'll be hard to wait for a whole month....no instant gratification for this recipe, but I know it'll be worth the wait!
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Dean, sorry to bother you again, but as a “detail-type person,” I’m just checking…..in the middle of making your tasty recipe. This sounds so good that I can't let it go!

The ingredient list says “chopped” cabbage and the instructions say “shredded as for slaw.” Which do you prefer?

The recipe mentioned that you used 8-10 heads of cabbage and 1 1/2 pounds of hot peppers to make 16 QUARTS of E-Z Hot Sauerkraut.

I wanted to make about 4 quarts of your mix to test how much chile I should add for our tastes, so I shredded only 2 medium-large heads of cabbage instead of 8-10. The 2 heads made 82.5 oz (about 5 pounds) of shredded cabbage.

I packed a QUART jar as tightly as possible with cabbage (about 12 oz). (I haven’t added the boiling water yet.)

So, for 2 medium-large heads of cabbage (5 pounds shredded) this works out to 7 QUARTS of E-Z kraut.

Do you, by any chance, use HALF-GALLON (2 QUART) jars? Then my 2 heads of cabbage would make 3 1/2 half-gallon jars of the E-Z kraut, which works out to your original proportions.

I’m sure I’m missing something -- it could well be a problem with my math.

And, do you blanch or salt the shredded kraut before packing into the quart jars?

Best,
Rita
 
No worries, Rita.

I cut the cabbages as for slaw. Chopped was poor word to use.

No, no blanching of cabbage and no salting before, as to drain off moisture. EZ Hot Kraut. It really is.

As for the disparity in proportions, here's my guess. I plant Jersey Wakefields. They are a medium to small head, pointy. Very tasty, but loosely leaved. Now the standard green grocer's cabbage is Flat Dutch. Even in a medium head, it is heavy and tightly packed. If I were really concientious, I should have given cabbage to pepper proportions in weight, but I just don't know them.

Just put the tablespoon of non-iodized salt on top of that puppy and pour in the boiling water. This is such a low tech recipe you can't screw it up. If it's not hot enough, you will like it anyway. If it's too hot, by the time you get to the 7th qut., you will be accustomed to it. LOL.

Being serious for a minute, if you are pointing for something a little on the zesty side, then I'd think that since I mixed up weights for peppers with volume for cabbage, and since you are coming out way ahead on the cabbage, I'd add a bit more pepper to catch up, probably by again as much. Does this make sense to you?

Speaking of Jersey Wakefields, we had a hailstorm come through here Thurs. at the tail end of two days of downpour. Lasted at least five minutes, with stones as big as marbles, and looked for a while as a chance to blanket the ground. I went from having the best garden I’d ever planted here in almost 40 yrs to a pitiable sight. Cuke vines cut in half, pole beans knocked clean off their poles and pestled into the mud, a bed of Swiss chard that looked like Swiss cheese, and cabbage turned to slaw, pepper plants knocked to the ground, eggplants pulverized, potatoes flattened, holes in the leaves of zuchinni like they’d been machine-gunned. The tomatoes were largely unaffected and the garden will recover to produce vegetables, but it only hints at its former glory and the time I’ve spent in it tending and cultivating since mid April. I think it must be time soon to go hunting.
 
I should have mentioned not to core or deseed the chiles. Not necessary. Just put them in the food processor whole, trimming off stems onto the caps. Red bits of pepper look real nice interspersed through the cabbage.

Also, one month on the shelf is minimum, but will provide you the judgment you want. Better yet in two months. When you get your results, please let me know what you come up with in weight proportions and what chile kinds you used.
 
Dean, thanks very much for the good information. I'll probably have to go pretty light with the chiles in consideration for other members of the family.

I can see that there are big differences in the types of cabbage. Yes mine is supermarket cabbage. No wonder that I have so much!

Years ago, when I visited family in Germany, I brought back seeds for "Spitzkraut" (Pointed-Head Cabbage) that grows in the shape of a teardrop, which is used to make sauerkraut, but we had an unusually wet spring that year and the seeds did not "take," probably due to my gardening inexperience. They must be similar to your Wakefields:

http://www.laughingstockfarm.com/images/July%2003/Cabba...0Wakefield%20Web.JPG

Spitzkraut:

http://www.br-online.de/umwelt-gesundheit/thema/heimats.../foto/spitzkraut.jpg

It looks as if I'm going to run out of jars
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.....but that's OK. We'll have good coleslaw from the leftover cabbage.

I'll definitely let you know when we test the first jar on August 3rd or so.

Thanks again,
Rita
 
Jersey Wakefield is a ringer for Spitzkraut. It's a great home garden cabbage, sweet, tender and crisp. Not a market cabbage like flat Dutch, though, which has great storage capabilities. JW's downside is that it ripens and if not picked bursts open. However, it's a terrific table cabbage for slaw and EZ Kraut. Home garden varieties of just about any vegetable are superior in taste to the market varieties.

Doing a small batch at week's end and just planted more cabbage for a fall crop and more hot kraut. Hope yours turns out great.

You have family in Germany? Back from Bavaria last month. Have an account on my homepage. Had a bottle of Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock with some pretty good ribs two nights ago. Memorable. Wished I could've afforded two bottles.
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Dean, I enjoyed looking at your page. You are quite a poetic writer.

I have family, mostly cousins, in the Stuttgart and Aachen areas. We haven't been over there since 1992 when my Dad passed away, but we need to do a return trip.

I'm still trying to duplicate the chicken we had at the Canstatter Volksfest in one of the huge beer-sponsored tents. They had something like a cage that was 4 or 5 feet long, maybe a foot wide, and about 7 feet tall filled with lit coals. The chickens were spitted in horizontal 5-foot rows up both sides of the charcoal cage and turned occasionally by hand. They were probably the best chicken I've ever had. I sure would like to know how those chickens were prepped....but part of their allure might have been the way they were grown. Sounds like a good project for the WSM.

One month for the EZ Kraut will be up on August 6th. All I had to work with chile-wise were jalapenos and serranos. I chopped them together and added 1 tablespoon to some jars and 2 tablespoons to others to see how far I can take the amount of chiles. I can always add more for the next batch.

I'll FoodSaver to reseal the jars after I take my first taste test. So far, all the jars are holding their seal.

Rita
 
SUCCESS! Your E-Z Kraut is absolutely delicious! And REALLY crispy! It did not ferment like sauerkraut - was it supposed to? I FoodSavered the jars after filling them and they all kept their seals for the 1 1/2 months I let them stand. This might stall fermentation too, but we like the kraut just the way it is, pickled instead of fermented.

I think the spice limit for one of us is going to be about 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons chopped mixed jalapenos and serranos per quart. Pretty mild for you, yes? I made a quart or two with 2 tablespoons chiles each and will check the taste of that heat level next.

For supermarket cabbage, I used 12 ounces of shreds per quart jar, packing them down as I filled them.

I'm thinking that the next time I make the E-Z Kraut I'll add some coarsely chopped or short, fine julienne of red and green bell peppers for color in addition to the chiles. We have a friend who will love this without the heat. Will the color of the bell peppers fade during the pickling process? Have you made this with red cabbage? The kraut would probably all turn pink if I mixed red and white cabbage in one jar, but I'll bet it would work if I mixed them just before serving.

Have you ever added any spices, such as star anise and/or Szechuan or mixed peppercorns? Or mustard seeds? I'm thinking something along those lines would make an interesting Asian-style cabbage side dish or accompaniment.

It's really nice to have an alternative topping for sandwiches and hot dogs as well as a nice crunchy side dish for textural interest. I'll definitely be making this again before we finish the remaining 7 quarts.

Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Rita
 
Relieved that you liked it, Rita. Always the doubt that recipes don't transfer, especially so since mine was rather imprecise. It's nice that you have some calculations to go by now, too. That's a great idea to use the FoodSaver jar vacuum option. Never occurred to me. We recently did 24 quts, and at least 7 have lost their seal. Don't think it matters much, but it's better to have the lid dome down, no doubt. Will see if I can reseal one with the lid attachment, just to know, but doubt if it will work now. Even though the dome is up, they are still sealed. Next ones I do I'll bring out the machinery from the start.

Have never done this with red cabbage, and have never added additional spices. You're going to new territory. Sounds like fun investigation and fertile territory. And no, the cabbage never ferments and always stays pretty crisp, like good cole slaw.

Did pork butt over the weekend and used up my last jar from '04. Torges family reunion here. It's a great combo, e-z kraut and pulled pork. Also used it as a condiment on grilled feral hog kielbasa. Delicious. New jars won't be ready until month's end.
 
I'm going to make a couple 1/2 gals of this in Oct when i'm doing the crock kraut. Thanks Dean and Rita for all the info.
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Since this comes out more pickled, why not make some jars like a cole slaw? Then all you would have to do is open a jar and enjoy. Put some bell peppers, onions, ground black pepper maybe a little sugar and get a sweet sour pickled pepper cabbage slaw kind of thing. Just a thought.
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Bryan, I just don't know about such ingredients as onions and whether they'd take this packaging without a danger of botulism. Mary and I do a shortcut method of canning tomatoes (did 50 qts this year already) that we've been doing for years and her mother before us. It works. The e-z kraut works, and we do use it as a sub for slaw (with 24 quts and two people, you don't eat that many sammitches in a year). It's very good. Slaw with a kick. But if Betty Gable hadn't assured me that this was an old fambly recipe, and that there need be no vinegar in it, I would have thought it a recipe for disaster.

In short, am reluctant to add anything in the way of degradable ingredients without doing a bit of research first.
 
OK, I opened my next jar of EZ Hot Kraut today. This one had 2 tablespoons of chopped chiles (jalapeno & serrano). It was fine for me but I couldn't serve it to other family members. More for me!
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I do have to rinse it a bit, though, before eating as it is quite salty, and I'm a salt-lover. I used it as a side instead of coleslaw too. A fat-free bonus!

Man, that is GOOD stuff! Thanks again, Dean.
Rita
 
Pleased that it worked for you, Rita. Opening my first jar from most recent batch today. Having pork butt bbq with a dozen friends over. It might not be hot enough, but you can always add heat from a bottle. Flavor should be fine. Large mix of anchos, jalapenos and hot wax. Pretty colors mixed with the cabbage. Light and dark greens with bright reds.

For some reason, my peppers don't have much heat to them this year. It's a crap shoot, really. I complained about them several weeks ago, and a friend brought me several jalapenos from his garden. Whew! That's a near record for Scoville Units in a jalapeno. It's hard to predict what you have until you have it. The 1.5 TB that suits you today, for example, might not work next year.

Did 16 pints of salsa last week. Doubled the chiles in them this year from last year, tasting as I went, and it only registers a mild salsa.

I do believe it's best to consider chiles a variable, keep the recipe imprecise and evaluate chili content by way of taste tests. You know what you can handle, and you judge how much of it you want in a qut thataway.

Am surprised that yours came out salty. I like salt too. Mary doesn't, and she can usually eat ours just fine.

Looking fwd today to fine weather, good friends, cold beer and pulled pork bbq. Right now, gonna grab a few winks. I do like that NU-temp.
 
Dean, do you rinse the kraut before eating it?

I only made 2 quarts with 2 tablespoons chopped serranos - they're great, but I'm the only one who can eat it.
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The rest had 1 tablespoon each. Guess I'll use 1 tablespoon in the next EZ Krautfest.

It's funny, when you salt cabbage, it gets a little limp....but in the salt brine, it stays very crisp. Beautiful!

Rita
 
YOur excellent recipe for Hot Kraut is very much like Korean Kimchee. I guess preserving cabbage in salt and spice is popular on both sides of the world.

The main difference between kraut and kimchee is garlic. Koreans add a lot of garlic to the mix and it makes for a really great dish.

You can use the same procedure to pickle small cucumbers. The result is a crunchy, spicy pickle that's unlike anything you'd buy.
 
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