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Sauerkraut is just cabbage and salt, left to ferment until it’s tangy and full of live cultures. Learning how to make sauerkraut in a mason jar takes about 20 minutes of hands-on work, and a few weeks later you’ll have crisp, sour kraut ready for sandwiches, sausages, and everything in between.
Table of Contents
- Notes from My Kitchen
- How Sauerkraut Ferments
- Ingredients for Homemade Sauerkraut
- Yield Notes
- Choosing the Best Salt for Fermenting
- Equipment for Making Sauerkraut
- How to Make Sauerkraut
- Storing Sauerkraut
- Normal Parts of Sauerkraut Fermentation
- Sauerkraut Variations
- Ways to Use Sauerkraut
- How to Make Sauerkraut FAQs
- More Fermented Vegetables
- Homemade Sauerkraut Recipe
- Lacto-Fermentation Recipes
Sauerkraut started as a way to keep cabbage through the winter. Before refrigeration, families salted the fall cabbage harvest in big crocks and ate from them for months, long after the garden was done.
A jar you ferment yourself is different from most kraut on the grocery store shelf. Shelf-stable kraut at the grocery store keeps at room temperature because the producer canned or pasteurized it, and that heat kills the live cultures. Homemade kraut stays alive in the fridge and keeps slowly getting more sour.
A wide-mouth quart jar is plenty for a first batch, and when you’re ready to make enough for the whole winter, I have a guide to making sauerkraut in a crock.
Sauerkraut is also an easy first step into lacto-fermentation. The same salt and brine method makes sour dill pickles, fermented hot sauce, and preserved lemons.
Notes from My Kitchen
I love my fermentation crock, but this simple method doesn’t need one. All it takes is a cabbage, a little salt, and a quart mason jar that fits right on the kitchen counter.
If you can slice a cabbage, you can make sauerkraut. There’s no special equipment or starter culture to buy, and the cabbage makes its own brine.
Half a head of cabbage fills a quart jar, so it’s easy to start a small batch anytime you have a fresh cabbage. A few weeks later, you’ll have a jar of fresh homemade sauerkraut in your fridge.
How Sauerkraut Ferments
Sauerkraut doesn’t need a starter culture. The lactic acid bacteria are already living on the cabbage leaves, and that’s where the culture comes from.
Salt pulls the juice out of the cabbage to make the brine. It also holds back spoilage microbes long enough for the lactic acid bacteria to take over.
Under the brine, those bacteria eat the cabbage’s natural sugars and turn them into lactic acid. That’s what makes kraut sour, and it’s also what preserves it.
It’s a different process from vinegar pickles like dill pickles for canning or bread and butter pickles, which get their sour flavor from added vinegar instead.
Anything that floats above the brine touches the air, and that’s where mold starts. So the cabbage has to stay submerged the whole time.
Ingredients for Homemade Sauerkraut
You can use any cabbage you like: green, red, napa, or savoy. It may change the flavor a little, but most cabbages taste about the same once they’re fermented, and red cabbage turns the brine pink.
I’d skip kale and collards, though. I’ve heard they can taste off when fermented, so I haven’t tried either one.
Beyond the cabbage, all you need is salt. The spices are optional.
- Cabbage: Firm, fresh heads that feel heavy for their size. Cabbage dries out as it sits in the fridge, and an old head may not release enough juice to cover itself. If it’s from your garden, start the kraut within a day or two of picking.
- Salt: Canning or pickling salt, or fine Redmond’s Real Salt. Both are pure salt with no added iodine or anti-caking agents, and they measure about the same by the spoonful. Salt-free ferments do exist, but they need a starter culture to get off to a good start, and salt-free kraut is pretty bland.
- Caraway and juniper: Caraway seeds and juniper berries are the classic sauerkraut spices, and both are optional. Plenty of people leave them out and make kraut with just cabbage and salt.
Yield Notes
This recipe starts with 1 1/2 pounds of cabbage, about half of an average head, and 1 tablespoon of canning salt or fine Redmond’s Real Salt. That fills a wide-mouth quart jar with a few inches to spare at the top.
That’s about 2.5 percent salt by weight, close to Penn State Extension’s ratio for jars, 3 1/2 tablespoons per 5 pounds of cabbage. For crocks, the USDA uses 3 tablespoons per 5 pounds.
If the cabbage needs topping off, make a brine with 1 1/2 tablespoons of salt per quart of water. Boil it and let it cool before you add it, following the National Center for Home Food Preservation’s sauerkraut directions.
Choosing the Best Salt for Fermenting
In a two-ingredient recipe, the salt is the only real measurement. Too little gives spoilage microbes a chance before the kraut sours, and too much makes it wicked salty.
This recipe measures salt by the spoonful, so the kind of salt matters. A tablespoon of canning or pickling salt weighs about 18 grams, and a tablespoon of fine Redmond’s Real Salt weighs about 17. Either one comes to roughly 2.5 percent of the cabbage’s weight.
I use Redmond’s Real Salt because it gives great flavor. Morton Canning and Pickling Salt is another good choice, since it’s pure salt with nothing added.
Kosher salt is where people run into trouble. Diamond Crystal has big, hollow flakes, so a tablespoon weighs about half as much as canning salt. Measure it by the spoonful and the kraut won’t get enough salt.
Morton kosher salt is heavier than Diamond Crystal, but it’s still lighter than canning salt, and it has an anti-caking agent. The National Center for Home Food Preservation’s General Information on Fermenting says anti-caking agents can make the brine cloudy, and it doesn’t recommend flake salt, since its density varies.
Skip iodized table salt, too, since the iodine can darken the kraut. For any other pure salt, weigh it instead. You’ll need about 17 to 18 grams for 1 1/2 pounds of cabbage, and a digital scale makes that easy.
Equipment for Making Sauerkraut
People have made sauerkraut in crocks and barrels for centuries, so you don’t need anything fancy. A few tools do make it easier, though.
You’ll need a large bowl for salting the cabbage, something to pack it into, and something to hold it under the brine.
A Jar or Crock
A wide-mouth quart mason jar is the easiest place to start. The wide mouth leaves room for your hand and a weight. A regular-mouth jar works too, and its shoulders help hold the cabbage down.
For a bigger batch, use a fermentation crock. Open crocks and water-sealed crocks both work, and I go through the differences in how to make sauerkraut in a crock.
A Sauerkraut Pounder
You need to bruise the cabbage to get the juice flowing. Clean hands work fine, and so does the end of a French rolling pin, like the one in these photos.
I use a big wooden spoon. You can buy special sauerkraut pounders, but anything sturdy and clean will do.
Fermentation Weights
Something has to keep the cabbage under the brine, with at least an inch of liquid over the top. Glass fermentation weights fit right inside mason jars, and they’re easy to clean.
You can also use what you already have on hand:
- A smaller jar: A jelly jar or small mason jar that fits inside the mouth of the bigger jar, filled with water.
- A brine bag: A heavy, food-grade freezer bag set on the cabbage and filled with brine. Use brine instead of plain water, so a leak won’t water down the kraut.
- Ceramic weights: You can buy them to fit most crocks, or make your own if you’re a potter.
Airlock or Cloth
You can ferment with the jar open, covered with a clean towel or cheesecloth to keep out dust and fruit flies. That’s how an open crock works.
An airlock lets gas out without letting air in. You don’t need one, but open ferments are more likely to grow kahm yeast or surface mold.
Silicone airlock lids like Masontops Pickle Pipes fit under a wide-mouth mason jar ring. You can also set a three-piece airlock, the same kind used for homemade wine, in a fermentation lid.
Water-sealed crocks do the same job with a moat of water around the rim. The lid sits in the water, so gas bubbles out but air can’t get in.
If you’d rather have everything in one box, a fermentation kit comes with airlock lids and glass weights for wide-mouth jars.
How to Make Sauerkraut
Making sauerkraut takes about 20 minutes of hands-on time, and the rest is waiting. Plan on 3 to 6 weeks, depending on how warm your kitchen is and how sour you like it.
Pick a spot out of direct sun where you’ll see the jar every day. You’ll want to check on it often for the first week.
Prepare the Cabbage
Pull off any damaged or wilted outer leaves. If you like to rinse your vegetables, use cold water only, and skip the soap or produce wash.
Quarter the cabbage and cut out the tough core. Then slice it into thin shreds, about the thickness of a quarter.
Slice it by hand or with a mandoline slicer. A food processor works too, though it cuts the shreds shorter.
Salt and Pound the Cabbage
Put the cabbage in a large bowl, sprinkle the salt over it, and toss it with your hands until it’s evenly mixed.
Then massage, squeeze, or pound it. After a few minutes, the cabbage softens and starts to release its juice. That juice becomes the brine, so there’s no need to add water.
Keep going until there’s a good pool of liquid in the bottom of the bowl. If you’re using caraway or juniper, mix them in now.
Pack the Jar
Pack the cabbage into the jar a handful at a time, pressing each layer down firmly with your fist or the pounder. Pour in every bit of juice from the bowl.
Leave a few inches of space at the top. The kraut swells as it ferments, and the brine can bubble up and over.
By now, the juice should be close to covering the cabbage. If it isn’t, give it time. Fresh cabbage usually releases plenty of juice within a few hours.
If the juice still doesn’t cover it by the next day, top it off with a little salt brine. The ratio is in the Yield Notes.
Weigh It Down
Lay a whole cabbage leaf over the shredded cabbage. It works like a lid, keeping the small bits from floating up around the edges, and you’ll throw it out when the kraut is done.
Set your weight on top, so the cabbage sits at least an inch below the brine. Then add an airlock lid or drape a clean cloth over the jar.
Set the jar on a plate or a folded towel, in case the brine bubbles over.
Let It Ferment
According to the National Center for Home Food Preservation, sauerkraut is fully fermented in about 3 to 4 weeks at 70 to 75°F, or 5 to 6 weeks at 60 to 65°F. Below 60°F it may not ferment, and above 75°F it can turn soft.
I’d keep it on the cool side of room temperature, around 60 to 70°F. Warm kraut ferments faster, but it’s more likely to go soft.
Check the jar every day or two, especially the first week. If any cabbage floats above the brine, press it back down.
Taste and Refrigerate
Start tasting after about a week. Young kraut is mild and crunchy, and it gets more sour the longer it goes.
It’s fully fermented when the bubbling stops, but you don’t have to wait that long. When it tastes right to you, take out the weight, put on a regular lid, and move the jar to the fridge.
Storing Sauerkraut
Keep finished sauerkraut in the fridge, tightly covered and pressed under its brine. The cold slows fermentation down without stopping it, so the kraut keeps slowly getting more sour.
Fully fermented kraut keeps for several months in the refrigerator, according to the National Center for Home Food Preservation.
If you have a cold root cellar, you can leave the jar there under its airlock and take out what you need. Just press the rest back under the brine each time.
You can also can sauerkraut once it’s fully fermented. Canning makes it shelf stable, but the heat kills the live cultures.
Normal Parts of Sauerkraut Fermentation
A few things happen in every jar of fermenting kraut, and they’re all normal. Mold is the exception.
Most of them are signs that the fermentation is going well.
Bubbles
The bacteria make carbon dioxide as they work, so you’ll see bubbles rising through the jar and sometimes foam on top of the brine.
With an airlock, you’ll see the gas bubble out through the water. That slows down as the ferment finishes.
Cloudy Brine
The brine turns cloudy as the bacteria multiply, and a little white sediment may settle at the bottom of the jar.
Red cabbage, beets, and radishes tint the brine, too.
Smell
Fermenting cabbage smells strong, a bit like stinky cheese. An airlock keeps most of the smell inside the jar.
A strong smell is normal, but kraut shouldn’t smell or taste musty or moldy.
Mold
If you see mold on the top, some of the cabbage has floated above the brine, where it’s exposed to air. That’s why keeping everything under the brine matters so much.
A flat white film on the surface that isn’t fuzzy is kahm yeast. It’s harmless, but it can change the flavor, so skim it off and press the kraut back under the brine.
Fuzzy growth, or spots of green, blue or black, is mold, and the whole batch goes out, even if it’s only on the top layer. Mold roots reach farther than you can see, so scraping off the top doesn’t make the rest safe.
Sauerkraut Variations
Once you’ve made a batch or two, it’s easy to change things up. Count any vegetables or fruit you add as part of the cabbage weight when you measure the salt.
Spices: Black pepper adds a little warmth. For kraut to serve with apples and sausages, try warm spices like cinnamon and allspice.
Vegetables: Garlic works, and so do finely diced or grated carrots, beets, and radishes.
Fruit: Diced apples or pears add flavor, but go easy, since fruit adds extra sugar to the ferment.
Curtido: A fermented curtido, the Salvadoran slaw served with pupusas, uses the same method, with carrots, onion, oregano, and chile mixed in with the cabbage.
Ways to Use Sauerkraut
Sauerkraut goes on a Reuben sandwich, a hot dog, or a plate of bratwurst. It’s also good with a pork roast or homemade lamb sausage, and if you raise your own pigs, kraut and homemade pork sausage are a classic pairing.
Eat it straight from the jar to get the live cultures. Heat kills them, so kraut you simmer with sausages or bake into a casserole won’t have live cultures anymore.
How to Make Sauerkraut FAQs
These are the questions that come up most often in the comments.
Any cabbage works, whether it’s green, red, napa, or savoy. It may change the flavor a little, but most cabbages taste about the same once they’re fermented. I’d start with the mildest cabbage you can find locally, and skip kale and collards, which I’ve heard can taste off when fermented.
About 3 to 4 weeks at 70 to 75°F, or 5 to 6 weeks at 60 to 65°F, according to the National Center for Home Food Preservation. You can start tasting after a week, and the longer it ferments, the more sour it gets. It’s fully fermented when the bubbling stops.
There are salt-free methods, but they use a starter culture to get going. I’d stick with salt. It favors the right bacteria early on, before the kraut is acidic enough to protect itself, and salt-free kraut is pretty bland.
Fully fermented sauerkraut keeps for several months in the refrigerator, tightly covered, according to the National Center for Home Food Preservation. Keep it pressed under the brine, and it’ll keep slowly getting more sour.
Yes. There’s a tested water bath process for fully fermented plain sauerkraut, and I walk through it step by step in canning sauerkraut. Canning heats the kraut, so it won’t have live cultures afterward.
More Fermented Vegetables
Ferment more of the garden.
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Homemade Sauerkraut
Equipment
- Mandoline Slicer optional
- Digital Scale optional
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lbs green cabbage, see notes
- 1 Tbsp canning salt or fine Redmond’s Real Salt, see notes
- 1 Tbsp caraway seeds, optional
- 5 whole juniper berries, optional
Instructions
- Pull any damaged outer leaves off the cabbage and rinse it in cold water if you like. Quarter it and cut out the core.
- Slice the cabbage into thin shreds, about the thickness of a quarter, with a sharp knife or mandoline.
- Toss the cabbage with the salt in a large bowl until it’s evenly mixed.
- Massage, squeeze, or pound the cabbage until it softens and releases enough juice to pool in the bottom of the bowl.
- Mix in the caraway seeds and juniper berries, if using.
- Pack the cabbage into a wide-mouth quart jar a handful at a time, pressing each layer down firmly, and pour in all the juice from the bowl. Leave a few inches of space at the top.
- If the juice doesn’t cover the cabbage, let it sit for a few hours to release more. If the juice still doesn’t cover it by the next day, top it off with salt brine (see notes).
- Lay a cabbage leaf over the top and add a fermentation weight, so the cabbage sits at least 1 inch below the brine.
- Cover the jar with an airlock lid or a clean cloth, and set it on a plate to catch any overflow.
- Ferment at room temperature, between 60 and 75°F and out of direct sun, pressing the cabbage back under the brine if any floats up. Start tasting after a week (see notes).
- When it’s as sour as you like, remove the weight, cap the jar with a regular lid, and refrigerate.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Lacto-Fermentation Recipes
More ways to ferment the harvest.
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Stunning Step by Step Photography in this post by Melissa Keyser
Have you ever tried using zucchini strips or Zoodles instead of cabbage? I make lots of zoodles to use instead of pasts due to having to limit my carb intake. So I’m asking an expert. Thank you.
You can definitely ferment zucchini strips using this same method.
Hi Again Ashley,
Can you use the water bath canning process to can Sauerkraut ? What is the process to do it? Enjoying your emails. I canned tomatoes last night and canned 5 pints of dill pickles tonight. I finally was successful in making Sauerkraut from using your recipes and methods. 😃
I am eventually going to get brave and use a pressure canner!
Oleeta
Sure can. Here are the instructions from the National Center for Home Food Preservation. https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_06/sauerkraut.html
if i were in a situation where i didnt have salt could i still attempt to make Kraut successfully? or is the salt crucial, also i love what your doing here keep up the good work!
I have never heard of this before but apparently, you can. I did a quick internet search for making sauerkraut without salt and came up with several different recipes. I would recommend doing a quick search yourself and then picking whichever recipe sounds good to you. Let us know if you decide to try it out.
Can I use fresh garlic cloves mixed in with the cabbage, when I’m making kraut?
Of course!
Have been making kraut for year in a large crock and use bags as a water seal. Made it a week ago Sunday and u=yesterday found the bags leaked into the cabbage .Normally use a brine in the bags but this year did not. I took everything back out of crock and drained water and put back in and used new bags .Now wondering if cabbage is ruined and should start over or should I add a salt brine to the cabbage or leave as it and see what happens .Looking for any experience or thoughts
Honestly, it’s probably fine. You can make kraut without salt at all, there are processes for that, the salt just ensures selection for the right bacteria at the early stages until everything gets acidic enough. Especially since you caught it and switched it up I personally wouldn’t worry about it, but you’ll have to use your own best judgment as the ferment progresses.
Here’s a primer on salt-free fermentation, which I understand is not what you’re doing, I’m just sending it because when you realize that the salt isn’t strictly required then it makes you feel less bad if dilution accidentally happens: https://joybileefarm.com/fermented-vegetables-no-salt/
Hope it turns out for you!
Thanks for reply . It turned out ok . Our main issue year to year is ending up with a results that assures a sour kraut . Our group prefer the dour taste as you can always sweeten in us. I realize that the bacteria gives the sour taste and that the temperature and length of time in fermentation . Wish I understood this part better
Can i use any cabbage, does it have to be nappa, or sweetheart? In Portugal we grow GALEGA cabbage, the tall growing ones with dark leaves… maybe if i choose the younger smaller leaves it might taste better? Any advice would be awesome. Cheers
You can use any cabbage, and it will still work. Know that it may affect flavor in the end, but not necessarily. Most will likely taste the same unless they’re really distinctively flavored to start with.
Some veggies in the cabbage family (kale, for example) have an off flavor when fermented that some people really don’t like. I’d suggest starting with the mildest cabbage you can find locally.
Best of luck!