It’s not often I make something so… vibrant!*
For various historical reasons, some fermented foods have become more accepted in the mainstream western diet than others. I read that sauerkraut used to be a staple food in the colder months of northern Europe when fresh food was not available. It may be a cultural artifact today, but it’s definitely a yummy one.
It’s not hard to imagine how people started making it. Some ancient person had to survive on little else but cabbage over the winter, but unfortunately they started going rotten after a while and she had to go hungry instead, or risk food poisoning. The next time around, she has a clever idea: ‘salt keeps things from rotting!’ So she slices her cabbage finely and mixes it with a fair amount of salt. This time it doesn’t go rotten, and she has enough to eat. (Yay!)
However, some other interesting things happen as well. First, within a day or so the salt extracts the water from the cabbage, and pretty soon it’s sitting in a briny solution which covers the cabbage and protects it from spoiling. Second, and way more interesting, some new flavours start developing, and pretty soon the fermented cabbage has an amazing salty/tarty/citrusy flavour all it’s own. Not only does our poor ancient person not have to starve, but her taste buds don’t have to suffer either. Thirdly, unbeknownst to our full-bellied subject, is that the micro-organisms that protected the food and made these wonderful flavours are now happily at work in her stomach, aiding digestion and promoting health.
This stuff continually blows my mind. It’s like, there are all these tiny creatures floating around who want nothing more than to be our friends and make our food safer, tastier and healthier, if only we will take the time to make a home for them. How cool is that?
If you want to make your own, you can google loads of recipes and tutorials. The only thing I haven’t mentioned here is that it’s good to have an upside-down plate or something similar which fits inside whatever your cabbage is sitting in, with a weight on top. This keeps the cabbage submerged under the liquid and helps press the water out of it. The sauerkraut flavours will probably start appearing within a few days, and after that you just keep tasting it until you think it’s done.
Well, I have some free time this afternoon, so I’m off to prep the ginger mead for bottling later this week. Until next time…
* The not-surprising result of combining red and white cabbage.
