I've always been curious about fermenting, but overwhelmed by the wealth of information. I knew about the touted health benefits (did you know ONE scoop of fermented sauerkraut has more probiotics than an entire bottle of store-bought probiotics?), but didn't know if we would actually enjoy *eating* fermented foods. So I jumped at the chance to try out this starter kit from Fermentools! It came with instructions on making homemade sauerkraut, which was easy enough that my 10-year-old son can do it entirely on his own. And when it finally came time to taste the finished product? The kids LOVED it! So much so that I'm glad we've planted a lot of extra cabbages this year... They go through sauerkraut quickly!
Each kit comes with special fine Himalayan pink salt, a glass weight for keeping contents submerged under brine, a stainless steel lid, a rubber canning gasket, a plastic air lock, and two rubber stoppers, one solid and the other with a hole for the air lock system. This allows you to turn any wide-mouth canning jar into a fermentation crock! All the products are made in the USA, not sourced from other countries, so while the cost might be slightly higher than other systems, you can be assured your money is supporting US businesses.
We used the enclosed instructions to make sauerkraut with a head of cabbage that had come in our produce box earlier in the week. Normally I have trouble getting the kids to eat cabbage in any form, but they were happily eating it raw this time! We used the food processor to shred it finely, mashed it and massaged it with our hands after adding the Fermentools salt, and used our canning funnel to load it into the jar. I eventually bought a special sauerkraut tamper because we've ended up making it so often since this first time!
After putting the glass weight on to submerge the cabbage in the brine, we added the rubber gasket, stainless steel lid, and a canning ring of our own. Then we inserted the rubber stopper with the hole in it, filled the air lock with water, and set it aside in a dark cabinet to ferment. Our big mistake was over-filling the jar slightly, as brine ended up spilling out after the first couple of days, and we had to refill the air lock. Our subsequent jars weren't packed quite so tightly and went off without a hitch!
After four or five days, the kids were too excited to taste our creation to wait any longer! We opened it up, removed the glass weight, and dished it out... They all loved it! We've been making at least one jar a week since then, and while I don't know if I can see any health benefits (because how does one really prove that?), I can assure you that we'll continue using this, and have been researching other things we can try fermenting! I never would have guessed it would be this easy - have you ever fermented anything before? We're looking forward to trying it with cucumbers from the garden this summer!
The kids love it, but how do the grown-ups feel about it? And what about the baby?
ReplyDeleteNext time you have some, may your brother and I have a taste? Strictly for review purposes, of course. But seriously, I have always disliked sauerkraut and would like to see if this tastes different from the kind I know.
There's some in the fridge! It basically tastes like salty pickles, but with the texture of cabbage? It'll be fun trying it on cucumbers :)
DeleteFantastic review and beautiful pictures!
ReplyDeleteYou will be seeing your review on our website in the near future!
Thank you
- Cassie D. Co-Owner at Fermentools.com
Thank you Cassie! We have really been enjoying using your products :)
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