Cabbage has always been considered the most popular vegetable in Russia, it is hard to imagine cold winters without cabbage soup, hodgepodge and pies. This culture is unpretentious, but most of all striking in its diversity: there are absolutely all ripening periods of cabbage for pickling. No wonder the record was broken by a cabbage grown in Alaska - thirty-four kilograms of crisp weight! Cabbage does not need special fertilizers and heat, it loves moisture and coolness.
Which cabbage is better
European (especially among the Germans) sauerkraut is cooked in the same way as in Russian, but it is usually served hot - for fried meat, sausages and sausage. This is very well done: it is sauerkraut that helps digest fatty and fried cabbage, and speeds up metabolism.
Varieties of cabbage for fermentation are suitable for absolutely everything, but traditionally they expect mid-late and late. Since they chop it in mid-autumn - in October, to store in natural cold.
During the summer, early varieties of cabbage for pickling can also be harvested, but most often the blanks go to the table right away - a variety of recipes are guaranteed. Over time, most of the traditional pickling has been enriched with salads and marinades from locally grown cabbage.
Other cabbage
The white-headed one is still the leader, but it is pressed by others - red-headed, Savoy, broccoli, Brussels, kohlrabi, of course - cauliflower, Beijing. Almost everything goes into the blanks, although all of them will not replace the real white pickled one. Unless red-haired varieties of Gako and Kalybos can stand nearby.
In addition, for lovers and inquisitives, recommended are cauliflower varieties Movir 74, Skorospelka and Gribovskaya 1305, Brussels sprouts Hercules, Savoy - Zolotaya early and Variety Yubileiny, magnificent kohlrabi - Vienna white and Giant. All this is growing splendidly both in Siberia and in the middle zone of Russia, including in the suburbs.
As good as it gets
The best varieties of cabbage for pickling - and yet white cabbage! - early cabbage varieties Dumas, medium-late - Gift, Glory and Aggressor, late - Valentina, Kryumon F1, Amager, Sugarloaf.
In cold regions it turns out to grow a variety of varieties of cabbage for pickling: early - Gribovsky, Polar K-206, June; many mid-ripening varieties - Belarus, Nadezhda, Sibiryachka, Slavyanka 1265, Megaton, Stakhanovka; from the later - Amager, Winter mushroom, Blizzard, Kharkov winter and others.
And the best varieties of cabbage for fermentation, other people say, are mid-season Yubileiny F1, Podarok, Menza, Belorusskaya, Dobrovodsky, and of the latter, of course, Amager, here opinions agree. And also - Geneva F1 and Turkis.
Our grandmothers are sure that only winter varieties of cabbage are suitable for pickling. This is actually not the case. The main thing is that the head is dense, the leaves are juicy, the hands skillful, the rest will follow.
Cabbage for winter storage and pickling
Varieties and features are not much different from the above. It should only be noted that it makes no sense to leave early or mid-ripening varieties for storage. Hybrids are especially good for storing hybrids; they have exceeded their base in this.
After a few months, the bitter heads of the varieties of Kryumont and Kolobok acquire a truly sweet taste. The most mellow variety is Zimovka 1474, you can enjoy fresh cabbage even after six months. It does not crack, does not rot even after eight months of storage.
Varieties of cabbage for pickling coincide with those that are successfully left in the winter. It is best to keep the cabbage heads in a cellar or basement wrapped in paper and suspended. In the same place where sauerkraut is always stored.
Recipe according to Soviet GOSTs
This product undergoes lactic acid fermentation. Raw materials that exclusively meet the requirements of GOST and VTU.
- White cabbage of medium and late varieties. Heads of cabbage are fresh, formed, without cracks, dense, not friable, whole, healthy, clean. Each head weighs at least seven hundred grams. It is forbidden to ferment frosted cabbage. Recommended varieties: Glory, Belorussian, Gribovskaya, Kashirskaya, Saburovka and others.
- Fresh carrot is a table: root vegetables are healthy, fresh, uniform in color, whole, not damaged by pests, at least three centimeters in diameter. Varieties with bright orange flesh and core are recommended.
- Fresh apples: not lower than the first grade, ripe, clean, not damaged by pests. Recommended varieties: Antonovka, Anis, Sklyanka, Babushkino and others.
- Fresh cranberries: whole brightly colored berries without twigs, leaves, garbage.
- Lingonberry fresh: ripe, whole, clean berries, no debris.
- Caraway seeds: seeds without impurities and without a musty smell.
- Bay leaf: leaves without twigs, odorless.
- Edible salt, grinding No. 1, not lower than the first grade.
Bohemian Sauerkraut
Of the appetizers on the table, the queen is sauerkraut. The methods of preparation may be different, but it always reigns. This recipe respects the proportions bequeathed by our grandmothers.
For seven kilograms of cabbage, you need to clear a kilogram of carrots, half a kilogram of onions. It will take one hundred grams of salt and a bay leaf with peas of black pepper to the bottom of the dishes.
Chop cabbage with thin lace (experiment by turning a piece of head to make lace) and grind it with salt. Grate the carrots with a combine or coarse grater, finely chop the onions in half rings. Stir, again grinding, onions and carrots with cabbage. At the bottom of each jar put a bay leaf and pepper, ram the cabbage on top. She must be under oppression for some time. Juice will stand out and flow over the edge, so it’s better to put the jar on a plate.
How to build oppression? The easiest way is to put a glass in the bottom of the jar, and put something heavy on it. Or spend cabbage fermenting right in the basin - technology, tips, recipes can be different, you can choose to taste. Three days later, pierce the cabbage with a wooden stick to the very bottom in several places. Let the gas come out. The next day, you can clean the cabbage in the cold. In winter, you can close the sterile jars tightly: ram the cabbage (you have to add from one jar to the others), bring the squeezed brine to a boil, pour and then roll up.
Fermented Zest
Here, any, not necessarily the best varieties of cabbage are suitable. Late and early, for pickling and storage - absolutely any. In addition to five kilograms of the main product, you will need a kilogram of carrots, two glasses of washed raisins and five tablespoons of salt.
Coarsely chop the cabbage, chop the carrots with a vegetable cutter or on a grater. First grind the cabbage and carrots with salt, then mix the mixture with raisins. Enameled - no chips! - Tamp the large dishes tightly.
Cover the top with washed large cabbage leaves, which are removed from the top of the head of cabbage, on them is a wooden circle and on it is oppressed (for example, a large jar of water).
For three days in the heat during fermentation, the product will release foam, it must be removed. Then the yoke can be removed, the cabbage pierced to the bottom, so that the gases are gone, and after a day put in the cold. You can try it almost immediately, but she will get the right taste in two weeks.
With green tea
An interesting recipe for people who care about their health. Ten kilograms of cabbage needs half a kilogram of carrots, two heads of garlic, a pack of 100 grams of long green tea and ten tablespoons, with a slide full of spoons of good salt.
Chop cabbage (you can chop it into large pieces), grate it with salt until plenty of juice appears, wipe the carrots through a Korean grater or a vegetable cutter and mix with cabbage, pouring tea there. Mix all this thoroughly and tamp in an enamel bowl so that the juice covers the cabbage completely.
Now cover the cabbage with a plate of a smaller diameter than the pan, and put the oppression. Leave at room temperature. After three days, remove the gases, puncture the cabbage to the bottom in several places.
After a day, you can move it to jars (tamp as tightly as possible) or leave it in the same bowl, but send it to the cold - in the basement or cellar. Some store sauerkraut on balconies, and nothing bad happens. It does not lose its wonderful properties, even if it freezes.
With cranberries
Such sauerkraut is more like a vitamin salad. Here are proportions for a small amount of product. You can safely multiply everything by ten!
For a kilogram of late cabbage, one large carrot, two apples, cranberries to taste - an average glass, a tablespoon with a large hill of salt. You can add spices! Allspice and black pepper, red pepper, very good - bay leaves, excellent - cloves for apples, excellent aroma of caraway seeds, anise, coriander. Mustard seeds will save the product from bad bacteria, good mustard does not offend! Everything to taste.
Remove the upper damaged leaves from the cabbage, put a few whole leaves separately - will be needed. Quarter a head of cabbage, cut a stump and chop thinly, with a long straw. Grate the peeled carrots in Korean. Grate apples on a coarse grater, you can with the skin.
Mix cabbage, apples and carrots with salt. Take a large enameled pan, scald it with boiling water, cover the bottom with half of the prepared upper cabbage leaves. Put a part of the cabbage mass on the leaves, shift with cranberries, then add the next part. Put cranberries again. Etc. The last layer should be cabbage.
Cover the cabbage prepared for pickling with the remaining upper cabbage leaves, cover with a plate of a diameter smaller than the pan, it oppresses it. Leave in this position for a day right at room temperature.
After a day, remove the appeared foam on the surface with a spoon or slotted spoon. Pierce cabbage to the bottom in several places with a wooden arrow. Return oppression. And let him wander on.
After four to five days, the cabbage should be placed in a cold place. Putting it in jars or leaving it in a saucepan is not so important, but she needs a cellar, basement or balcony. Or a refrigerator.
With horseradish
Banks will turn out very beautiful, it’s nice to open them in winter. And it’s delicious! For two kilograms of cabbage, you need about half a kilogram of carrots and bell pepper (preferably colored), a small spine of celery and horseradish, hot peppers and sweet peas, bay leaves, dill seeds. Two tablespoons with a large slide put coarse non-iodized salt.
It is better to take mid-ripening or late cabbage, heads of cabbage are tight, absolutely high-quality, without the slightest decay or blackening. Chop the cabbage and grind it with salt. Then add the remaining components as they are ready and mix thoroughly.
Peel and grate the carrots in Korean (grater or combine), mix with cabbage. Peel sweet peppers, cut into thin strips, add to cabbage. The roots of celery and horseradish are better chopped with a blender. Celery normally rubs on a grater, but with horseradish you can completely cry and sneeze for life.
In a large bowl, mix the vegetable mixture with spices. Cover with a wooden circle or just a plate, put oppression on top. After two to three days at room temperature, fermentation will reach its peak. It is necessary to pierce the cabbage, release gases, remove the foam.
The next day, you can ram it into cans, pour brine (you do not need to boil, horseradish disinfects everything). It is not necessary to close hermetically; polyethylene covers are enough. Store in a basement or cellar. It is possible in the refrigerator.