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help! saurkraut!


abur0418

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I just tired my first batch of saurkraut and I think it's going to be be a fail. I can't get the cabbage and carrot mixture "below the water line". I press down and water comes up, but little pieces of cabbage and carrot are also coming up with the water. I pressed a cabbage leaf down on top of the cabbage like Practical Paleo says...... still getting bits of cabbage and carrot along with the water. Can I just pour out the stuff on the top in a couple of weeks when its ready...will the stuff underneath it still be okay? Help!!!!!! I added a pic of it

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You need some type of weight to really keep it under the water line.  For a mason jar, you might want to put something heavy in a ziploc (like a small stone - boil it first even though in ziploc) and then put that on top of the cabbage to keep it submerged.

 

I ferment my sauerkraut in a large bowl then have a smaller bowl nested in with a pitcher of water to weigh it down. 

 

All that being said, ferments are pretty forgiving, you will know if it went bad if you see the mold or it smells funny. 

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We have a glass disk that sits on top of the cabbage to weigh it down.  My husband bought some when he bought the fermenting kit.  Not sure what site he bought them from, but he got the mason jars with a hole in the lid, airlocks and the 'weights' from the same place.

 

For the little pieces of floaters...it's ok if you have an airlock.  Once the CO2 builds up inside the jar and no oxygen can get in, they don't go bad.  Are you using an airlock?  If not, you will probably get some moldy stuff on the top that will need to be thrown out.

 

Cutting a piece of cabbage to the size of the jar and using it (with a weight on top) to push the little pieces down helps also.  You can throw the piece of cabbage out when you're done.

 

Keep trying...fermenting your own stuff is really great!

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