How to make sauerkraut

Ingredients: 

• Red or green cabbage
  Here I use about 4lbs of green cabbage I got on sale for less than a dollar.
• Other veggies
  Here I use carrots and celery but there are many more options.
• Garlic and/or ginger to taste
  I used about a half dozen garlic cloves and a few little cubes of ginger (that stuff is strong!).
• Sea salt (about 1 tablespoon per pound of veggies).
  I mostly use Himalayan salt salt and you could probably get away with less salt if you are on a low sodium diet.
• Lots of love and caring attention.

Directions:

1. Peel outside leaves of the cabbage and save them! You'll find out why later.
   
2. Chop every thing up! The smaller the pieces, the easier it is to scope out and enjoy in a few weeks. I finely sliced the cabbage into thin strips and then cut them into small pieces. You can then toss them into a big mixing bowl or a large pot will do the job too. To make thin carrot pieces, I used a vegetable peeler to make long strips and a knife to cut them into little pieces. Toss them into the large mixing pot. You can also start to add your salt in doses along the way, it will start the process of sublimation. Same with garlic and ginger... small slices/pieces. It's probably best to go easy on these unless you are a garlic lover like me.
   

3. Smash and massage! Once you have everything in your mixing pot (including the rest of your salt), smash it all down with your fists or a wooden utensil. Word is old German grandmas (or should I say alte Omas) use the end of baseball bats or rolling pins for this. You are wanting to break the cellular walls of the vegetables so they release their liquid - the salt also helps with this.This will form a cloudy brine mixture that your sauerkraut will soak and ferment in over the next couple of weeks. Once you've got a decent amount of water sloshing around, you're probably good to go.

4. Pack it into your fermentation vessel! Traditional Germans have special ceramic crocks for this (I'd like to get one some day!). I'm using a glass jar so I can watch what goes on in the inside (how fun!). For this step, you are wanting to pack the veggies as tightly as you can. For each scope you put into your jar, pound it down a bit with your fist or whatever you want to use. In order to ferment correctly, the cabbage needs to be fully submerged in the brine sauce and not exposed to air. Unfortunately the tiny cabbage pieces will want to float to the surface. If these pieces are exposed to air, it will grow mold on the surface (which is OK if it happens, just check on it often and scrape off any mold growths). To prevent this, take one of the large outside cabbage leaves and drape it over all the small pieces before you pour the rest of your brine in. This large piece will keep small pieces from floating up, but you still need to hold it down with something. 
5. Find something to hold the large leaf down. I used a glass bottle (fill it with water so it is heavy).
6. Find a safe place to let it ferment. Note if you're using a glass jar, you need to put it somewhere with no light source. UV rays are bad for our friends, the bacteria. This is why pros use ceramic crocks. Make sure you place the jar into another container because it will overflow. I REPEAT, IT WILL OVERFLOW. Okey, maybe it won't overflow, but since it MIGHT, you need to be prepared. If it's going to overflow, it will overflow when you are at work and drain all over the place! What's happening is the bacteria is producing lots of gas that expands, which raises the cabbage, which raises the brine, which gets all over your bookshelf or countertops.
7. Check on it daily for basic maintenance. Scope out pieces that break free and float to the surface. Press on it daily to squeeze all of the air bubbles out of the sauerkraut.
8. After a couple of weeks, transfer to the refrigerator. This will slow down the fermentation process. Transfer sooner or later than two weeks if you want it more mild or more fermented (sour).

This picture is from a previous batch I made. In case you're wondering, I added some purple cabbage at the end because I had so much room left in the jar.