Joys of Cabbage Gone Good

I've been making fermented cabbage in various forms and flavors for about four years. My love of the stuff began with a dumpster-dove motherload of cabbages in philadelphia....we ate cabbage every which way we could think of and there were still 20 odd heads to deal with. So I did some internet research, which lead me to the book Wild Fermentation....and I have been hooked ever since that first flavorful bite.

Made a gallon and a half of kim chee yesterday. Really nice (purchased :| but whatever) watery fresh cabbages. I don't use nappa, though that's the traditional cultivar of choice, as it has thinner leaves that seem to give a less crunchy finished product and I like my fermented cabbage to be chewy.

I picked up an amazing cabbage slicer at an antique store a few years ago. It sports three carbon steel blades which I sharpened to a mirror finish. We lovingly call it The Cabbage Slaughterer, but it deserves respect as it will do what it does to cabbage to your fingers in a wee second....and it's so sharp it doesn't hurt for a few minutes. And then half your fingertip is somewhere in the crock and there's lots of blood. No bueno.

I don't think I've ever made kim chee the same way twice. Always has lots of garlic. Sometimes I use horseradish root, that's a nice temperate substitute for ginger. I used to mix the spices separately together and try to add them evenly to the cabbage as I shredded/chopped it up....nowadays I just add stuff as I go and it always comes out alright several weeks later. There are frequently different strata of flavors in a crock or jar....makes it more interesting actually. I like to use my hands to mush and crush the salt and spices into the sliced cabbage before I pack it down into the container, seems to speed the brine formation.

This time I grated up some fresh turmeric root (must grow this in our as of yet non-existant greenhouse someday.....but rarely I splurge and buy some from a fancy food store even though it's flown in from hawaii) and crumbled dried basil into the mix. Added dried jalapenos to one batch, left them out of the larger batch cause my sweetie's not so into the spicy stuff - but I am. I've used dried turmeric with good results, whole cumin seeds, corriander seeds, fresh and dried herbs of all sorts. Fresh marjoram and oregano is a really nice savory combination. I also added daikon radish and carrots, but don't every time. Daikon seems to help with brine production. Nothing worse than a dry cabbage that refuses to create her own brine!

The traditional saurkraut seasoning is juniper berries and caraway seeds and it's a flavor combo I LOVE (but I don't recommend biting down on a whole juniper berry). I usually add at least some garlic, cause it's good stuff and makes the skeeters stay further away. Corriander and garlic are a really nice similar but different combination.

Salt choice is very important! You pretty much have to use the white, fine, refined stuff, without iodine. Celtic sea salt is too dirty. Mineral salts with any sort of pigment have too many other things in them for the bacteria to get established. Off flavors and mushiness will result. I recently ordered some calcium carbonate for pickles as it's supposed to be a salt that preserves crunch, but I didn't use any this time around. I might use some in future warm weather batches.

I was told about the amazingness of saurkraut pizza recently! Anyone tried this? Squeeze it out really well and use it between the cheese and red sauce. I will try this out in the near future and report back.