I grew some cabbages and made and canned kraut from them earlier in the season, but it was a poor year here for growing cabbage and I thought I could do a better job with the sauerkraut with better quality cabbages.
So yesterday my wife and I bought 3 green cabbages and 1 red cabbage at the supermarket (57 cents a pound), plus two 12-oz. cans of sliced beets. I grow beets too, but don't have any right now. My idea was to make a small batch of red sauerkraut with beets included the way my wife's Polish grandpa used to.
I ran the cabbages and the beets through a food processor with the coarse blade attached. Every time the food processor container got full of shredded cabbage (it holds about 2/3 gallon), I dumped that layer into a food-grade plastic bucket, added 1/2 tablespoon kosher salt, 1/2 tablespoon Ball's bread-and-butter pickle spice mix, and some caraway seeds - then squished the layer down with a potato masher.
This made about 11 quarts. I put a plate that just fits the inside of the bucket on top of the cabbage mix, weighted it down with a sanitized gallon milk jug full of water, and attached an airtight lid and fermentation lock to the bucket. Making it airtight really isn't necessary - but I'm a homebrewer too and I have the equipment, so it sure doesn't hurt anything.
I unsnapped the lid and took a look at it this morning. A real pretty purple-red clear brine has covered the plate, and it smells great. This is going to be good - I'm already looking forward to some homemade red kraut and brats!
