On Fri, 20 Sep 2019 18:48:52 -0700 (PDT), pH wrote:

As far as recipes...do you have a simple/foolproof way of making saeurkraut that you like?

I don't think any way of making saeurkraut can be fool proof --
everything has to be sterile, yet the ferment must survive.

I was surprised to read on the Web that vegetables can be fermented in
mason jars -- Mom always used knee-high stoneware crocks for her kraut
and pickles. And most of her pickling was done before we got
electricity and running water! When she told me that it isn't
carrying water into the house that gets you down, but carrying it out,
I didn't realize that she was speaking from experience. We moved into
town shortly after I was born, and when we moved back to the farm
after the war, we'd saved up enough money to put in plumbing and buy a
tractor.

I remember pickling -- only that the brine must be strong enough to
float an egg -- and I do know what Mom's kraut cutter looked like, but
she bought kraut -- she insisted on chopped kraut; I settle for
shredded.

About the time I got old enough to be useful, Dad retired and Mom went
back to nursing, so I never took part in pickling. I did help with
canning; when I married, I was surprised that I couldn't wash a
canning jar by putting my hand inside it.

So all I retain of Mom's preserving methods is bread-and-butter
pickles, and I learned that from the cookbook she began writing for
her children.

http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/COOKBOOK/PICKLES.HTM

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/