I just thought - when we ferment the cabbage, we don't just harvest it, we FER-MEN-TI-RU-EMER!
If you don't believe it, then see for yourself. Fermentation is a controlled decay process. It was not me who invented it, the technologists say it. To ferment the product, add salt (no more than 3.5% of the total mass) to a medium rich in sugar. Thanks to this, bacteria (just the same lactobacilli) will feel at ease, eat and reproduce.
Well, does the definition correspond to sauerkraut?
That's the same.
Fermentation is different from pickling and pickling? The fact that neither salting nor pickling allows the development of bacteria, and fermentation is just the cultivation of one, certain - in this case, lactobacillus - by us. And in order for the cabbage to turn out delicious, we need to control the entire reproduction process of these tiny, but, as it turned out, very useful creatures.
And when you know the conditions they need, then an understanding comes - what must be done and what not, and this is much better than thoughtless repetition of a recipe once created by someone (because there is always a desire to add your own changes).
Here I decided to compile for myself a short memo on the conditions for creating a comfortable environment for bacteria. Maybe it will come in handy for you.
So…
Salt, salt, salt
Salts - not more than 3.5 percent of the total mass, but not less than 2.5. if you take about more - fermentation will not start, since there will be too much salt - bacteria will not tolerate and bend. Perhaps even in terrible agony. If there is less salt, fermentation, again, will not start, because there is not enough salt for the active separation of cabbage juice (and fermentation will not start without liquid). There are advice to add water to cabbage, but this, in my opinion, is still a perversion.
The salt should be simple rock salt. Because lactobacilli do not need iodine and other useful additives. They do not like it, such additives disrupt their life process and therefore the final product most often goes to the trash heap.
Oxygen is the enemy of cabbage civilization
Lactobacilli are anaerobic. This means that they, unlike us, do not need oxygen. Therefore, it is necessary either to use dishes that block the access of oxygen, or - bend enough mass so that the brine completely covers the cooking cabbage.
The thick layer of cabbage leaves, on which the circle is set, and on it - the weight that the circle literally sinks into the cabbage - not a whim of our ancestors, who had nothing to do. This is such a primitive, rather, but effective way to provide lactobacilli with resort conditions.
I somehow did not put oppression in my youth. Why, I decided. I'll do it. I don't have much cabbage, everything fits in the bucket, and even there is space left there. No need to ram anything!
Well, I threw it out ...
Resort temperature
And yet I have not forgotten - the temperature! The fermentation process takes place at a range of 18-30 degrees. When the temperature rises to forty degrees, the lactobacilli die safely (perhaps even in flour).
The optimum temperature for cabbage is 23-24 degrees. Because cabbage is tough. It can be slightly lower (the fermentation process will take longer, but a little higher is no longer ice, it will become soft faster and can overwhelm.
At a temperature of 23-24 degrees, cabbage needs to stand for three days, and then it goes outside - to calm down at temperatures below twenty degrees, but higher than ten. This inhibits the development of bacteria, but does not completely stop it.
This temperature should be about five days. And then it is further reduced by sending the cabbage to the refrigerator (now) or to the cellar (earlier).
By the way, not everyone kept cabbage in the cellar. If you believe the memoirs and memoirs, in peasant houses a tub of cabbage very often stood in the cold passage, and cabbage they began to procure, just guessing according to signs for the coming frosts, so that nature itself would become a regulator of temperature modes. Although no one knew about lactobacilli then ...