Sauerkraut!

Last night (and this morning!) I enjoyed the first taste of my second batch of sauerkraut. It was delicious!

It's not quite what my last batch was, but I figure that's partially my own fault, since I am woefully lacking in my patience for measuring things when I cook. Keeps it interesting, right? Right? ...Ok, maybe not.

Anyway, I left this batch out on the counter for longer and I think I like it more than I liked my last batch when I first tried it, so I call this a win. Which is good because I have nearly six pounds of it!

It's actually a really frugal food, too. And I know we are all looking for ways to save a few bucks, right? The cabbage (all six pounds) cost a whopping $2.50. I used several tablespoons of caraway seeds which I don't have a price for because it was part of a "starter" spice kit from three years ago. We'll say $0.25. The filtered water... negligible. And the kosher salt (iodized salt messes it up apparently) which I used probably 1/4 1/3 a cup probably came to $0.50 or less. So I got almost six pounds of sauerkraut for $3.25. Good luck beating that price buying pre-made sauerkraut.

The other nice thing about homemade v. store bought in this case is that my sauerkraut hasn't been heated at all, so it still has all the beneficial bacteria to help digestion. Trust me, most days, I need all the digestive help I can get, lol. (Sorry if that was tmi).

I know it's not as easy as buying a jar of it, but all told it doesn't really take that long to do, especially if you have any kind of food processor, I imagine. I chopped all of mine and got it set up on the counter in probably about one hour. After that it takes very little maintenance while it "sauers" for a week or 10 days. You really just have to keep an eye on the water level. Plus, an hour of my time equals sauerkraut for probably 4 months.

Tonight I am planning on starting some fermented orange marmalade type shtuff and I am soo excited.

I love fermented foods!