Quick and delicious recipes for making sauerkraut in 3 days

Many countries have dishes made from sauerkraut: Polish bigos, German knuckle with cabbage, Ukrainian dumplings with cabbage. Cabbage soup, pies, stewed cabbage, cabbage pancakes, lazy cabbage rolls, vegetarian cutlets, vinaigrette and other salads - many Russians have loved all this since childhood.

Today we will tell you the technology and secrets of quickly preparing the main component of these wonderful dishes - sauerkraut.

What you need for cooking

To prepare sauerkraut in a jar in three days, you need choose the right ingredients, choose the dishes for pickling and storage, and decide on the recipe.

Important! The traditional recipe for sauerkraut requires only three ingredients: cabbage, carrots and salt. Sugar speeds up cooking but destroys vitamin C.

Cabbage

Technologists advise choosing large heads of cabbage weighing about 5 kg. They should be fresh, juicy, without damage or signs of disease. It is believed that cabbage becomes sweeter and better suited for pickling after the first autumn frost hits it.

It is better to take varieties of mid or late ripening. Early varieties with delicate, thin leaves are ideal for salads, but not for long-term storage.

Mid-season varieties are grown in almost all regions of the country. Experienced cooks consider the best to be the time-tested Slava, Belorusskaya, Podarok and completely new, as yet little common hybrids and varieties: Atria F1, Miracle for Salting F1, Kvashenka.

Late-ripening varieties are almost impossible to grow in the north: their growing season lasts up to six months. They are planted in the middle zone and in the south. Moscow late, Kharkov winter, Amager 611 - many gardeners consider them the best late vegetables for pickling.

Popular for harvesting in Siberia Nadezhda, Megaton F1, Jubilee F1.

Carrot

When choosing carrots, the main thing is that they are juicy. It is advisable to choose late varieties with a rich carotene content.

Salt

It is preferable to take salt large, non-iodized, without bleaching additives. You can use pure sea salt.

Preparing the dishes

Cabbage is traditionally fermented in wooden barrels or barrels. You can also use glass jars and enamel containers without chipping or damage. The main thing is not to use aluminum utensils for fermentation. In it, cabbage acquires a gray color and an unpleasant taste.

Dishes and lids are prepared in advance. They are thoroughly washed and disinfected. Banks are sterilized. Place the workpieces only in dry containers.

Simple and quick recipes for delicious sauerkraut

There are dozens of ways to prepare cabbage for the winter, including in jars in three days. Let's look at some of them.

With hot brine

According to this recipe, cabbage in a jar is prepared in 3 days with the addition of sugar and water.

Ingredients:

• 1 kg of fresh cabbage - finely chop with a knife, hand shredder, on a grater or in a food processor;
• 300 g carrots - grate on a coarse grater;
• 1 liter of water;
• 1 tbsp. l. salt;
• 1 tbsp. l. Sahara;
• 5 bay leaves;
• 3-4 tbsp. l. vinegar;
• 5 black peppercorns.

How to cook:

1. Place the chopped vegetables in a bowl or basin. Mix and knead with your hands until the juice comes out.
2. Transfer to a jar and crush with a masher. Place bay leaves and pepper on top.
3. Prepare the marinade separately: add sugar and salt to boiling water, dissolve them completely, then pour in vinegar.
4. Pour the marinade into a jar so that it completely covers the vegetable mixture.
5. Place the jar in a plate and cover the neck of the jar with a cloth. Leave at room temperature in a dark place for 3 days, then close the lid tightly and move to a cool place for storage.

If the salad is not going to be stored for a long time, it can be prepared without vinegar.

Traditional recipe

This is a classic recipe for sauerkraut in 3 days without vinegar.

What you need:

• 3 kg cabbage – finely chopped;
• 300 g carrots - grate on a coarse grater;
• 3 tbsp. l. salt without a slide.

Cooking method:

1. Place the chopped vegetables in a large bowl or basin. Mix with your hands.
2. Add salt, mix again, mash a little.
3. Place the prepared vegetable mixture in a clean bowl. Press with a masher until the juice comes out. The container should not be filled completely, approximately 7-10 cm below the edge for the brine to be released.
4. Cover with a plate and place the weight. Leave at room temperature for 3-4 days.
5. Periodically pierce the contents of the jar with a long wooden stick to the bottom to release accumulated gas. Vegetables should be constantly covered with brine.

When the workpiece acquires a sour taste, it is moved to a cold place for long-term storage.

Advice from the hostess. To make the salad have a piquant taste, you can add 0.5 tsp to it. dill and caraway seeds and 4 peas each of white and black pepper.

With vegetable oil

This recipe takes less than 3 days to prepare cabbage.

Ingredients:

• 5 kg of cabbage – finely chopped;
• 1 kg of onion – cut into half rings;
• 1 kg of carrots – grate on a coarse grater;
• 500 ml vegetable oil;
• 500 ml table vinegar (9%);
• 100 g sugar;
• 50 g salt.

How to cook:

1. Mix all the vegetables in an enamel container, add salt and sugar. Squeeze a little with your hands until the juice appears.
2. Pour vegetable oil over the mixture and stir. Then add vinegar and mix thoroughly again.
3. Place the dishes with the salad in a dark place for a day, then place them in sterilized jars and cover with plastic lids.

You can experiment with this recipe. To make the salad more colorful, you can add red bell peppers or colored onions. Fresh herbs, garlic, peppercorns or bay leaves will change the taste. If you add twice as many carrots to the salad, you get a carrot and cabbage salad that kids will love.

In pieces: three-day cabbage recipe with step-by-step photos

Cooking this recipe is a pleasure. Cut, pour marinade, wait a day - a tasty and healthy side dish is ready.

What you need:

• 3 kg cabbage;
• 100-150 g beets;
• 30-40 garlic;
• 30-40 g table horseradish;
• 30 g parsley;
• 2 liters of water;
• 110 g salt;
• 20 g sugar.

Preparation:

1. Make the brine: add salt and sugar to boiling water. Leave to cool.
2. Remove the top leaves from the head of cabbage and wash it. Remove the stalk, cut into pieces of approximately 100-150 g and transfer them to an enamel container.
3. Wash the beets, peel them, cut them into large cubes.
4. Chop the parsley.
5. Finely chop the garlic or pass through a press.
6. Add horseradish, beets, parsley, and garlic to the container with cabbage. Mix carefully.
7. Pour chilled brine, cover with a wooden board or an inverted plate, put pressure on top and leave for 2-3 days at room temperature. Then move to a cool place.

This dish can be stored for no more than a week, so prepare it as needed.

Take note:

How to prepare cabbage with vodka for the winter at home

Delicious recipes for sauerkraut with beets without vinegar

The best recipes for cabbage piluska (pelyuska) with and without beets

With cranberries

A delicious salad to combat spring vitamin deficiency.

Ingredients:

• 1 kg cabbage – finely chopped;
• 2 carrots – grate on a coarse grater;
• 2 tbsp. l. cranberries;
• a pinch of cumin;
• 20 g salt;
• 1 tsp. sugar without a slide.

How to cook:

1. Place chopped cabbage in an enamel container. Add salt and sugar, mix well, knead until juice appears.
2. Add carrots and mix thoroughly until everything is evenly distributed.
3. Add cumin first, then cranberries and mix gently again.
4. Place the prepared vegetables into a container for storing the finished product (large pan, jar) and press tightly with a masher. The container should be filled 7-10 cm below the rim. Place a plate and heavy pressure on top.
5. Leave the mixture at room temperature for 2-3 days. Be sure to pierce several times a day.

Cabbage should stand in the house until its acidity becomes pleasant to the taste. After this, the workpiece can be transferred for storage to a cool place.

Advice from the hostess. To make the cabbage crispy, you don’t need to mash it together with the carrots. It is better to add carrots after the cabbage juice comes out.

Little tricks

Despite the fact that sourdough does not require special knowledge and skills, there are some subtleties to preparing strong and crispy cabbage:

1. Usually add 1 tbsp per 1 kg of cabbage. l. salt and about 100 g of carrots. This ratio may vary depending on the taste preferences of the housewife.
2. Cabbage will ferment without salt. To do this, simply fill it with cold boiled water and leave it under pressure. But in this case, the shelf life is significantly reduced, since the product is deprived of the preservative - salt.
3. You can also add sugar to cabbage (for 1 kg of cabbage ½ tsp is enough), beets or pumpkin in combination with carrots or instead of it, apples, cranberries, lingonberries, seasonings (bay leaf, allspice, dill, cumin, horseradish, currant leaves).
4. When shredding, the thickness of the pieces should be about 5 mm. Sliced ​​cabbage very thinly may end up soft rather than crispy.
5. If the workpiece is fermented in a jar, you cannot immediately close it tightly with a lid: the gas released during fermentation must come out. It is better to cover it with a cloth, whole cabbage leaves or a lid with holes.
6. A closed jar of water or a clean stone is suitable as a load.
7. +18…+22°C is the optimal temperature for sourdough.
8. If you don't pierce the cabbage, it will taste bitter. You need to pierce the jar carefully so that the glass does not break.
9. Store the finished product in a cool place in the same container in which the fermentation took place.
10. When storing, the brine should completely cover the vegetables so that they do not dry out and change their taste.

Conclusion

Sauerkraut is a unique product. In terms of the amount of vitamins and minerals, it surpasses the fresh white cabbage from which it is prepared. The preparation is rich in vitamins B, K, U, PP and microelements. It is superior in vitamin C content to oranges and lemons.

Thanks to the cooking method, in which the product is not heated, all vitamins are completely preserved and do not lose their properties for 8-10 months.