One of the simplest, most delicious and economical preparations for the winter is sauerkraut.

If you know how to salt cabbage in a barrel, then this will be very useful to you if you want to support your body in the winter with vitamins and other useful substances.

Many housewives have their own family recipes for sauerkraut in a barrel, which are passed on from generation to generation.

So, if you have this wooden barrel on the farm, be sure to prepare it for the winter with delicious salted cabbage, which has a natural and very pleasant taste.

It will be more modern to pickle cabbage in a plastic barrel, but it does not let air through, which will affect the taste of cabbage.

Choose elastic flat heads of cabbage, “big-headed” Amager varieties will be soft and “snotty” after fermentation.

You need to chop cabbage cabbage in early October, before the first frosts, that is, late ones. But if the upper leaves of her are cut off, this means that the cabbage has frozen, and the seller in this way hides it.

The most crispy pickling of cabbage is obtained from light, almost white heads of cabbage.

How to salt cabbage in an oak barrel

Rinse the barrel with ordinary baking soda and pour boiling water over it. Fill it with water and leave it like this for a week, at first it may happen to leak in the places of the connector. But when the wood swells from the water, the flow will stop.

The list of ingredients is simple. This is cabbage itself and coarse salt, which is taken at the rate of 1 tablespoon with the top per kilogram of chopped cabbage. In Soviet times, salt was measured using a matchbox (1 kg of salt per 1 kg). You can not sow cabbage with iodized salt, because it softens it.

In addition, for color, taste and aroma, grated carrots on a coarse grater are added to the cabbage - 1 pc. on an average head or a little more. To increase acidity, you can put cranberries, cranberries (200 g per 10 kg), acidic apple varieties.

Raspberry color is obtained due to the addition of beets.

And for the aroma, black and allspice, bay leaf (20-25 sheets), hot pepper, cloves, caraway seeds (2 tsp per 10 kg) are placed in the cabbage.

  Order an energy saver and forget about the former huge costs of light

Remove the top leaves from the heads of cabbage, rinse them with water, cut into 4 parts and cut the stalk - nitrates accumulate in it.

Shredding cabbage is best not very thin, but it depends on your preference.

In the old days, the bottom of the barrel was sprinkled with rye flour, then a layer of shredded cabbage, a layer of salt, and a layer of carrots were laid. In this case, the cabbage must be slightly tamped, just lightly, in order to avoid its softening.

It is not necessary to fill the barrel to the brim, otherwise cabbage pickle may spill out of it. From above, cover the cabbage with cleanly washed cabbage leaves, then boiled cotton cloth and a clean wooden circle, on which you put oppression.

You can not use plywood or particleboard because of the content of harmful substances in them.

Sauerkraut at room temperature will be for two weeks. If the room is cool, then longer. In the process of fermentation appears foam, which must be removed.

Once a day, pierce the contents of the barrel with a long, clean stick to let out gas. During fermentation, cabbage should always be covered with brine.

When the smell disappears and when the gas stops puncturing, the cabbage is ready. You can put it in storage.

How to salt whole cabbage in a barrel

You can salt cabbage for the winter in a barrel with whole heads of cabbage. To do this, remove the upper leaves, cut the stalk.

With these leaves, you can lay the bottom of the barrel, and also fill them with voids between heads of cabbage in the upper rows.

Between heads of cabbage, halves of peeled carrots are placed, as well as tomatoes and bell peppers to improve the taste of the finished sauerkraut.

Then pour the cabbage with a brine of 400 g of salt per 10 liters of filtered water), cover with a linen cloth on top, lay a cross and a load treated with antiseptics.

As a cargo, clean, and preferably boiled, large stones are traditionally used that will not affect the taste of cabbage.

The fabric should be washed regularly in plain water, and then boiled to get rid of mold.

It is best to store sauerkraut in the cellar, because the barrel is unlikely to fit somewhere else.

The optimum storage temperature is from 0 to 2 degrees. Too low temperatures affect the taste of the workpiece badly - after defrosting, the cabbage will be soft and stop crackling.

Barrel cabbage has long been considered the most delicious. This method is not very popular today, because it is much more convenient to ferment the cabbage and store it in banks. But only a barrel ambassador according to old recipes allows you to cook the most delicious and crisp cabbage.

If there is no more space left in the freezer, and there is nowhere to put the next batch of vegetables from the garden, it’s just right to recall how our ancestors made preparations. The cabbage fermented in a barrel for the winter according to an old classic recipe turned out so delicious in our grandmothers that there was no end to tasting it from the hunters. To prepare delicious pickles you will need a large wooden bowl, a large shredder, a table, and, of course, fresh vegetables from your own garden.

In the absence of your own garden, you can also ferment purchased cabbage. It is very important to choose it correctly, because not everyone is suitable for laying in a barrel.

The ideal option is to take forks with a white color of late-grade leaves, cut in October, to frost. Such a cabbage leaf crunches nicely, and the juice in it is enough for yeast.

When choosing heads of cabbage, you need to press them lightly: those that produce a pleasant light crunch are suitable.

Barrel for pickling cabbage

Our grandmothers fermented cabbage and harvested other pickles in oak barrels. Oak - strong wood, not subject to decay. On the contrary, it has a powerful disinfecting effect, and products that are stored in oak containers never disappear. In addition, it gives the pickle a special flavor.

A barrel that has stood in the barn for a long time needs to be prepared. One of the ways that our ancestors used was steaming. Several freshly cut juniper branches should be put in the container, pour them with hot water. Almost immediately, several clean, hot stones should be thrown at it, after which it is necessary to cover the barrel.

After cooling the water, we take out all the contents from it and thoroughly rinse it out using a soda solution. If the container has not been used for a long time, it, of course, has dried up, and it needs to be restored to working capacity, filled with water and letting stand for several days. During this time, the wood will swell and close all cracks formed from drying out.

Sauerkraut in bokeh: a rustic classic recipe

Ingredients

• Fresh cabbage heads  - 10 kg + -
•   - 1 kg + -
•   - 200-250 g + -
•   - about 1 tablespoon + -
• Fresh cranberries - 300 g + -

How to ferment cabbage at home

1. We cover the bottom of the wooden container (it needs to be slightly dried) with large cabbage leaves. They must be laid very tightly so as not to leave the slightest gap between them.
2. It is not necessary to wash the cabbage before the shredder - just release the forks from the dry and spoiled upper leaves. We cut it in half or quarter - so that it is convenient to chop. If the forks are from your own organic beds, you can not remove the stokers and grind them together.
3. Chopped a fifth of cabbage forks, send them to the barrel, pouring carrots chopped on a coarse grater. Consumption - 200 g of grated root vegetables per 2 kg of cabbage chips.
4. Having laid in the barrel one serving of vegetables, we thoroughly interfere with them, slightly crushing them to a crunch.
5. The next step is to add salt. One bookmark needs about a handful. Again we interfere well, slightly crushing.
6. Add the fifth part of the washed cranberries and dill grains, again we interfere, but carefully. When cranberries have already appeared in the cabbage, it is not necessary to knead it, so as not to crush the berries.
7. Again we take the shredder in our hands, chop the next portion of cabbage, add it to the barrel, mix with carrot chips, mash, salt, add berries and dill.

We do this with enviable constancy until we fill the pickling tank almost completely. It is not necessary to fill the barrel to the top, so that in the process of ripening the juice does not overflow over the sides.

Cover the filled container with a piece of clean cloth or gauze, cover with a wooden circle or a plate of the same diameter as the neck of the barrel, and put the load on top. He should press the contents of the oak container so that the juice completely covers it.

After a day, open the barrel and pierce the cabbage thickness with a clean stick. Leaning against the bottom, we begin to make circular motions to release the gases accumulated in the tank. This should be done twice a day - in the morning and in the evening.

Having reduced the oppression, we leave the cabbage to ferment at a temperature of up to 18 ° C for about 1.5 weeks. If the room is colder, the fermentation process will be slightly delayed.

Secrets of a successful sourdough cabbage

• Salt for homemade salting of cabbage for the winter in an oak barrel must be taken the most ordinary, large. Enriched with iodine is not suitable, since it leads to softening of the product. Its amount can be varied to taste, but the most optimal proportion is 1 tbsp. (with a slide) for 1 kilo of slaw.
• If you add apples like Antonovka to the barrel, the cabbage will become even more vigorous and aromatic. You can lay them (in layers) either whole or by dividing them into quarters or large slices.
• Finely chopped cabbage can be shifted in layers of coarsely chopped leaves or even cut into quarters of small forks.

An indicator that our pickles are already ripe is clarification of cabbage juice and the absence of gas emissions. It is advisable to keep the finished product in the same container, sometimes remembering to air it in the dark and cold. At a temperature of 0-4 ° C cabbage delicacy will be stored even until spring.

Fragrant cabbage, filling on homemade pies, a sharp stewed side dish to the fried neck - none of these dishes can be cooked without delicious salting. Favorite sauerkraut harvested in a barrel for the winter according to an old recipe is a fertile topic for unrestrained culinary imagination. But just sprinkled with fragrant sunflower oil in the "company" with a green onion, it is incomparable! ..

For hundreds of years, crispy and fragrant sauerkraut has been one of the main dishes on the table of a Russian person. This dish is included in national cuisines of other nations - Ukrainians, Belarusians, Bulgarians, Poles, Germans, as well as residents of Asian countries. The secrets of sauerkraut preparation in Russia were carefully preserved and passed on from generation to generation, and the process of salting became an unchanged annual tradition. Every year, in the month of September, Russian women in all houses were engaged in shredding and laying cabbage in barrels.

It is wooden that are considered ideal containers for fragrant and crispy sauerkraut. The best tree for making salting barrels is oak. Thanks to the tannins contained in this wood, pickles are stored for a long time, acquire a unique aroma and a peculiar taste.

For salting cabbage in oak barrels, varieties of middle and late cabbage are used. It is chopped or chopped, mixed with other ingredients: salt, carrots, other additives, and then it is laid and thoroughly crushed. On the bottom of oak barrels it is customary to lay cabbage leaves. Small heads of cabbage are laid in whole or cut into several parts. In modern Russian cuisine, there are many ways to pickle sauerkraut in oak barrels, but the following recipes for sauerkraut in an oak barrel are especially popular:

Classic sauerkraut recipe

According to Russian folklore, cabbage must be pickled on the days of the new moon. Only then will it turn out crispy, white and tasty. The hostess in every Russian house knew that when salting cabbage, the stump should be removed, otherwise the dish will be bitter.

For the preparation of sauerkraut according to the classic recipe you will need:

50 kg of cabbage;

1.3-1.5 kg of rock salt (ordinary, not iodized);

a handful of caraway seeds.

The preparatory stage of cabbage should be taken with all responsibility. It should be washed, cleaned of green and spoiled leaves, cut the stump and chop. You can chop the cabbage finely or chopped into larger pieces in accordance with your own preferences. Green leaves taken from the head, whole leaves should not be thrown away, but it is better to put them aside.

An oak barrel is pre-washed and scalded. The very green leaves that were laid aside are laid at the bottom of the container. Shredded cabbage is mixed in small portions and rubbed with your hands with the rest of the ingredients in a special wooden trough, an enameled basin or on a clean table. In the future, each portion of the cabbage thus prepared is stacked and rammed in a barrel.

Between layers of shredded cabbage, you can put chopped cabbage in large pieces, while adding salt. That's how the barrel is filled almost to the top. It is recommended to leave 7-8 cm of empty containers on top. On top is another layer of green, whole leaves. All cabbage is covered with a clean, dense cloth, a wooden circle, and the load is set on top. The main thing when pickling cabbage is that it should be completely covered with juice.

In a warm room (20-25 ° C) the barrel with cabbage should be 10-12 days. During this time, the fermentation process will begin and end in the tank. Compliance with the correct temperature conditions is probably the most important requirement for a quality product.

When the foam first appears on the brine surface, the cabbage should be pierced with a wooden stick. In the future, this action must be performed daily until the end of the fermentation process. It is recommended to remove the foam that appears with a clean spoon, otherwise the microorganisms present in it can contribute to spoilage of the product. By the end of the fermentation, the foam will cease to appear, and the brine will become clean. This is a signal to transfer the container with sauerkraut to a cool place (basement or cellar). Before this, it is necessary to remove the oppression, the circle and the fabric, wash everything well and put it in place. Sauerkraut is stored in a wooden barrel at a temperature of 0 to +2.

Cranberries - a healthy and tasty berry that gives sauerkraut a special highlight. To prepare sauerkraut with cranberries for 10 kg of fresh cabbage you will need:

300-350 gr cranberries;

250 grams of rock salt;

300 gr carrots;

1 teaspoon of dill seeds (if desired, can be replaced with caraway seeds).

Cabbage must be cleaned from damaged and green leaves, chopped or chopped. Cranberries are thoroughly washed and dried. Carrots should be cut into strips or grated. All ingredients, except cranberries, are mixed in small portions, rubbed with your hands for better juice formation and stacked in an oak barrel. Each layer of cabbage combines with a layer of cranberries until the barrel is supplemented to the top. The further process of salting is the same as in the classic recipe.

Sauerkraut recipe with apples

To prepare sauerkraut with apples according to this recipe for 10 kg of fresh cabbage, you need to take:

0.5 kg of sour apples (since ancient times, antonovka has been used for these purposes);

caraway seeds and dill for 1 teaspoon;

230-250 gr of salt.

Apples must be washed, peeled, core and cut into slices. Mix the apples in small portions with shredded cabbage, salt and seeds, grind with your hands and put in an oak barrel, after covering the bottom with cabbage leaves. The process of making cabbage with apples is the same as in the classic version.

Sauerkraut and Carrot Recipe

Most women use this recipe for sauerkraut with carrots. The following amount of ingredients is taken per 10 kg of fresh white cabbage:

1-1.5 carrots;

250 grams of salt;

10 grams of dill seeds (if desired).

Carrot gives a special taste to sauerkraut, enriches it with carotene. To prepare pickles, carrots must be washed, cut into small strips or grated (coarse). Cabbage is chopped, mixed with salt, carrots and dill seeds, frayed by hand and placed in prepared oak barrels on a layer of peeled leaves. The technology for making sauerkraut with carrots is similar to the classic version.

Beijing Sauerkraut Recipe

This salting has a sharp and piquant taste. To prepare Beijing pickled cabbage according to this recipe you will need:

10 kg of cabbage;

0.9-1 kg of salt.

Heads of cabbage are washed, cut lengthwise into 4 parts and stacked in a barrel. Each layer must be thoroughly sprinkled with salt. After filling the container with parts of Beijing cabbage, it is filled with cold boiled water until completely covered. The pickle is covered with a clean cloth from above, a wooden circle is laid and oppression is established. A barrel of cabbage should be kept in a warm place for 2 days, then taken out in the cold. Sauerkraut cabbage will be ready for use in a month. When using, it is necessary to ensure that the cabbage is always in brine. Periodically, it is necessary to wash the fabric, circle and oppression.

A day before use, a special mixture of 1 kg of bell pepper, 0.3-0.5 kg of hot red pepper and 0.2-0.3 kg of garlic is prepared. All ingredients must be crushed by passing through a meat grinder. To prepare a spicy kimchi dish, you need to get the required amount of pickled Beijing cabbage from a barrel and rinse with plenty of cold water. Pieces of Peking cabbage prepared in this way are well spread between the leaves with a sharp mixture of peppers and garlic, placed in an enamel bowl and poured with boiled, cold water until completely covered. A container of Beijing cabbage must be put in a cool place for at least 24 hours.

Everyone has long been aware of the healing properties of cabbage. In the process of fermentation, it acquires even more useful substances that contribute to improving the functioning of the whole organism. How to salt cabbage for the winter to get a tasty and life-giving product? This question is asked by beautiful hostesses and even representatives of the stronger sex. The fact that they use wooden containers for pickling has been heard by many. And in which barrels salted cabbage, and what ingredients should be put, we will try to figure it out together.

Even in the distant past, sailors loaded wooden barrels with sauerkraut onto the ship and escaped from scurvy. Then it was the most common vegetable containing a huge amount of vitamin C. They put whole heads of cabbage in an oak product and consumed them during sea trips.

The special properties of wood have always been appreciated during the storage of various products. An oak barrel can be considered an ideal dish for pickling cabbage. Before starting the pickling, it is necessary to properly prepare the wooden container.

Barrel Processing

If the product is new, then it is soaked with cold water for two weeks. In this case, it is advisable to change the water once every two days. After swelling of the wood, all leaks are eliminated. The barrel is scalded with boiling water, washed with a solution of soda. Then rinse everything again. The barrel for pickling cabbage is ready to use.

In the case of storage of empty containers, previously used for pickling, it is enough to do a washing with soda and scalding with hot water. When salting cabbage in an oak barrel, they get a pleasant and rich taste of pickled product. But at the same time do not forget about the secrets of proper salting.

The subtleties of cooking

Before you figure out how to salt cabbage in a barrel for the winter, you need to know the details about the vegetable itself, which variety is best suited for pickling.   It is advisable to use heads of cabbage, cut to the first frost. Late product varieties would be ideal. We need vegetables of a light, almost white color. Then it turns out delicious crispy sauerkraut.

It is necessary to pay attention to the upper leaves. If they are cut, the head of the cabbage is frozen, and it is not suitable for pickling.

Shredding cabbage can be done in different ways. Some like to cut into squares or divide into large pieces. Not very small and not very large, the average degree of shredder is quite satisfied. The stalk of self-grown cabbage is also used for salting. If the product was bought from an unfamiliar dealer, it is better not to use it, since it may contain nitrates. So, the cabbage is ready for pickling. We pass to the last stage of direct fermentation.

Secrets of salting

A very simple ambassador of cabbage according to old recipes. If you prepare a brine, you need to take rock salt at the rate of 1 tablespoon per 1 liter of water. With dry sourdough, salt is thrown a little more, about 20 g per 1 kg of shredded product. As you can see, it’s easy and simple, and the cabbage is tasty and crispy.

Modern housewives add various ingredients to improve their palatability:

• carrot;
• cranberries;
• apples
• beets.

Grated carrot gives a special aroma and enhances the crunchy properties of cabbage. Beets change the color of the product. Also add cloves, allspice and black pepper, caraway seeds.

After laying in a barrel, the product is kept for about two weeks at room temperature, and then lowered into the cellar - the best place to store it. I almost forgot to mention the correct filling of the wooden container.

Barrel Features

To preserve the taste of cabbage, the bottom of the oak product is sprinkled with flour, preferably rye. Then the components of the future pickled product are laid out in layers:

• shredded cabbage;
• salt;
• grated carrots.

Slightly thickening the vegetable layers, fill the wooden barrel, but not to the very top, otherwise the juice that appears will pour out. Cover the cabbage with a cotton cloth and press down with a wooden lid. It is periodically recommended to pierce the contents in an oak container with an ordinary long twig. So they release gas from the product and saturate it with a new portion of oxygen.

Unfortunately, I had to briefly outline how to salt cabbage in a barrel. But, hopefully, useful information will help to properly salt a regular cabbage and get a rather tasty, healthy and healing product.

Russian sauerkraut in barrels.   Sauerkraut is an indispensable snack on the table of a Russian person. Here is a recipe on how to harvest sauerkraut on a grand scale - barrels. If you want to cook it in a city apartment, you will need to proportionally reduce the amount of raw materials in accordance with your container - enameled buckets or pans. The enamel in the container should be free of chips, otherwise the acidic cabbage juice will corrode the iron. As a bent circle, you can take a solid plate.
Ingredients: Calculation per 100 kg of yield: winter cabbage 110 kg, carrots 3-4 kg, salt 2.5 kg. If cabbage is not used for soups, then you can add sour apples (Antonovka), cranberries or lingonberries (5 kg per 100 kg of cabbage) and caraway seeds (18 grams per 100 kg of cabbage).
How to cook: It is necessary to use fresh ripe cabbage of medium late or late varieties. Frozen and rotten cabbage can not be used.
Heads of cabbage to clear of the top green, damaged, polluted leaves and from stitches. Then rinse and chop with straws up to 5 mm wide or into pieces up to 1 cm. Peel and chop carrots. Instead of carrots, you can use a pumpkin cut into slices 3-4 cm long. If the cabbage is not for soups (cabbage soup), then you can add apples, cranberries or lingonberries, as well as cumin or other spices. Lay a layer of cabbage leaves on the bottom of the barrel (some cooks also recommend sprinkling a thin layer of rye flour on the bottom of the barrel). Place the cabbage in barrels, evenly sprinkling layers with salt and carrots (or cranberries, lingonberries, Antonov apples and spices, when used).
When laying cabbage in a barrel, it should be tamped so that the cabbage gives juice. You should not tamp too much, otherwise the cabbage will become soft. Do not fill the barrel to the brim, as otherwise, part of the juice will pour out of the barrel during pickling. If, nevertheless, the juice comes to the edge, collect it and put it in a cold place, and then you can add it to the barrel if the juice level in it drops below the cabbage.
After laying, cover the cabbage with washed cabbage leaves, then boiled cotton cloth, put on top a well-washed wooden circle (not plywood, so that harmful substances from plywood do not pass into the cabbage!), Put on top of the circle oppression weighing 15% of the weight of the cabbage.
After 2-3 days, the fermentation process will begin. The optimum temperature is 15 - 22 degrees, with it fermentation occurs in 10-15 days. At a temperature of 6-10 degrees, the fermentation can last 30 days or more. When fermenting, bubbles will appear on the surface of the brine, and then the foam, which must be removed. In some sources, it is recommended to pierce the laid cabbage with a clean wooden pointed stick so that the gases escape. A sign of completion of the fermentation - the solution becomes transparent and sour in taste without bitterness.
At the end of the fermentation, the barrel with cabbage should be placed in a cool place (0-3 degrees) and the yoke should be reduced to 10% of the weight of the cabbage. When storing cabbage, make sure that it is covered with brine. If mold appears, remove it. The cloth, wooden circle and oppression should be cleaned and scalded with boiling water from time to time.
When serving, cabbage can be seasoned with vegetable oil, onions and sugar to taste.