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Salad

Sauerkraut

Fermented white cabbage with optional apples or grapes, packed and pressed in a barrel, left to ferment for two weeks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Sauerkraut

Why it works: Apple and grape match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,659 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Sauerkraut

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the barrel

  1. Line the bottom and sides of a clean barrel or keg with cabbage leaves.

  2. Shred the cabbage using a slaw-cutter.

Pack and salt

  1. Pack a layer of cabbage about 4 inches deep, pressing down firmly and sprinkling with salt.

  2. Optionally, add chopped apples or grapes between layers.

  3. Continue layering and pressing down until all cabbage is packed.

Weight and ferment

  1. Cover with cabbage leaves, a clean cloth, a board, and a heavy stone for weight.

  2. Store in a cool cellar to ferment for two weeks.

  3. Weekly, check for scum, clean the cloth, board, and stone, and replace them.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Apple + grapetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,659 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Cabbage + appletop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together235 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Cabbage + grapetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together89 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

White cabbage
Provides the bulk of the vegetable that ferments into sauerkraut.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the cabbage and inhibits spoilage microbes, letting lactic fermentation dominate.

The step that matters

Pack the cabbage firmly and keep it fully under brine. Pressing each layer and keeping the cabbage submerged in its own liquid excludes air, which prevents mould and spoilage while lactic acid bacteria ferment the sugars and produce the sour flavour.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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