Homemade Sauerkraut Recipe

This homemade sauerkraut is nothing more than thinly sliced green cabbage, salt, and caraway, fermented until sour and tangy. I basically prep it in 20 minutes of hands-on work, and the only real skill is squeezing the cabbage hard enough to draw out its own brine. You won’t buy this from the grocery store ever again after tasting this.

What Is Sauerkraut

Sauerkraut is finely sliced cabbage that has been salted and left to ferment in its own liquid until it goes sour and tangy. It is one of the oldest preserved foods there is, going back thousands of years, and it is said to have started in ancient China, where workers fermented cabbage in rice wine to keep it through the off-season.

It made its way across Asia and into Europe, where it became a cheap way for families to keep vegetables through a long winter. Because it ferments naturally, it is loaded with probiotics, which is a big part of why people have relied on it for gut health and immune support for as long as they have been making it.

I love that making this at home is extremely easy because it is basically more waiting than working. You slice a head of cabbage thin, then work salt into it with your hands until it releases enough of its own liquid to swim in. That salted cabbage and its brine go into a sterilized jar, packed down tight so nothing pokes up above the liquid. After that, the jar sits in a cool, dark spot for 8 to 10 days while the fermentation does everything on its own, and you press the cabbage back under the brine a couple of times a day until it tastes as sour as you want.

Get the salt and the squeezing right and everything after it is just patience, so I recommend you to read through my chef tips below before you start and you will have a jar of real living sauerkraut going in no time for your family.

Ingredients and Substitutions

Below I list the few ingredients of what goes into a jar of sauerkraut, plus a couple of notes on what you can adjust:

• Cabbage – The whole recipe, and the reason it works, since cabbage has enough natural water in it to make its own brine once salted. You could use Savoy or even Napa cabbage in this recipe. In fact I’ll go a step further and you could use red cabbage.
• Salt pulls the water out of the cabbage, seasons it, and keeps the bad bacteria out while the good bacteria do their thing. Making it at home is the only way to truly control how salty it gets, so use a pure salt without additives, and skip iodized table salt, which can cloud the brine and dull the flavor.
• Caraway Seeds, the classic sauerkraut seasoning, with a warm anise and licorice flavor that plays especially well against corned beef and rye. They are optional, but I never skip them. Fennel seeds or a little dill are fair swaps if caraway is not your thing.

How to Make Sauerkraut from Scratch

Slice the cabbage: Core the cabbage and slice it as thin as you can, either by hand or on a mandoline. Thin, uniform shreds pack down better and ferment more consistently than thick chunks.

Salt: Add the cabbage to a large bowl, sprinkle the salt over it.

Squeeze: Using your hands squeeze the cabbage very firmly and vigorously for about 4 to 5 minutes to help break down the cabbage and secrete its own liquid.

Add the caraway: Once there is about 1/2 cup of liquid in the bottom of the bowl mix in optional caraway seeds.

Pack the jar: Transfer the cabbage and all of its liquid into a sterilized mason jar, pressing it down firmly as you go so the cabbage stays packed tight and submerged under the brine.

Seal and ferment: Put an airtight lid on the jar and set it in a cool, dark place to ferment for 8 to 10 days.

Press it down daily: Two or three times a day, open the jar and press the cabbage back down so it stays covered in liquid.

Refrigerate: Once it tastes right, seal it and move it to the refrigerator, where it will keep for up to 6 months.

Serving Suggestions

I treat sauerkraut like a condiment more than a side, and I put it on just about everything savory. It is slightly sour, salty, and tangy, a lot like the way a good pickle wakes up a cheeseburger, and that little hit of acid cuts through anything rich. That’s why I use it on my classic Reuben sandwich, piled on with corned beef and melted Swiss, and it is just as good next to a plate of pork schnitzel or Jägerschnitzel as well.

Beyond the deli case, I pile it on grilled sausages and bratwurst, spoon it over pork ribs, and serve it next to roasted potatoes and German red cabbage when I am doing a bigger German-style dinner. But as I always say, feel free to explore more dishes on my blog. I have plenty of recipes that pair fantastically with this homemade sauerkraut.

Make-Ahead and Storage

Make-Ahead: This whole recipe is a make-ahead by design, since the 8 to 10 day ferment happens well before you ever eat it. I make one big batch a year and it lasts me most of it.

How to Store: Once it has fermented to the sourness I want, I seal the jar and keep it in the refrigerator for up to 6 months.

How to Freeze: I skip the freezer for sauerkraut, since freezing kills off the live probiotics and softens the crunch. The fridge keeps it plenty long on its own.

More Side Dish Recipes

• Spaetzle
• Perfectly Cooked Rice
• Roasted Brussels Sprouts
• Glazed Carrots
• Confit Byaldi