Reuben Sammies

[3rensho]

Well, a cellar is handy.  I thought everybody had a cellar (except on the west coast).  Don't know where you're located.  But any coolish place will suffice.

[BuyLowSellHigh]

Can't have one in SE Texas where I am - in our expansive soils it would cave-in in due time.


There is a section in Charcuterie on "The Natural Pickle", using just salt and water.  They have a recipe for sauerkraut and state a fermentation temp of 70 - 75 °F.

I  guess you could do what the old Koreans did when making kimchi - bury the pot.   ;D

[3rensho]

Yeah, the 70-75 would be to get the fermentation kicked off initially.  Lower and slower produces a different flavor.  I make my own kimchi too and that goes at whatever the kitchen temp is.  That only takes a couple of days though.  Then I'm in fiery garlic heaven.

[SnellySmokesEm]

I decided to chop up the rest of the pastrami in the food processor and make a sammich yesterday and this is how it turned out....

[Caneyscud]

Oh GASP - those look good,  Makes me wish I didn't still have 1.5 racks of spares, 5 lbs of pulled pork, 1.5 spatchcocked chicken left to eat. 

[Quarlow]

Well Snelly, there isn't much of a recipe as such.  I buy enough green cabbage in the fall to give me 12-14 kg when the outer leaves and the cores are removed after quartering.  Then it all gets shredded into long thin strips with a purpose built mandolin (every store carries them here).  Then you take a clean, ceramic crock and fill it about 25cm full with the shredded cabbage (kraut).  Sprinkle over about 1 TB of kosher salt and then take a wooden dowel about 5-6 cm in diameter and tamp the hell out of it. Get some exercise doing it. The idea is to break down the leaves, let the salt get in and release juice.  Repeat process until crock is full to about 5 cm from the top.  Everything should be under about 4-5-cm of juice.  This is important.  If there is insufficient juice then make a brine from about 1 TB of kosher salt to a liter of water and add it to the required depth.  Cover kraut with a weighted plate and a clean rock on top to hold under the juice and then another plate over the top of the crock.  Leave at ambient temp (20C) for 24 hours and then into a coolish cellar (10-14C) for four weeks or so.  The first week fermentation should start (caused by bacteria naturally occurring on the cabbage).  It can be fairly active. This drops the pH to 5 or less and that prevents the growth of nasty bacteria and makes the brine sour.  Taste some after four weeks.  If it is is as sour as you like - start chowing down.  If not, let if go another couple of weeks.  When the desired sourness is reached you can take portions out and freeze them just fine.  Make sure to keep the remaining kraut submerged in brine.  The cellar will smell like fermenting cabbage.  If a slimy, white filamentous growth forms on top that smells gawd awful then chuck it.  The initial fermentation did not get the pH low enough, fast enough.  This is a cool weather sport unless you have a nice cool cellar in summer.  Nothing like homemade pastrami and kraut.  If you make your own sausage the kraut goes well in a Choucroute garni.  

So let me get this straight, I need a cellar??? where do I buy one of those things at?  Sounds good 3rensho...

You just find a hillside and start digging a cave. When it is big enough you put some boards around the sides and roof and then build a well insulated door and now you have a root cellar. It is simple really.  ;D