Making sauerkraut!

[Crotchfire]

This is inspired by the fact that my girlfriend and I have been making homemade sauerkraut recently.

 

If you've never tried making your own sauerkraut, doing so is surprisingly easy.  All you really need is a knife, a head of cabbage, a 1-1.5 tablespoons of salt, a bowl, a jar, and something that's heavy but also fits in the jar.  (Suggested PZ ingredients: kitchen knife, cabbage, salt shaker, jar, bowl, stone)

 

Chop the cabbage into little bits.  Put the bits into the bowl.  Put the salt in.  Squeeze and mix the bits and cabbage until you get a fair amount of juice to come out (5-10 minutes).  At this point, put all the cabbage into the jar.  Pack it in as much as you can.  Pour the cabbage juice into the jar over the cabbage, enough so that it's completely submerged.  Put the weight into the jar to help keep the cabbage submerged in its juices (IRL, I use a smaller jar that fits into the larger jar--jarception--but in PZ, a rock would do the job).  Put the jar in a room temperature place out of the way somewhere.  Come back after 2-6 days and voila, homemade sauerkraut.  Of note: any cabbage that's not submerged can grow mold on it, so be sure you've submerged as much of it as you can.  If mold does grow, just discard the moldy bits; the rest should be fine.  Don't completely seal the jar; if air can't escape, it doesn't ferment very well.  That said, you may want to put a cloth or something over the jar opening to keep the area from getting too smelly while the fermentation magic happens.

 

Sauerkraut doesn't go bad quickly once made (it's very acidic and salty, natural preservatives), so if the player is growing tons of cabbages and has spare salt, this can be a great way of preserving food.  It's not hugely filling by itself however, so I would think it game it'd function more as a condiment (goes into salads, stews, sandwiches...) than a meal unless the player is desperate.  By itself, it'd be like -10 hunger (varying according to cooking skill), +10 thirst.

 

I'd guess most people in rural Kentucky wouldn't be making sauerkraut by themselves, so the player would probably be required to have read a recipe in order to make it.

 

Also, the process scales up really easily, so you could probably make barrels for fermenting sauerkraut if you really like the idea.

[TheWraithPlayer]

Oh! Oh! Brilliant idea here(don't think this is already implemented). Hotdogs! I personally, have never found hotdogs, but with the implementation of hotdogs, the possibilities for food become vast indeed

(1), Relish[Inspired by sauerkraut]

(2), Chili dogs

(3), hot dog buns[when out of bread, I just use spare hotdog buns]

(4), others I didn't mention, but the combinations of condiments could be endless!

[HerrKazuya]

On 6.8.2016 at 1:07 AM, Crotchfire said:

If you've never tried making your own sauerkraut, doing so is surprisingly easy.  All you really need is a knife, a head of cabbage, a 1-1.5 tablespoons of salt, a bowl, a jar, and something that's heavy but also fits in the jar.  (Suggested PZ ingredients: kitchen knife, cabbage, salt shaker, jar, bowl, stone)

 

I have made Sauerkraut myself several times (I am from Germany). Let me tell you, that you are missing a vital party in your list. What you describe, is called a wild fermentation. This may work in some circumstances, but it can quite often yield very bad results. You are missing lactic acid bacteria. Simply adding some buttermilk will do the trick. Adding this will ensure that the lactic acid bacteria will win the "war" against other undesired bacteria and yeasts. If you omitt this step, there is a good chance that you will end up with some inedible vinegary mush.

 

On 6.8.2016 at 1:07 AM, Crotchfire said:

Of note: any cabbage that's not submerged can grow mold on it, so be sure you've submerged as much of it as you can.  If mold does grow, just discard the moldy bits; the rest should be fine.

 

Now that's a great way to poison yourself. The mold will produce mycotoxins, which will taint the entire batch. Furthermore: although moldspores will get killed in the acidic environment, they will remain in the acidic solution and they can trigger allergic reactions, if they are ingested. So just discarding the moldy bits and keeping the rest is really bad advice.