In our family, in the old days, it was like this: one day all our relatives came to us, each with her own, properly sharpened knife, and fermented cabbage with us, on the next day they went to another house and fermented cabbage there. Three women, a sack of cabbage, a few hours of work with ordinary knives, and the cabbage is all even, like a selection!
But it all starts not with cabbage, but with carrots. Cut it into strips, like for pilaf.
Place large whole cabbage leaves on the bottom of the barrel.
Place carrots, peppercorns, bay leaves and coarse salt next to it.
About measures. We have such a basin.
We know for sure that this bowl of cabbage needs such a handful of salt.
But in general, for 50 kg of cabbage, we take 1 kg of salt, that is, 2% of the weight. You can weigh each portion separately, although it is enough to know the weight of the purchased cabbage and immediately measure the amount of salt that you need. In the barrel, everything will mix and it will turn out to be evenly salty.
Sprinkle the cabbage with salt and crush it to crunch.
Take four times less carrots, mix carrots with crushed cabbage.
In general, cumin is traditionally used in cabbage. And cumin is laid not so much for the sake of taste, to be honest, as for the sake of digestion. Sorry for the details, but the cumin in cabbage prevents flatulence in the intestines.
When we lived in Uzbekistan, caraway was rarely found there, but cumin was sold everywhere. And we are used to the taste of cabbage with cumin. Although you can even take dill seeds - they work in the same way as cumin and cumin. It's just that for most people, caraway seeds, but for us cumin in cabbage is more familiar and tastier, and dill seeds are so-so, although they work best against gas formation.
And we shift the cauliflower into the barrel. One bowl - one row! One row - 10-15 peppercorns. And a couple of bay leaves.
Press down with all weight, tamp.
And so on until the barrel is full.
During the time that has passed from the first row, the cabbage has already begun to let juice. Attention, do not fill the barrel to the brim, leave some free space!
And the point is not even that cabbage must again be covered with two or three rows of whole leaves on top.
And it’s not that you have to choose the right size dish or make a wooden circle.
And the point is not even that oppression must be laid on top of the dish or circle.
The fact is that now our cabbage will begin to eat ... bacteria.
Yes, special bacteria that are responsible for fermentation. Gases are one of the products of their vital activity. These gases will collect in bubbles, and the path of these bubbles up through the packed cabbage is not close. But the volume of the liquid will increase due to the gas bubbles contained in it and it may happen that the cabbage juice even runs over the edge of the barrel. On this occasion, we put a bag on her so as not to collect cabbage juice later on on the kitchen floor.
The first bubbles begin to appear the next day. Gradually, there are more and more of them, and the foam they form is more and more viscous, thick.
Once a day, pierce the cabbage in several places with a clean ramrod to help the bubbles escape.
Otherwise, they will expel too much cabbage juice outside. Then, when they get out on their own, the remaining juice will settle, but it will be too little, and it is necessary that the juice completely cover the cabbage, otherwise the part that remains dry will simply disappear.
Indeed, in addition to gas, bacteria also release acid, which is why the cabbage becomes sour and does not deteriorate in the future. When the acid becomes in excess, the medium becomes unsuitable for the further vital activity of even the fermenting bacteria themselves, and they die. But we are unlikely to like such sour cabbage, so measures should be taken to stop the activity of bacteria.
One of the measures is salt, which we put at the very beginning. But you can't put too much salt either!
Therefore, there is only one measure left - cold. In the cold, the vital activity of bacteria slows down and cabbage is stored as much as necessary - even until spring.
Similar in meaning, but different in terms of cooking technology, Korean kim-chi are made less salty, so they sour faster if the temperature is not controlled. And, can you imagine, in Korea they produce special, highly accurate refrigerators for storing kim chi! These refrigerators maintain a temperature of -1C inside, at which the cabbage does not freeze (there is still a little salt in it) and does not sour.
Our cabbage is slightly saltier and nothing terrible will happen if a thin crust of ice forms on the surface of the barrel on especially cold nights. Then it must be transferred to a warmer room. The optimal temperature range for storing cabbage is from + 5C to -5C, that is, a cool pantry, an unheated loggia, a veranda, a canopy.