German Fermenting Crocks (Much lower price)

[joebryant]

For anyone who was/is interested in the Harsch crocks discussed earlier in the post with various recipes:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=99232 and other related posts that followed, check out the new manufacturer's MUCH LOWER PRICE of almost the same thing as the Harsch:

http://www.lehmans.com/store/Kitche...r_id=bcngoog&gclid=CLP9qc7axaQCFZC4KgodXD_REg

 

[FarmerJamie]

Lehman's - what an awesome store in a great area! We love to take day trips to that neck of the woods. Youngest DD calls it the "foreign country" because of German/Swiss/Pennsylvania Dutch motifs in most of the businesses.

Why not make it a weekend trip?

 

[joebryant]

Quote:
I just might do that because I'm thinking about calling to find out the sizes/prices of the ones they mentioned that are so large that they won't ship them; you have to go there and pick them up. They're not listed on the web site. We have the 5 liter Harsch pot; if I recall correctly we paid about $110 plus shipping, i.e., almost twice what these are selling for.

 

[Schultz]

Thanks for the link Joe, I have been wanting to make sauerkraut since...well...forever. My great grandparent's crock still sits on my granny's property. It was brought here in about 1914 from Hungary, they used it to make all sorts of pickled products. Too bad the bottom gave out

or I would still be using it today.

ETA: This is Kathleen, Rob's family is from Germany and he loves sauerkraut too!

 

[joebryant]

R & K, let me know when you get it, and I'll send you Anne's file of kraut recipes that she put in Word documents.
Everyone loves getting jars of gift kraut, so plan on making plenty.
BTW Somebody brought a pint jar of just plain kraut, certainly nothing "fancy", made in a Harsch crock to our house Saturday. They'd paid $10 for the pint of it at some farmer's market. It probably cost ten cents to make.

 

[Schultz]

Will do Joe, it will probably be a while, those are a little pricey for us right now but I can still drool

Does Anne have a recipe for red cabbage?

Gift kraut is a great idea!! This year everyone will be partaking of our turkeys for Christmas and Thanksgiving as thier gifts lol

 

[joebryant]

Not for red cabbage only, but it seems like any recipe's regular cabbage could be replaced with ALL red cabbage.
Here's one that has SOME red cabbage in it:
*******
Anne Bryant’s
VEGGIE KRAUT


This is for a 5 liter Harsch crock.

Mix and pound:

6 lbs. shredded cabbage (weigh the heads or use slaw mix)
1/2 of small head of red cabbage - shredded
4 ounces dry dulse flakes (buy at health food store)
3/8 cup (6 Tbsp) of sea salt
1 Tbsp ground caraway seed
1 Tbsp garlic powder

****
After pounding chop with the small plate of a Vidalia Chopper (or by hand) and add:

1/2 head cauliflower (no stems - use only small floret pieces)
3 peppers - red, orange, yellow
4 carrots (They were in the Sam’s slaw mix.)
2 medium beets
2 medium turnips
2 tsp red pepper flakes

Mix all together and put in the Harsch crock for two weeks.
_____
We also made a LOW-SALT batch of the above recipe using two tablespoons of salt in two cups of COOLED boiled water. If you don't use distilled water, you have to boil the tap water to burn off the chlorine in it because the chlorine will kill the fermentation bacteria, ruining your kraut.
CAUTION: Do not try making low-salt kraut in a regular crock. Kraut fermentation done the "regular" way requires at least two teaspoonfuls of salt for every pound of cabbage the first three days of fermentation to fight dangerous bacteria. After three days though the lactic acid takes over destroying bacteria.
I've read several places that say you can make NO-SALT kraut in a Harsch crock, but I'd be afraid to try it... never have, never will.
See: http://schmidling.com/kraut.htm
"The sauerkraut fermentation process utilizes the indigenous population of bacteria in the raw cabbage to produce lactic acid. This produces a low pH environment that allows few if any other bacteria to survive. The lactic acid is also what gives the kraut its characteristic sour flavor. Salt is added to the raw cabbage to draw out much of the water (drier product keeps longer) and to inhibit salt-intolerant bacteria. This allows the acid-producing bacteria to get a strong foothold and dominate the population."

 

[joebryant]

Also, Kathleen, I used to help my grandmother in Kentucky make large crocks of kraut that we'd put in the cave for safe keeping. Every time she wanted some, she had to throw away molded kraut was on the top. Mold NEVER forms in this type of crock because of the water dam on the top that seals it and keeps out ALL air. The kraut's ready in two-three weeks, but as long as you keep the water on the top part of the crock, you can let it continue getting better 'n better for months, using what you want when you want it; just don't forget to keep water in the dam that seals out air. That's why I might go there to get a really big one cheap from this company.

 

[Schultz]

Ya I remember my grandmother scooping off the mold and her telling me that if the kraut was less than 3 months old, it was no good. You'll have to let me know how the water dam thing works out, I may just have to wish for one for Christmas

I made picled corn for my other grandma last year in a thin crock and had to keep the corn in a pillow case and stir the water every few days to keep mold from forming

I didn't try it but she said it was good.

 

[joebryant]

Quote:
I've no doubt that the water dam on these will work just as well as the one on our Harsch crock; after all they're made in Germany. We've never had any problem with it because we kept the water area filled... luckily we didn't forget, and we always filled glass jars with kraut after three weeks.