Here is what I did to create my second batch:
I bought two fresh cabbage, peeled the outer leaves off and brought them to the chopping board. I made sure not to wash them because I want the cabbage's naturally present bacteria for the fermenting. I cut them in half, starting upside down and going straight down the core, and then cut the cores out.
I then proceeded to peel the cabbage apart in layers so that I could safely dice the sections. I cut it up into slivers about 1 cm. thick and perhaps anywhere from 4-7 cm. in length. The size of the slivers doesn't seem to bear great importance to me.
After I cut up all the cabbage, I divided the shreds evenly into a glass and a ceramic dish. (I read that you shouldn't do such a fermentation in a metal bowl because salt reacts with metal.) I proceeded to add the salt. I used about 2 teaspoons of salt for about 3 pounds of cabbage, massaging the salt in with my clean hands until it evenly covered all of the shreds. I then used my fist to compress the cabbage down as much as possible and walked away for a couple of hours, (giving the cabbage time to soften and sweat some brine.)
After a couple hours I came back and crushed the cabbage down more with my fists, attempting to submerge it beneath the salt water that had begun to accumulate. It wasn't producing as much brine as I wanted, so I took 1 tsp of salt and 1 cup of water and mixed it together, and added a little bit to each of the bowls. I then spent a couple more minutes pushing the cabbage under the water. From there, I covered the bowls with plastic wrap (ensuring that no air could get in) and put down jars of beans and soup to weigh down the cabbage (ensuring that it will stay below the level of water.) My mistake before was just to press a plate down over the cabbage and cover it with cloth. That created too much airflow though, and too much mold for me to dismiss.
The two bowls are now sitting in my kitchen cupboard and I will let them sit there for the next four weeks at room temperature. This should be perfect timing seeing as our last class meeting is exactly four weeks from now. Nearly all the recipes said that you should let cabbage ferment anywhere from 4-6 weeks although there are some other blog posts that said it's technically fine to eat after 3-7 days. I think that giving it plenty of time to ferment will only increase it's flavor and levels of good bacteria though. I'll check on it every dew days, hoping that the pink slime will stay away, and keep you all posted on it's textures/ smells!
Bis Bald (Bye for now; Talk to you soon)!
~N. Kreiner
