How To Make Pickled Cabbage

Pickled cabbage, also known as sour cabbage, is traditionally made in Eastern Europe and Asia. It is used as a salad but it can also be used as a main ingredient for delicious dishes like cabbage rolls. Here is a simple recipe on how to make pickled or sour cabbage in a way that is prepared in Eastern Europe.

You will need:

• 1 plastic barrel (60 l / 16 gal)
• 65 lb (30 kg) of cabbage heads
• 4,4 lb (2 kg) of salt
• 3 1,5l bottles filled with tapped water (for pressing)

Clean the cabbage heads (remove 2 layers of leaves, cut the fat bottom, mark a cross in the middle or just take some of the hard substance out)

Put the salt in the cross or in the whole.

Start putting the cabbage heads in the barrel, bottom up, until you fill the whole barrel. You may also cut some cabbage heads into halves or quarters to fill the space for extra stability (because cabbage tends to lift itself upwards as it is lighter than water).

Spray some salt over every filled layer. Dissolve the remaining salt in water and pour over the cabbage in a barrel.

Weigh down with something heavy to prevent cabbage from rising during the fermentation process. We used plastic bottles filled with water but you can use a rock or you can buy a plastic press.

Close the barrel up and let the cabbage become sour in approximately 30 days (depending on temperature)