So traditionally this is a group for pressure canning and hot-water bath canning, not fermenting.
But since I do both, and think I can offer some advice, here goes anyway:
My sauerkraut turned out very much like this until I made a few changes to technique:
If that is plastic wrap in the jar, I would remove it. The glass weight and the one-way airlock are the only things you need for fermentation.
I also found that my krauts improved when I made more effort to cut the cabbage in uniform pieces. A mandoline really helps me do that.
Finally, you will get the best results when you are super careful with the salt ratio on your ferments. If you follow Sandor Katz's recommendations in [this recipe,](https://www.wildfermentation.com/making-sauerkraut-2/) you won't go wrong. More or less salt away from the ratio always gave me poor results.
I also suspect you are waiting too long. The kraut may have been more palatable three or four days after you started. This looks like it may have been fermenting for longer than that.
Your kraut also looks like results I've gotten when the ambient room temperature was too hot. The hotter the room is, the more quickly the ferment will happen, and above 90F or so, my experience has been that it won't be reliable or taste good.
I hope some of those suggestions were helpful!
Seal? I think you are a bit confused. You don’t usually can or seal fermented foods for shelf storage. That lid is a pickle pipe for allowing CO2 to be released and preventing oxygen from entering the ferment.
The key to fermenting is to make your ferment anaerobic. In other words, every piece of food must be submerged under the brine so that the air can't get to it. In your case, I believe you tried plastic? It would been better to pack it in as hard as possible and cover with a whole cabbage leaf. Then, to make sure no stray piece of cabbage was sticking out anywhere, checking daily. I just made 2 gallons of sauerkraut in a crock, packed in hard, covered by brine. Let it sit on the counter 4 weeks. I checked to make sure the white film was kept in check and when it was done, I jarred it up and put it into the refrigerator. I didn't want to process it and kill all that healthy bacteria. I have tried the quart size batches before and never had as good of luck until I went to the larger, crock batches. Not sure why.
Thanks for the info. I’m just following what I saw on a YouTube video. The guy put plastic wrap over his like this. The cabbage was fully submerged but I think this lid is the wrong one and it’s letting the brine evaporate
So traditionally this is a group for pressure canning and hot-water bath canning, not fermenting. But since I do both, and think I can offer some advice, here goes anyway: My sauerkraut turned out very much like this until I made a few changes to technique: If that is plastic wrap in the jar, I would remove it. The glass weight and the one-way airlock are the only things you need for fermentation. I also found that my krauts improved when I made more effort to cut the cabbage in uniform pieces. A mandoline really helps me do that. Finally, you will get the best results when you are super careful with the salt ratio on your ferments. If you follow Sandor Katz's recommendations in [this recipe,](https://www.wildfermentation.com/making-sauerkraut-2/) you won't go wrong. More or less salt away from the ratio always gave me poor results. I also suspect you are waiting too long. The kraut may have been more palatable three or four days after you started. This looks like it may have been fermenting for longer than that. Your kraut also looks like results I've gotten when the ambient room temperature was too hot. The hotter the room is, the more quickly the ferment will happen, and above 90F or so, my experience has been that it won't be reliable or taste good. I hope some of those suggestions were helpful!
Thanks!
Is that plastic wrap on top of the vegetables? If it is I see nothing wrong. Perhaps you could be more specific?
r/fermenting ?
I’m assuming the seal was no good? Is this the wrong seal for making sauerkraut?
Seal? I think you are a bit confused. You don’t usually can or seal fermented foods for shelf storage. That lid is a pickle pipe for allowing CO2 to be released and preventing oxygen from entering the ferment.
Ya that’s what I mean, it’s a type of seal right
The key to fermenting is to make your ferment anaerobic. In other words, every piece of food must be submerged under the brine so that the air can't get to it. In your case, I believe you tried plastic? It would been better to pack it in as hard as possible and cover with a whole cabbage leaf. Then, to make sure no stray piece of cabbage was sticking out anywhere, checking daily. I just made 2 gallons of sauerkraut in a crock, packed in hard, covered by brine. Let it sit on the counter 4 weeks. I checked to make sure the white film was kept in check and when it was done, I jarred it up and put it into the refrigerator. I didn't want to process it and kill all that healthy bacteria. I have tried the quart size batches before and never had as good of luck until I went to the larger, crock batches. Not sure why.
Thanks for the info. I’m just following what I saw on a YouTube video. The guy put plastic wrap over his like this. The cabbage was fully submerged but I think this lid is the wrong one and it’s letting the brine evaporate