Fermented Curtido (Salvadorian Sauerkraut)

Salvadorian Pupusas is where it all began and is the reason why I made fermented Curtido.

I was having a discussion with a young lady about Salvadoran Pupusas, and she had inquired if I had ever made them before. I've never of them before that very moment.

She was told by many that they are challenging to make, and I found that intriguing. I've very rarely have come across anything all that difficult to make, however, some dishes can be time-consuming to make. I looked up a few recipes and most are made with pork. Since I don't eat pork I made my own. They are super simple and a recipe is forthcoming. Curtido is a traditional condiment served with the pupusas, and I made a batch with vinegar. Knowing how much I loved fermenting veggies, I knew I could improve on the taste of a vinegar-based Critido. I looked up many Critido recipes and came across many variations. I decided to do what I do best, and that's just to be creative but precise. 

I went about this recipe like I do every other one I do. As far as the fermentation, I had to decide how much I wanted to make. I wanted to make at least 2-gallons, so I had purchased enough cabbage as the main component as well as other veggies to fill 2-gallons.  

I went to the store and started weighing and eyeballing cabbages. I knew I needed from 14-16 lbs of cabbage. I ended up with 7 small ones weighing in at 16.13 lbs or 7316 grams. I love working with grams, which is more precise when making recipes or trying to duplicate. I purchased about 2.5 lbs of Carrots, which is about 15% of the weight of the cabbage. Onions were next on the list. I chose Red onions, and they weighed in at about 3.5 lbs or about 20% of the weigh of the cabbage. I wanted to bring the heat and make this a spicy Kraut, so I chose Serrano peppers for the color and the heat. I decided that a 1-lb would suffice. It was a total guess too. I had no idea how spicy they were going to be.

I used my very large Cabbage Shredder from Sausage-Maker.com. It's freaking huge too. It measures in at 28 1/2" L X 9 5/8"W. I shredded 16 lbs of cabbage in less than 2 minutes. Yes, I timed myself too. You can see a video of me shredding right HERE and in slow motion HERE.  After shredding the heads of cabbage, I weighed the remains and subtracted that from the total weight- 7616 grams - 1500 grams = 5816 grams.

I peeled them first, then weighed. Carrots were shredded with my trusty food processor with a shredding disk. Weight = 986 grams. 

 Using the giant shredder, it took me 60 secs to shred the onions. They weighed in at 1500 grams.

 

Food processor with the blade for these babies. Seeded and cored before processing. Weight at 375 grams.

How to compute Salt percentage? My preference for all krauts is 1.5% of salt by weight. Let's add up all the veggies. Cabbage 5816g + Carrots 986g + Onions 1500g + Peppers 375g  = 8677 grams 

8677 gram X 1.5% of Salt = 130.16 grams are needed. I always use salt that has no additives such as Diamond Kosher Salt or Redmond real salt. 

I first started with my hands, which are pretty dang strong. As I squeezed, I kept rotating and moving veggies from the bottom to the top. I used the wooden stomper a little bit just for fun. Keep squeezing and turning over vegetables until lots of liquid starts to collect at the bottom. You will know when you are done by the texture and softness of everything. I can't tell you how long it's gonna take, but you will see a lot of liquid at the bottom of the container, and the volume will be reduced by about 75%.

The plethora of fermenting vessels I have is crazy, but I knew all I needed was 2 one Gallon vessels. Start shoving the kraut in them and make sure it's packed tight. 

Turns out, I needed a little one too. If you've gotten this far, I am sure you know something about fermenting. If not sure you can look at some of my other Ferments HERE.  

Make sure everything is submerged below brine!! If you find you don't have enough brine to cover the top, not all is lost. But if this happens, that means you did not squeeze long enough to extract the moisture. Anyhow all you have to do is make a salted brine to cover the veggies. Since we used 1.5%, that's what we are going to use to calculate the brine needed. Not sure how much you will need, but let's use this as an example. Let's say you need 500 grams of extra brine. Take 500 grams and X by 1.5% = 7.5 grams of salt. Now take 250 grams of Hot Water and add the salt and stir well until dissolved. Add another 250 g of very icy/cold water or just use ice and stir until all dissolved. 

How long did it take to ferment? In this case, it took about 2.5 weeks. I used a PH reader to determine when it was ready, and of course, I tasted the Kraut. The length of time it takes to ferment is dependent on ambient temps. If it's too hot, it will become very active and take a short time. I've had ferments that I did in the winter, which took 4 weeks. I remember last year I decided to do a Kimchi, and it was so hot outside that I had to rotate from the garage to the house. The house is frigid with A.C, so it was not very active, so I placed it in the garage when temps cooled down a bit. During the day, the garage was so hot, it stayed in the house. Anyhow, I like my krauts at PHs below a "4" and above a 3.5. Don't worry if you don't have a PH reader because it's not necessary. Just give it a taste in 2-weeks and keep tasting every two-days until you are happy. 

Place the cabbage in Mason jars and seal them off. Make sure the veggies are below the brine. Again if you do not have enough brine make some more. Place in refrigerator to stop fermentation. 

BTW- this is amazing on all Dogs!!!!

Fermented Sauerkraut & Pineapple

It's a thing, and I didn't even know about this concoction. I eat a lot of Kraut and crazy combinations on food but never thought of this until my daughter Sophie started adding pineapple chunks to her hotdog. I was eating hotdogs too with Carraway-Karut and Bok-Choy-Kimchi so she talked me into adding pineapple to my dogs. Dang, having pineapple on my dog with Kimchi & Kraut was the bomb which lead me to think of a new creation, so I thought. Anyhow, I thought it would be fun to create a Kraut & Pineapple recipe. After doing some searching, I found out it was a thing. For more kraut making tutorial see this link ..... Carrot and Kraut. 

I am not working with a recipe which is my regular thing to do which is why I take careful notes. I either want to replicate or change what I did.

I came across some big heads of cabbage, so I only needed 3 of them which weighed in just above 12 lbs or 5503 grams. 

So depending on the size of the cabbages and of course what kind of mandolin you are using you will need to cut them in quarters or halves.

 On my mandolin, there are several settings for thickness. I chose the one between 1/8 and 1/16. Just a hair thinner than 1/8 of an inch. 

How to calculate salt percentages? Some will tell you 1 tbs. Per head or 5 lbs but I like being precise. I prefer to weigh everything and use between 1.5 % 2 % salt. So instead of weighing what I have already sliced up, I subtracted the waste which was the core and some outer leaves. Waste was 1134 grams. 

Math- Total Weight of heads 5503 grams - Waste 1134 grams = 4369 grams of shredded cabbage. I wanted to use 2% this time on the total weight of the cabbage instead of my usual percentage of 1.5%.  I am adding a lot of pineapple which has a lot of sugar so the .5% should slow down the fermentation just a bit. So back to the math... 4369 grams X 2% or .02 = 87.38 grams of salt. Which salt should you use.... chose a natural salt with no additives. I prefer to use Real Salt or Himalayan Salt. 

These were small Pineapples, so I grabbed two of them. I could not find my pineapple corer, so I had to do it by hand. The pic on the right is not fully trimmed yet. I misplaced my pineapple cutter.....dang 😢. 

All trimmed up and diced to perfection. It ended up weighing in at 1200 grams or 27.5% of the total weight of the shredded cabbage. So roughly about 1/3 of the Kraut will be pineapple.

Some recipes use powdered Tumeric, but I wanted the real thing. Make sure to wear gloves because this will stain just about everything.  Using a microplane grater ensures a finely ground root. Make sure to use the back of the spoon to peel. You could use an ordinary peeler too, but I think it removes to much root.




Do the same thing with the ginger. You cannot make this recipe without Ginger and Tumeric. 

It's all about timing.....Before you grind up the Ginger & the Tumeric sprinkle on 1/3 of the salt and toss cabbage. Wait about 10 minutes before adding ginger. After the elapsed 10 minutes add the remaining salt (2/3) and toss a bit. 

Add the pineapple and ginger and start working the kraut. 
When lots of water starts to collect at the bottom add the Tumeric. Don't forget to wear gloves otherwise, you will stain your hands terribly. When you think the cabbage has given up enough water, you're done. The goal is to have enough water to fill vessels and be able to submerge the cabbage below the brine.

This batch filled a one-gallon vessel, and two 26 oz mason jars so chose your crock carefully. Always have spares available. I have many options available at my disposal. 

Keep packing it down until you start approaching reaching the top. Place cabbage leaves on top and press veggies below brine...which is your first follower...of two. Now add your weight which is the second follower. Make sure everything is below the brine.







See the weight? Cap them off, and you're ready to go. I use airlocks to maintain anaerobic conditions. Don't forget to date everything. I placed all the jars in my garage because it had the perfect ambient temperatures for fermentation.

 

After 10 days I hit the PH I wanted, and it tasted awesome!!! 

The recipe is below the pictures...

Note: Once your fermentation has hit its sweet spot and you are satisfied you must refrigerate to stop the fermentation process. 


Ingredients 
12 lbs or 5503 grams of Cabbage Heads 
Now you need to subtract the waste to calculate percentages. 
After I removed the core and some of the bad leaves, there were 1134 grams of waste. 
5503-1134 = 4369 grams 

Cabbage= 4369 grams is the number we use to calculate the additional ingredients. The specificity in this recipe is not necessary but if you want to make adjustments or replicate this is the easiest way to accomplish that. The calculations below are based solely on the weight of the cabbage. 

Salt 2% (87.38 grams)
Diced Pineapple 27.5% (1200 grams)
Fresh Grated Ginger 2% (75 grams)
Fresh Grated Tumeric 1% (60 grams)

It's easy math... To find out how much Diced Pineapple you need multiply 4369 grams X 27.5% or .275 = 1200 grams.

and Salt 4369 grams X 2% or .02 = 87.38 grams 

(don't forget these amounts are just recommended) 


Review- It was outstanding of course!!!!