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!!!!