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!!!!