Replay Pickled Planet 9/16/17
PickledPlanet.com
Sauerkraut is pickled cabbage. To make it, cabbage is shredded, salted and left to ferment in a de-oxygenated environment for 4-6 weeks. The salt, via osmosis, pulls water out of the cabbage to form brine that helps protect the kraut while it is fermenting. Some modern recipes use vinegar, but the traditional method just uses salt and occasionally water to add brine volume. Three phases of microbial activity produce lactic acid and improve vitamin content while converting sugars in the cabbage. The enzymes break the cabbage down into smaller, more digestible molecules and the lactic acid kills unwanted organisms. The term "lacto-ferment" comes from the lactic acid secreting bacteria present in a batch.
Who invented sauerkraut?
Earliest recordings of fermented vegetables come from NE China (Manchuria); some estimates are 4,000+ years ago. It is said the Genghis Khan brought the art of lacto fermenting vegetables from central Asia to W. Russia when the Mongols were conquering. This would be around 1237. It most likely trickled from there westward. Pliny the Elder wrote a couple lines describing the craft 2,000 years ago in Rome. East Asian trade routes could have carried these ideas to the Mediterranean basin whenever they started. Probably how olives came to be fermented into edible fruit. There are lacto-fermenting and yeast fermenting traditions for both food and beverage, all over the world.
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