My sauerkraut was always too soft until I tried weighing it down with a ziploc bag of brine

I was getting mushy kraut in my half gallon jar for months, so last week I filled a quart sized freezer bag with leftover salt water and laid it right on top of the cabbage. It created a perfect seal and my latest batch came out crisp after three weeks. Has anyone else used this trick with other ferments like pickles or kimchi?

3 comments

3 Comments

holly_henderson861mo ago

Actually the bag trick is super smart and safe if you do it right. You just have to make sure there are no sharp bits poking it, and a double bag works great. It's a cheap fix that really works for keeping everything under the brine.

the_jenny1mo ago

Plastic bags are a terrible idea for fermenting. You're introducing a soft, flexible material that can easily get punctured by cabbage cores or spices. That brine bag is just waiting to leak and ruin your whole batch with diluted salt water. A proper ceramic weight or even a clean rock is way more reliable. People have been fermenting for centuries without needing single-use plastic floating in their food.

jesser7917d ago

Yeah but what do you do when you don't have a ceramic weight just lying around? I get the concern about plastic leaching and all that, but sometimes you're working with what you've got. I've had good luck with the bag method for small batches when I'm just testing a recipe. Never had a leak yet, but I also use a heavy duty freezer bag and I'm careful to smooth out all the air first. Still, I feel you on the principle of it. I'd rather use glass weights if I'm being honest, but they're pricy and the bag trick gets the job done for now.