--- title: 'How To Make The Easiest Homemade Sauerkraut' source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=mUwC7bTjLkQ' video_id: 'mUwC7bTjLkQ' date: 2026-06-30 duration_sec: 333 --- # How To Make The Easiest Homemade Sauerkraut > Source: [How To Make The Easiest Homemade Sauerkraut](https://youtube.com/watch?v=mUwC7bTjLkQ) ## Summary This video provides a straightforward, beginner-friendly guide to making homemade sauerkraut using only salt and cabbage. The host emphasizes a simple 2% salt ratio by weight and demonstrates the entire process from slicing to fermenting. ### Key Points - **Basic Ingredients** [00:30] — Sauerkraut requires only salt and cabbage; no aromatics are added to keep it simple for first-time fermenters. - **2% Salt Rule** [01:20] — Use 2% of the weight of the processed (sliced) cabbage as salt. Weigh the sliced cabbage in grams, multiply by 0.02 to get the salt weight. - **Massaging the Cabbage** [02:11] — After adding salt, squeeze and knead the cabbage for 2-5 minutes to release enough liquid to create a brine. - **Packing and Submerging** [02:37] — Firmly press the cabbage into a glass jar so that the liquid rises above the vegetable. Use a weight (e.g., a plastic bag filled with water or a pinch bowl) to keep it submerged. - **Fermentation Setup** [03:15] — Cover with an airlock or a loose lid (burp daily to avoid explosion). Ferment at room temperature for 2-3 weeks, tasting periodically. - **Storage** [04:22] — Once fermented, screw the lid on and store in the fridge. It stays good for at least a month. ### Conclusion Homemade sauerkraut is incredibly easy: just cabbage, salt, and patience. The key is the 2% salt ratio and keeping the cabbage submerged during fermentation. ## Transcript Something's just too better with age, and I'm not talking about Keanu Reeves. I'm talking about Cabbage. I don't... I don't know where I'm going with the Central. Sorry. They're right. Okay, so we're making old-school sauerkraut. It's extremely basic. It's literally salt and cabbage. I know this is getting annoying, but please don't forget to vote for me for severe best food video. I would really appreciate it. The link is going to be in the description. If you've already voted, you can vote once every day. So I really, really appreciate it. Please don't forget. I promise I'll stop saying this soon. The voting ends October 18th, which is very soon. So make sure to get those votes in. Thank you guys. It's basic, easiest ferment of all time period. No, we're not going to add aeromatics. I know that there are going to probably be people that complain about that. I don't care. You've never fermented anything before. Now is the time. It's pretty flippin' basic. So let's just make this, shall we? Ow. Okay, so with this guy I want you to be able to make kraut with as many cabbages as you want. You can use one cabbage. You can use 1000 cabbages. It's up to you. The main thing that you need to understand is that this sauerkraut is done at 2% salt. So basically you're going to need to get 2% of the weight of the processed cabbage. By that, I mean you're going to need to slice it. So in order to do that, you're going to cut your cabbage in half, then in quarters, and then slice out the core. Then slice it as thinly as you like. I like it pretty thin. Then you're going to weigh it on a scale. I really recommend doing this. I'm tired of seeing people with sauerkraut that's too salty. This is going to make your life so much easier. So I'll have a link in the description for one that I use. Anyway, take your sliced cabbage, weigh it, and once you have the weight of that in grams, you're then going to multiply that by 0.02. The number that you get after that is the weight of salt that you need to use. That is 2% of the weight of the cabbage. So for me, since mine was 1,800 grams with the cabbage, then I needed 36 grams of kosher salt. Once you've got that number, sprinkle the salt all over the cabbage, and then toss it in squeeze and knead the cabbage. It's almost like it's a lettuce dough or something. I don't know how to describe it. Beat that hoe up. You really want to get in there and crush it and squeeze it. You want to get the liquid to release as much as possible. Don't worry about bruising because that's kind of the whole point here. And you're going to need to do that for about 2-5 minutes, depending on how strong you are. And hey, no judgment. Once your cabbage has released a lot of water, and you're then going to place it in an appropriate sized glass jar or glass container. For me, I used a half gallon mason jar, and then really firmly press it in there. I even used a muddler to sort of really press it out and expel those juices. And the whole point here is you want to be able to press it down hard enough so that the juices rise above the actual vegetable to cover it in a brine of its own liquid. So it isn't that beautiful, just salt and cabbage, and it does it all on its own. Once you've got that liquid, just go ahead and cover it with something like plastic wrap or a plastic bag filled with water. What I ended up doing was I took some plastic wrap, covered the surface to create some surface tension, and then added a little pinch bowl on top to help weigh it down. You really want to make sure this stays submerged under the liquid if it doesn't make sure you keep pressing it down and all that. You can also fit your mason jar with an airlock like I did here, which is like a little set up instead of the typical lid. It has like a plug hole and you put an airlock in it. It just makes it easier so you don't have to burp it. But if you don't have one of those no big deal, just make sure not to screw this all the way down because it will turn into a bomb and explode or just make sure to burp it daily. And then let it ferment with a lid fixed on at room temperature for two to three weeks. You know the rule always label your firmens. For me personally, I prefer it at two weeks. It's to me that's the perfect level of sirenous, but you can obviously take it further, you can take it to a total of three weeks. Some people go even longer, but I would say two to three weeks is the sweet spot. Test, taste test. Well, always taste test your firmens as they go. It's been a few days with this one I'm tasting it. It tastes pretty good already. I might even say that it's done right now. We can also let it go further and it'll probably get better. So I'm going to let it go longer and I'll taste it again. And then I'll decide if I want it to go longer or not. It's about what you like. That's the beauty of it. Once that time is up, your sauerkraut's done. That's literally it. It's very, very low effort. You can use it on a nice brow brush with some whole grain German mustard and a bun. And that's always nice. You can use it on a rubin. You can use it any way you want. Sometimes I'll use it to accompany some meat or some pork chops. The list goes on and on. Oh, once it's done, make sure to screw it on and store it in your fridge. And it'll stay good for quite a while. I've actually never seen it go bad because I usually eat it before it does go bad. But I would say about a month at least in the fridge. But do you want to know what else I've never seen go bad? Be roll. Alright guys, and that is it's so homemade sauerkraut. To put on whatever you want to put it on. You know, you put it on your sausage. I'm already in meme mode already apparently. The point is it's delicious. It takes salt and cabbage. Buy a cabbage and make some. And anyway, so that's my Ted Talk. Thank you. But yeah, anyway, if you enjoyed this video or you learned something, leave a like, subscribe, and I will see you next time.