Sauerkraut is not only tasty, but also a very valuable product. Nutritionists consider cabbage after salting a real pantry of vitamins. Vitamins support the body's immune system, are involved in many metabolic processes, digestion. Lactic acid bacteria, which are involved in the fermentation process, are useful in the treatment of dysbiosis.
Sliced cabbage is usually fermented.
This recipe is convenient in many ways. The main thing is that the dish does not require additional preparation. Sauerkraut is simply flavored with sunflower oil or added to vinaigrette, salads, first or second courses. Another factor is that shredded cabbage can be salted with various additives:
- grated carrots;
- raw beets, which will add amazing color to the familiar cabbage;
- spices that improve the usual taste of the vegetable;
- other vegetables for a delicious salad.
And yet, shredded cabbage is easy to eat. Small slices are ready to eat, and older people also enjoy healthy pickles with pleasure. But today we will talk about an unusual way of pickling a vegetable. This is the salting of whole heads of cabbage. It sounds unusual, and some have doubts. Will the head of cabbage be salted well, will it be crispy and juicy? It turns out salt cabbage with heads of cabbage is not only simple, but also very convenient. Some housewives cut the head of cabbage into halves for pickling or quarters... Such options are also popular.
Cooking ingredients for salting
To prepare a tasty preparation from salted heads of cabbage, we need:
- Heads of cabbage, preferably small.
Vegetables are chosen of late varieties with dense, uniform heads of cabbage. They must be free of mechanical damage and signs of decay. It's good if you can cut one open to make sure the inside is white and firm. White cabbage is ideal for salting. - Salt. According to the recipe for salting cabbage with heads of cabbage, we need ordinary coarsely ground table salt.
- Water. If possible, use purified water. It will give clarity to the taste sensation.
- Garlic. Take a spicy vegetable to taste. For bite lovers, you can even exceed the recommendations in the recipe.
- Celery. If you don't like the taste of celery, you can safely do without it. But sometimes it's worth trying something new.
- Capacity for salting heads of cabbage. Here you need to find a good wooden barrel or vat. You understand that large pieces in a three-liter jar cannot be salted.
- Circle for pressing heads of cabbage. Some take a special wooden circle. Some get out of the position with a lid from a large-diameter saucepan.
- Cloth or gauze. Needed from natural ingredients and pure.
- Knife. Get a large kitchen knife with a comfortable handle and a sharp blade.
Let's get down to preliminary preparation. We clean the selected heads of cabbage from the covering leaves. We clean up to white leaves.
We cut the cabbage stump crosswise and put the forks in rows in the barrel.
Now let's get down to the brine. To make the forks soaked in salt and spices, you need to boil them with water. We take 40 g of salt for 1 liter of pure water. The same amount of sugar will help to emphasize its presence in the brine.
Now we take the removed leaves and cover the top row of heads of cabbage, and put a clean linen cloth or gauze on top. If we use cheesecloth, then fold it into 3 layers.
We put a wooden circle on the fabric and complete the structure with oppression.It can be a stone, which must be washed before use.
Fill the laid heads of cabbage with brine and make sure that the wooden circle turns out to be slightly submerged with liquid.
The next stage is compliance with temperature indicators. At first salted cabbage in a barrel keep at room temperature. Enough 5 days. Then we move the appetizer to a cold place. It could be a basement. Some housewives salt the vegetable with heads of cabbage in small containers.
In this case, further storage is possible on the lower shelf of the refrigerator.
After 4 days, the delicious cabbage is ready to eat. Naturally, it will have to be cut before eating. And you can put whole heads of cabbage on the table, decorating the dish with other vegetables.
Hot way of salting heads
It is also called the blanching method. This option requires dividing the heads of cabbage into at least 2 parts.
You also need to cut out the stumps. Then we need to dip the cabbage in boiling water for 5 minutes.
At the same time, we prepare hot brine for pouring. The ratio of salt and water, as in the first option (40 g per 1 liter). But in this recipe, celery root (400 g) and garlic (100 g) are added. Grind the ingredients and add to the brine, then bring the mixture to a boil.
In this recipe, we can use wooden or glass dishes of any capacity. Put pieces of cabbage, cover with a cloth, put oppression and fill with brine.
With this method, we immediately place the pickled cabbage in a cool place. And be sure to take into account one nuance. After cooling down, half-cabbages settle to the bottom, and we can still report new ones. The main thing is that the circle does not remain on the surface, but is covered with liquid.
With the help of boiling marinade, you can cook wonderful spicy cabbage with beets in Georgian style.
The beautiful color of the workpiece immediately attracts attention, the taste is also at its best.
- Let's prepare the cabbage. Cut 1 head of cabbage into large pieces or eighths of cabbage.
- Cut the beets (1 medium) into thin slices.
- Celery greens and hot pepper (1 small pod) in small pieces.
- Garlic. We take the amount of spicy vegetable to taste. 5-6 teeth are recommended.
- We put food in the container in layers. Sprinkle the cabbage with garlic, pepper and herbs.
- Cooking the marinade. Add 1 tablespoon of sugar, salt and vinegar to 1 liter of purified water. In general, take these ingredients to taste. If you increase the amount of salt a little, the cabbage will cook faster. Boil the marinade and pour the cabbage so that the liquid covers the vegetables.
- We keep it in a warm room for three days, then refrigerate it.
You can taste it! In the cold, this snack is stored all winter.
Salting cabbage with heads of cabbage is a creative process. Housewives add mushrooms, spices, herbs. Use different containers and ratios of vegetables. And the dish with pickled heads of cabbage on the table looks very original.
