Nutrition
Old but Gold
Sauerkraut and other fermented foods are more than just delicious—they're packed with live cultures that support your gut health. Discover the benefits of fermentation and how to easily create your own ferments at home.
Nutrition
Sauerkraut and other fermented foods are more than just delicious—they're packed with live cultures that support your gut health. Discover the benefits of fermentation and how to easily create your own ferments at home.
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It's getting cooler in our region, and so traditional winter dishes are making their way back onto our tables. One staple that's indispensable from our kitchen is sauerkraut.
Already in ancient Greece and the Roman Empire, vegetables were preserved through lactic acid fermentation. In the 18th century, it was discovered that barrels of sauerkraut were essential on every seafaring ship—thanks to its high vitamin C content, it was able to prevent the dreaded vitamin C deficiency disease scurvy.
The principle behind producing lactic acid fermented vegetables is quite simple: lactic acid bacteria, which naturally occur on vegetables and our skin, convert the carbohydrates they contain into lactic acid.
This acidifies the environment, and decay bacteria and mold have little to no chance. Fermented foods are therefore practically shelf-stable indefinitely.
Fermentation improves digestibility because complex carbohydrates and proteins are broken down into their component parts. For example, milk can be fermented into cheese, making it tolerable even for lactose-intolerant people, since the bacteria metabolize the milk sugar and break it down almost completely.
But it's not just substances that are broken down—new ones are also built up. Microorganisms produce a range of valuable nutrients during fermentation, such as vitamins and antioxidants. These include, among others:
Our gut also benefits from the variety of microorganisms present, which enrich our gut flora. Just as in the sauerkraut barrel, lactic acid bacteria in our gut can displace unwanted, disease-causing bacteria and thus ensure a healthy microbiome.
Ferments typically contain strains such as Lactococcus lactis, Streptococcus thermophilus, Lactobacillus bulgaricus, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus plantarum, and Lactobacillus reuteri (2). Does some of those names sound familiar? You'll also find some of them in our probiotics.
Clinical studies also demonstrate the health effects of ferments. For example, regular consumption of kimchi (fermented napa cabbage) in prediabetic subjects led to weight loss, reduced blood pressure, and in one-third of participants improved glucose tolerance (3). Impressive!
Before you stock up on canned sauerkraut at the supermarket, please keep reading. Because "fermented" doesn't necessarily mean alive. The sauerkraut from a can is always pasteurized and contains virtually no living bacterial cultures anymore.
If you want to buy fermented foods, look in the refrigerated section of your health food store. There you'll find kimchi, sauerkraut, kombucha, and more in raw, living form.
The best option—and easier than you might think—is still to make them yourself.
You'll need:
Dissolve the salt in the water.
Cut the vegetables into small pieces. Carrots are best shredded with a grater. The smaller the pieces, the faster fermentation will occur. But you can also just quarter carrots, for example.
Place your vegetables in the glass jar and pour the salt water over them. The vegetables should be completely covered with the brine. Best practice is to use a weight (clean stone, fermentation weight) to keep the vegetables submerged. If the vegetables still have contact with air, mold can quickly form.
If you want to ferment cabbage, skip the water and add the 20 g of salt directly to 1 kg of chopped cabbage. Knead or pound the mixture until enough liquid has come out to cover the cabbage. In the old days, kraut was pounded with the feet, by the way ;)
Put the lid on, but don't screw it down completely so that fermentation gases can escape. A specialized fermentation lid with a valve is ideal here.
Let your ferment sit undisturbed at room temperature to ferment. After a few days, it will bubble—that's completely normal.
Depending on the size of the pieces, fermentation is complete after 1–8 weeks. Shredded carrots should be sour enough after about 2 weeks. Once you're happy with the taste, you can now store the ferment in the refrigerator.
And don't be alarmed:
Sometimes a layer forms on top of the ferment that looks like mold at first glance. Usually it's just harmless kahm yeast, which you can simply remove or even eat. When in doubt, use a Google image search and compare ;)
Bon appétit!
