Reddit reviews Humble House SAUERKROCK Fermentation Crock with Glazed Weights - 2 Liter (0.5 Gallon) German-Style Water Sealed Jar in Traditional Brown for Fermenting Sauerkaut, Kimchi, Pickles and More

Amazon is where mine came from.

I used the recipe from America's Test Kitchen DIY Cookbook. It uses a ratio of 3 Tbsp kosher salt to 5 lbs of cabbage (.6 Tbsp salt per pound of cabbage). I don't remember if I actually used 5 pounds of cabbage - I think it was more like 3.

I don't know how much you already know, so I'll operate as though you're just beginning (like I was a few weeks ago). I'll point out that it's important not to use table salt or iodized salt. You want a clean, natural mineral salt.

Cut the cabbage into wedges, cut the core out of each wedge and then thinly slice the leaves. Put half into a really big bowl, then half of the salt, then the rest of the cabbage and the rest of the salt. Now you mix and knead the cabbage for a good ten minutes. You want to use some force when you do this, squeezing it, pressing it with your fists, etc. Don't go TOO hard, but don't go lightly either.

In ten minutes, the cabbage will have released quite a lot of water (creating your brine) and reduced in volume fairly significantly. Next I added a few teaspoons of caraway seeds for some extra flavor, and the cookbook makes lots of other suggestions - juniper berries, dill seeds, black peppercorns, red pepper flakes, celery seeds, or chopped herbs. At this point it gets packed into a crock. I bought the smallest Sauercrock and that made plenty for me. You pack a little in and tamp it down with your first or a giant wooden dowel if you have one - I used a french rolling pin - or you can buy a big wood tamper just for this purpose. So you continue packing and tamping until it's all in the crock, then pour any remaining brine into the crock. There should be enough to submerge all of the cabbage.

Most people, as well as my book, suggest putting some kind of weight on top to keep the cabbage below the brine or it'll tend to float, which could encourage mold growth. The Sauercrock comes with some weights, or you can buy weights just for this purpose. Alternatively, you can use a small plate with a very clean and sterilized rock on top of it. I followed the advice of others and kept a cabbage leaf intact to put on the top of the sauerkraut and then put my weights on top of that. Little bits of cabbage will tend to escape around the weights if you don't, which isn't a huge deal, but I'm a perfectionist.

Finally, you need to cover everything. Lots of fermenting crocks have a water-sealed lid. The sauerkraut will produce a lot of CO2 at for several days so air needs to be able to escape your fermenting vessel. If you use a jar or something like that, you can cover it with several layers of cheesecloth or a towel to keep dust from getting in.

I tried making a batch in a big jar before this one but I just had too much trouble keeping things submerged. Also, due to the amount of gas produced in the first few days, the contents of the jar kept rising and lots of brine leaked out of the top. I tossed that batch out.

So....after I got everything packed into the crock I left it for 18 days. For the first couple of days (and several times the first day) you should check it from time to time to make sure it's staying submerged - push down on the weights if it isn't. I think I started tasting it after a week, but continued to let it go. I live in a fairly warm climate (Houston) and things will ferment more quickly in warmer temps. At 18 days it was quite sour, but still had a great amount of crunchiness and squeaky-ness.

Have you ever made sauerkraut? Are you planning to?