Sauerkraut

Just wanted to say that after decades of trial and errot with a digestion that was totally shot I am enjoying eating a wide variety of foods.
This correlates with my making and consuming my own very delicious sauerkraut. Along similar lines some people find kefir helpful also but I couldn" t handle the casein in the raw milk.

I have used probiotics of course but did not get such dramatic results. I also use the kraut to remedy a bloated stomach if I have indulged in a little cake.

Hi pardalote welcome to the forum, glad to hear you've found something that has made you feel better, you should share your recipe

For a while I was getting bad canker sores any time I had the slightest injury to my mouth, like if I bit my cheek. I discovered that rinsing my mouth with sauerkraut juice and then swallowing it prevented this or cured it overnight. It was like a little miracle cure. So I read up on sauerkraut and learned about the probiotics in it. I find it a helpful probiotic in addition to the others (yogurt and kefir) I use. They really help keep my IBS in check.

Did you know that there's a type of kefir grain that grows in water? That way you wouldn't have to worry about the casein.

I'd like to try making my own sauerkraut, but I simply do not have the energy these days. I buy the fresh sauerkraut in the bag, that they have in the refrigerated deli section of the supermarket. I wish I could just buy the sauerkraut juice, but I haven't found anyplace around here that sells it.

I made the sauerkraut and my kitchen filled up with flies! I could not have it in my kitchen and I live in a small apartment. So glad this is working for you! YES!!

May I ask a very stupid, what is sauerkraut - I don't do so well on probiotics (don't know why cos I can tolerate the nystatin) so any others ideas would be good - is keffir better toelrated?

Hi Pardalote,

Thanks much for your post, and welcome to the forum. I just started making and consuming raw goat milk kefir, and feel it is a very good thing for me. I also have not received much, if any benefit from various probiotics I've tried over the years.

I was wondering if you could give a quick description of how you make your own sauerkraut. I would like to try it, and compare it to my raw goat milk kefir results. -- Thanks much.

Wayne

sauerkraut is cabbage that has been shredded and then naturally fermented, usually in a crock. I have not tried to do this myself yet.

Thank You !

I used to crave sauerkraut long before I had ME.

I had to stop eating it , along with other high tyramine rich foods because it gave me migraines, facial flushing and a fast heartbeat.

PHP:

Food with tyramine is generally preserved or aged. For this reason, you should be very wary of leftovers that have been in the refrigerator for more than 24-48 hours. The more aged foods become, the worse the trigger may be.
Some examples of dangerously high levels are:
soy sauce (0.941 mg/ml), sauerkraut (3.1 mg/100 g), salami (0-125mg/100g)

Anything aged, dried, fermented, salted, smoked or pickled. Watch out especially for pepperoni, salami and liverwurst.
[U]Dairy[/U]
Aged cheese. If you get migraines, the best cheese for you is farmers cheese, cottage cheese and cream cheese.
[U]Vegetables[/U]
Fava or broad beans, sauerkraut, pickles, olives. Any fermented soy products (ie miso, soy sauce, teriyaki sauce).
[U]Nuts and seeds[/U]
All nuts.
[U]Beverages[/U]
All alcoholic and fermented beverages
[U]Desserts/sweets:[/U]
mincemeat pie
[U]Other[/U]
MSG, Marmite and products containing marmite.


Sauerkraut is reportedly very good for your gut - like probiotics - (unless you have a tyramine deficiency - sucks). Its also just delicious in small quantities - a nice additive to a range of foods.

I believe I need to keep my histamine (includes tyramine foods) limited but I always find the Kraut medicinal..Seems like it is different although I have read the jazz on fermented foods.

I also have MCS and react to heaps even in a safe CFS cohort. Pretty much given up on healers and their potions.

There's a gadget called a Perfect Pickler that you can use to make sauerkraut and other fermented pickles. It's kind of a closed system with a valve, so you don't have to worry about odors or flies. I gave one to my step-daughter a couple of years ago, and I plan to get one for myself when I'm well enough to use it. The veggies ferment in a brine. That means they will provide both active probiotics and salt, both of which I need.

http://www.perfectpickler.com

If you look for Sandor Katz on Youtube you'll find a nice easy recipe and method for sauerkraut.
Googling his name should bring up some forums where people discuss making recipes from his book "Wild Fermentation".

I make LOTS of probiotic foods: Sandor's sauerkraut, just using cabbage and salt (at the right temp for approx 10 days) - it contains good levels of a probiotic found naturally on cabbage leaves. I also make fermented cabbage juice and add a commercial probiotic for some extra strains of good bacteria. That cabbage juice is really good stuff and I use it as a starter to ferment carrots and ginger. I make 24 hour fermented yogurt (for my kids mainly because I do better dairy free ATM) and then I make lacto fermented veges for all my family with the whey left after I drip the yogurt. I can't make enough to keep up with demand usually!
I built an insulated box around a hot water pipe which makes keeping things at an ideal temperature really easy, and I just use glass jars - no fancy equipment here.

Have fun if you decide to give it a go

Anne,
I am interested in your box and waterpipe configuration. I had tried to make yogurt from milk, and it was an abysmal failure, and I know it was a problem with ambient air temperature. I keep my house fairly cool (58-60 degrees F). Any chance you would be able to put up a picture?

More questions for Anne

One more think about fermentation and whey: do you filter the whey before using it to ferment veggies? When I make yogurt cheese and drain off the whey it is somewhat cloudy. I only use an unlined strainer to do this. Maybe I should be using an unbleached coffee filter?

What do you use the fermented ginger for?

OK - you have struck a nerve in me :Retro smile: I guess I want to explore fermentation a bit.

Long post, and a pic!

Hi Hoping

As requested, I've attached a picture of my insulated box and waterpipe configuration. It should show at the end of my post.

This is on a shelf above our hot water cylinder, in a cupboard - we call it a "hot water cupboard" here. It's in a utility room that doesn't have heating so I use up to 4 layers of polyfleece as extra insulation in the winter. (It's wintertime here now.)
I manage to control the temperature through the year by adding or taking away layers of the polyfleece.

I used the cardboard box and the polystyrene that a slowcooker came packaged in and fitted it around the pipes. It's not perfect but it seems to get the job done. The piece on the right of the pic (with a pinkish tinge) is separate and it fits into the front of the box before the blankets are pulled right around and the cupboard door is shut to keep everything tight.
The polystyrene started getting a bit battered around from my pushing in a hot water bottle to bring up the temperature for yogurt-making, so we recently covered most of it in a strong clear tape.

To get an idea of size, the jar pictured in the box holds 1 litre. I keep a thermometer in there too.

Here's a bit more about the recipes I use:

For yogurt I heat 1 litre of milk (I use full-fat, organic, pasteurised milk, not homogenised) to 180 degrees - just below a simmer - then I cool it to body temperature before stirring in a couple of heaped TBSPs commercial organic yogurt, and 1/2 tsp probiotic powder (that's definitely optional).
I pour the mix into a 1 litre jar and set it in my insulated box which I keep between 95 and 110 degrees for 24 to 30 hours. The temperature is important.
If there are big demands on our hot water supply then the pipe and the box cool a bit, so I need to keep a close eye on things for that 24+ hours. In the cooler months I have to pop a hot water bottle in the box 2 - 3 times in 24 hours to keep the temperature warm enough. Now that it's winter I even have to get up at 3am to fill the hot water bottle. I don't really mind doing that but If I had to do it more than once a week I'd probably invest in an actual yogurt maker!

The yogurt takes on the exact flavour and very similar consistency of the starter - quite amazing. I'm sure if you follow that recipe, even if you only ferment the yogurt for say 8 hours you will have really good results.

I drip it overnight in the fridge through a very fine mesh that's typically used for screen-printing which I set into a sieve. I know others use coffee filters successfully.
The yogurt gets very nicely thick, and I end up with 300mls or so of whey. The whey is clear apart from a little bit of white cloudy stuff which settles at the bottom of the jar. It doesn't seem to affect my ferments.

As well as Sandor's basic red and green cabbage sauerkraut recipe I regularly use Sally Fallon's carrot and ginger lacto-ferment recipe which is detailed really nicely on this blog:

http://my5acredream.blogspot.com/2009/11/ginger-carrots-more-on-lacto.html

By the way, the ginger is just for flavour, but it's not compulsory. My youngest child much prefers just carrot. :Retro smile:

I also ferment beets, red onion and caraway seeds (plus salt to inhibit the wrong type of bacteria) using either whey or sauerkraut juice as a starter.

When making fermented vegetables I don't let the temperature in the box get over 75 degrees. I often have 2 jars going at a time. The lacto-ferments stay in the cupboard 3 - 4 days and "regular" ferments generally about 10 days (but sometimes it takes longer - up to 3 weeks in winter) before I transfer them to the refrigerator.

I find it feels very empowering making my own probiotic foods, especially as I have some control over the strains of probiotic. And I know they're live and potent!

Good luck. If you need more info I'm happy to help.

Best,
Anne.