As the spring comes, it is easy to rush into the green goodness of the season and forget what has been nourishing us the whole winter. But the beginning of the spring might be deceiving: warm days end with cold evenings, wide open windows turn into drafts and thinner clothes means unpleasant colds. That’s why taking care of your immune system is so important at this time of the year, and one of the ways to do so is through taking care of your .. gut because this is where the majority of the immune cells in our body are located. And one of the best things you can treat your gut to is lacto-fermented food, like this Russian fermented cabbage.
Russian preserves are a game-changer in the otherwise poor winter and early spring diet. Starting from the late summer my parent’s stuff their freezer to the rim with the chopped fresh vegetables, wild berries and mushrooms they forage in autumn. My dad dries wild herbs. They turn berries from the grandma’s garden and the forest (sea-buckthorn? yes, please!) into delicious sugar-free jams and warming infusions. They pickle cucumbers and tomatoes.
When we celebrated the New Year in Russia this winter, my uncle, aunt and niece arrived with a few home-made specials to compliment the spread my mom had prepared. Two bottles of grape wine (deep burgundy color, thick and sweet), a jar of ketchup (with the tomatoes they grow int heir garden) and a jar of fermented cabbage (made as per the family recipe). You might have never heard about the Russian fermented cabbage, but it is worth the fame the German sauerkraut and Korean kimchi have been enjoying. I asked my uncle how they made it, and as thorough as he is, he gave me a brief lecture on the matter.
The original fermentation method assumes industrial quantities of cabbage and a large wooden cask meant to hold the whole deal. My uncle explained that you would need to finely chop and heartily squeeze a few large cabbages and arrange them at the bottom of the cask. You would place a layer of salt on top and cover it with apples. In this fashion - cabbage, salt and apples - you will continue layering the ingredients in the cask. You’d ram down each layer forcefully to ensure maximum pressure. After the final layer of salt on top you would cover the cask with a clean cloth to prevent molding. Finally, you would place a huge stone over the cloth to keep the cabbage fully submerged in the brine throughout the fermentation. Consider yourself done for the day.
Then every day you’d prick the cabbage in the cask with a long thin but sturdy stick to ensure the air circulates, the cabbage releases the gases and the lactic bacteria are forming. If the cloth on top gets moldy, you’d remove it, wash and place back. The cabbage would remain in the cask for 1-2 months (naturally, in a cellar: I assume you have a cellar if we are talking casks here) and then can be savored with boiled potato and a shot of Russian specialty. According to my uncle, hard varieties of cabbage that have seen the autumn frost would be an ideal choice for such fermentation.
The process my uncle described is called lacto-fermentation, an incredibly hot affair these days (I have to sigh here because lacto-fermentation has been hot for centuries, the rest of us simply arrived late to the party and trying to make a fuss of it). Lacto-fermentation involves lactic bacteria that convert sugars into lactic acid, and the lactic acid is a natural preservative that prevents the growth of harmful bacteria. That’s why when reaching your gut lacto-fermented food promotes growth of healthy bacteria throughout the intestine. Besides that, lacto-fermenation increases the vitamin level of the foods and makes them more digestible. Finally, some lacto-fermentated foods have been proven to be antioxidants helping prevent diseases including various forms of cancer.
You would ask what cabbage has got to do with lactic bacteria. Well, lactic bacteria are present in the skins of all the plants, especially those growing close to the ground (read: cabbage). Salt helps the matter: being hygroscopic it drains water from the cabbage and with water out comes the oxygen. As all the oxygen gradually leaves, the lactic bacteria start flourishing and reproducing.
I remember the autumn fun - without casks, but on the above-mentioned scale: my family procured a few sacks of crunchy pale green cabbages along with a good amount of carrots from the market. We all used to get together at my grandmas - my parents, uncle, aunt, grandma and grandad. Some were chopping the cabbage - as thinly as possible - removing the cabbage stumps. Someone else was grating the carrots. And then a few hands were busy combining the cabbage and carrots, seasoning them with a good amount of salt and squeezing them really hard to let the juices out. I loved stuffing the mixture into the green-tinted 3L jars, a typical Soviet home canning container, which of course needed to be re-stuffed after me to ensure the cabbage mix was packed as “herring in a cask”. We would take the jars to the grandma’s cellar and fetch one for each family celebration.
My dad successfully re-creates the whole fuss at the scale that makes sense for a single household. Half cabbage, carrot (or beetroot if you like a bit of dramatic color in your fermented cabbage), caraway seeds (if you like a bit of pungency), salt, wholehearted kneading, pressing in a few jars and leaving them on the counter. Pricking with a long knife twice next day. And after 3 days of fermenting at the room temperature closing the jars and placing them in a fridge. We like our Russian fermented cabbage liberally seasoned with cold-pressed fragrant unrefined sunflower oil as an appetizer or an accompaniment to the boiled / baked / fried potatoes. A shot of Russian national specialty is optional.
Russian Fermented Cabbage
Makes a 2 Liter jar
Ingredients
1.5 kg cabbage
250 g carrot
30 g fine sea salt
1/2 tsp fennel seeds (optional)
1/2 tsp coriander sees (optional)
Directions
Prepare cabbage: Remove the outer leaves of the cabbage. If they are bruised or dull, discard them; else wash them thoroughly, drain and finely shred. Finely shred the rest of the cabbage and coarsely grate the carrots. Transfer the cabbage and carrots into a large mixing bowl and sprinkle with the fine sea salt and the seeds, if using. Start squeezing the cabbage wholeheartedly to help it release as much juice as possible. It is hard to overdo it and easy to underwork the cabbage: make a good effort and do at least 3-4 minutes of forceful squeezing.
Can cabbage: Transfer the cabbage into a clean glass jar with a wide mouth (best to avoid metal as the lactic acid may start reacting with metal over time). Ram down the cabbage in the jar well as you add more. Place the full jar on a wide plate to collect the juices that might come out of the jar. Fetch a clean glass, fill it with water and place over the cabbage to keep it fully submerged in the brine. If you were honest in your cabbage squeezing effort, the brine will fully cover the cabbage in the jar. Place a clean cloth on top and leave to ferment on the counter, ideally at 18-22 C/64-72 F.
Follow up: Twice a day remove the cloth and the glass and prick the cabbage with a knife to let the emerging gas release. If you notice any foam on top of the cabbage, remove it. Discard any brine overflown to the plate. After 72 hours the cabbage is ready: it will be crunchy with a pleasant winey and salty taste. Cover the jar with a lead and place in the fridge: the fermented cabbage keeps well for at least a month.
