Growing up I loved to go food shopping with my mother. Of course, there were grocery stores, but unlike today in the United States, we didn’t buy everything from one mega supermarket. Chicken and eggs were delivered to our back door by Irving the Chicken Man, who mysteriously also delivered thin crust pizzas. (However, nothing beat the Sicilian pan pizzas made by our neighbor Mrs. Cascardi, whose husband taught math at the local school.)

Milk in glass bottles with the cream at the top (only whole milk – whoever heard of skim, 1% or 2%? A2, lactose free??) and cottage cheese were also delivered to our back door as well.

My father, like many Jewish men of a certain age, always drank seltzer with his dinner and these came in glass bottles with spray nozzles delivered in wooden crates which we stored in our garage. This could get iffy in the wintertime when occasionally the bottles would freeze and explode. We kids thought this was very exciting. Our parents – not so much.

For cheeses, we drove to Cheese of All Nations, which claimed that it carried 600 different cheeses from all over the world. And nothing was ever purchased without first trying generous samples. Fresh fish was bought at the fish monger and bakery goods at the local bakery. While my mother was a wonderful baker, we still always bought our fresh rye bread at Walls Bakery along with my favorite Black and White Cookies and my brother’s favorite Victory Layer Cake. And if there was a line (and there always was a line) we would get samples of goodies fresh from the oven while we waited. My mother always bought two breads because we could never resist the aroma and ate half a loaf on our way home from the shop.

And then there was the “appetizing store” where we would get smoked fish, salami and best of all – pickled vegetables, straight from large wooden barrels. I was a well-behaved child so my reward was always a half-sour pickle to eat while my mother bought sauerkraut, pickles and pickled green tomatoes for the family. If you are sensing a theme, you’d be correct. Nothing was just picked off of a shelf and there were no labels to read. You spoke to the merchant and you tried everything. As a child, it was heaven.

Kids today come home from school and eat Hot Pockets or Granola Bars. But my favorite after school treat (if I hadn’t picked up a fresh bagel from the bagel store on my way home) was a slice of dark pumpernickel with good mustard and sauerkraut!

Last year, I decided to make sauerkraut at home. It’s really nothing like the stuff you buy in jars at the supermarket. And it isn’t instant gratification because you have to wait for it to ferment, which can take as little as one week to several depending on just how fermented you like it. But the ingredients can be as simple as shredded green cabbage and kosher salt and you get to watch it transform before your eyes. However, I like to make mine by adding shredded carrot and caraway seeds as well. Depending on your family’s country of origin, you may add juniper berries or a little sugar to the brine. I only use salt and caraway seeds.

There are all kinds of health benefits to eating naturally fermented foods and many cultures have their own varieties because before there was refrigeration, it was one way of preserving fresh foods. And pickles can make even the blandest of meals delicious. And when you are poor and you are not using the best cuts of meat – assuming there even was meat – good pickles will elevate the meal.

Some pickling is done with a boiled brine which has pickling spices and uses vinegar. I use this when I make pickled beets. But sauerkraut doesn’t require even that simple step. Salt reacts with the cabbage to create its own brine. No vinegar, no water is needed. You do, however, want a salinity of about 2% to keep the food safe while it ferments. It’s a simple calculation but if the idea of math sets your head spinning, there are all kinds of calculators available online to do the measurement for you. But as an example, I had a 3-pound cabbage which is equal to 1400g. Multiply that out by .02 and you get 28g of kosher salt needed for fermentation.

Now all salt is NOT created equal. I like Diamond Crystal kosher salt which measures out differently than Morton’s kosher salt, for example. So a tablespoon of Morton’s kosher salt has smaller granules and would end up being saltier than 1 Tablespoon of Diamond Crystal kosher salt. But if you weigh the amount – 28g will always be 28g.

I learned relatively late in life the benefits of having a kitchen scale. They are inexpensive and can be quite small, but they make baking so much easier and more accurate and also are great for tasks like this. How you scoop out flour and the type of flour will vary, but measured by weight, you will always be accurate. SO GET A KITCHEN SCALE!

Pickling vegetables is easy and fun to make, doesn’t take a lot of active , hands-on time and best of all, you are in charge. So if you want the end result to be spicy, add some hot peppers. You want it on the sweeter side, add a bit of sugar. Once the vegetables (in this case, cabbage and carrot) have fermented, it will keep in the fridge for months, assuming you are not consuming it with EVERYTHING! Sauerkraut is great with hotdogs (we use them on vegan dogs), with almost any sausage and is terrific to top off sandwiches, supplying a bit of crunch and zip. It also makes a healthy side vegetable with just about any grilled meat. I have even used it in a soup.

You don’t have to be living on a homestead to enjoy making your own pickled vegetables. Start with sauerkraut and see what you will pickle next. Your friends and family will be impressed when you tell them you made it. They don’t have to know how easy it was!

RECIPE

Yield: will depend on the size of your cabbage. A 3-pound cabbage will yield about 3 pints of sauerkraut.

Ingredients

An approximately 3-pound (1400g) green cabbage, although any kind will work

Kosher salt in the amount of 2% of the total weight of the uncut cabbage (In this case, 28g)

1 Tablespoon of whole caraway seeds (optional)

About 2 to 3 cups of shredded carrot

DIRECTIONS

Remove the tougher outer leaves and set them aside for adding to the top of the sauerkraut. Cut the cabbage into quarters and remove the core.

Once the core has been removed, slice the cabbage thinly. The sizes do not need to be completely uniform. You could use a mandolin or food processor for this, but I find that a sharp knife makes quick work.

Once your cabbage is shredded, pour the salt over the top and let it sit for about 5 to 10 minutes. Now comes the fun part! Using your hands, begin vigorously massaging the cabbage, squeezing it between your fingers. You will do this until the cabbage starts to become juicy and the pile is reduced. It will take about 10 minutes of running your fingers through the pile to massage every bit.

Once the cabbage is nice and wet and has started to break down, add in your carrots and caraway seed, if using. Toss everything through to distribute the ingredients.

Now you are ready to pack your jar(s). I bought a wooden muddler which makes this task easy and I happen to find it aesthetically pleasing as well. It’s not terribly expensive, but you can get by MacGyvering the task with a wooden spoon and some elbow grease. The vegetables need to be tightly packed to keep oxygen out which impedes the fermenting process and allows bacteria to get in. ruining your hard work.

As you push down, you will see more of the brine emerge, which is what you want.

Once you have tightly packed your jar(s), take the cabbage leaves that you had set aside at the beginning and fold them down to cover the top of the vegetables completely. Again, press down on everything to keep it well packed. Now you need to add a weight to the top. I like the glass fermenting weights, but in a pinch you can use a clean, rounded rock.

You want to leave a couple of inches of room above the weight because more brine will form as the cabbage ferments. If you don’t leave room, the liquid will overflow the jar and you will lose that precious brine.

I went ahead and bought fermenting lids and weights, but if you don’t wish to do that, you can cover the top with several layers of cheesecloth held in place with a rubber band or string.

And now, you let chemistry do its thing. Set your jar(s) aside in a cool, dark place. If you don’t like things very fermented, taste the sauerkraut after a week. I like mine to go for 3 weeks, but that’s me. Once it has reached the level of fermentation that suits your tastes, you either replace the fermenting lid with a regular wide-mouth lid or if you have the kind I have, you remove the center part and plug the airhole with the attached plug. Refrigerate your sauerkraut and enjoy it!