They all can’t be winners. After successfully reverse engineering Firefly’s Cortido Sauerkraut on the first try and my amazing Ghost Pepper Sauerkraut invention, I was on a fermentation hot streak. Even my Dill Sauerkraut was pretty good and my green cabbage kimchi also was amazing. But I did have one dud.
This summer I bought some Alderwood Smoked sea salt. My goal was to make a sauerkraut with a nice smokey flavor. On my first attempt, the conclusion was it needed more smokiness. So for the second batch, instead of using a 50% Redmond and 50% Alderwood sea salt mix, I used 100% smoked alderwood. The result was underwhelming. It had the smokiness, but it didn’t taste that good. Not bad. Bland.
Even the darkness from the salt made the sauerkraut visually unappealing.
If you used a search engine to seek out a recipe for smoked sauerkraut and you found this page, my advice is don’t waste 1-2 months of your life attempting this ferment. There are much better fermentation ideas you can do.
Sheila
Oct 12, 2011 — 9:58 am
You really got me on a sauerkraut kick! I was already interested in fermented foods via kombucha. I bought some raw organic sauerkraut at my health food store, it was so good. Although it smelled kind of bad, it tasted good. I like how low calorie it is and the fact that you still can go into ketosis. The label said zero sugars!
MAS
Oct 12, 2011 — 10:01 am
@Sheila – Combine that with the fact I almost never get sick anymore and those times I do get sick, the duration and intensity is far less. Fermented veggies are amazing.