A friend pointed out my sauerkraut was too salty, and they were right

I was giving a jar of my homemade sauerkraut to a buddy, and he tried it the next day. He said, 'This is good, but it's a bit sharp, like licking a salt block.' I had been using 2 tablespoons of salt per head of cabbage for years, thinking that was just the rule. After he said that, I tried a batch with only 1.5 tablespoons, and the ferment was slower but the flavor was way better, more tangy than salty. Anyone else tweak their salt ratio and get a totally different result?

4 comments

4 Comments

ninasanchez2mo ago

Your friend just saved you from a lifetime of brine-based regret. Licking a salt block is a pretty vivid review.

wesley_grant332mo agoMost Upvoted

Actually she dared me to lick it, so the regret is all mine.

the_vera10h ago

And actually, that salt block comment hits home because I once brought a batch of fermented pickles to a party and someone asked if I was trying to preserve them for a nuclear winter. I cut back on the salt and suddenly my pickles stopped tasting like a brine bath and started actually tasting like cucumbers. It's wild how one little tweak can flip the whole thing from "edible" to "actually good.

wesley_grant3310h agoMost Upvoted

A little salt never hurt nobody, keeps the crunch tight.