Sauerkraut Crock

I am terribly excited to share this new pottery design. I am totally jazzed about sauerkraut thanks to a terrific woman, and German immigrant, at the pottery class. I think she really appreciates sharing kraut with someone and I am happy to oblige! She initially showed me a design similar to this that was the starting point.

I threw the cylinder as straight as possible and then added the lip on the top, which I'll explain a bit later. Additionally I added the handles and threw a lid to match. I glazed it inside and out in the speckled blue and then matched that with a brown tenmouku which turns slightly green at the overlap.



On the inside you can see that I've already filled the bugger with two heads of cabbage. When making kraut quarter the head and then cut off all the large cabbage stems including the core. Then slice the quarters leaving long thin strands of cabbage. Weigh the remaining cabbage and add 2.5% of the total weight in kosher salt mixed throughout. The salt will help draw out the liquid from the cabbage and form a brine along with the salt. I also added three juniper berries, which my German friend says is absolutely essential for sauerkraut. Once I added that all to the crock I added the lid to a plastic cup and the ball jar filled with water as a weight. You can see that after 12 hours or so enough liquid had been drawn out from the cabbage to cover sufficiently.



The lid for the crock itself was designed to fit into the trough on the body of the crock, though I wish the trough was larger. The idea behind this is that you can add water to the trough and form a seal with the lid. The water should allow any excess CO2 to escape while keeping the seal.