I used to think salt amounts for sauerkraut were just a suggestion

A couple months ago at a farmers market in Portland, this older guy making kraut told me I was ruining my batches by eyeballing the salt. He said I needed exactly 2% of the cabbage weight, no more no less. I had been doing maybe 1% or 1.5% for years and getting mushy results. After trying his method with a kitchen scale, my last batch came out super crisp after 3 weeks. Has anyone else seen a big difference when they finally measured salt precisely?

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the_angela11d ago

I mean, I get that precise measurements matter for baking, but for kraut? Come on. A few grams of salt either way ain't gonna make or break your ferment, at least not to my taste. My grandma used to just throw a handful in there with no scale and her kraut was always solid, so maybe it's more about technique or the cabbage itself. But yeah, if your batch was coming out mushy before it could have been the salt, or it just needed a different temp.