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My kraut turned slimy. Found out the real problem.
Last Saturday I pulled the lid off my sauerkraut batch. Day 14. Normally it smells fine. This time it looked like someone dumped jelly in there. Slimy, stringy. Gross. I was in my kitchen staring at this mason jar. Almost pitched the whole thing. Instead I did some digging on old fermentation forums. Turns out it's called 'ropiness'. Happens when the salt ratio is too low or the temp swings too much. My kitchen got up to 78 one afternoon last week. That did it. I tossed the batch but kept notes. Next time I'll keep the jar in the basement where it stays 65 steady. Anyone else deal with ropy kraut without knowing what caused it?
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craig.nathan1mo ago
Buddy of mine called his kraut 'snot' after a bad batch last year.
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the_abby1mo ago
Wait, did you check if your salt ratio was off too? I had the exact same slimy batch a few months back, and for me it was because I got lazy and just guessed the salt instead of weighing it. I started keeping my ferment jars in the coolest part of my basement like you're planning, and I bought a cheap kitchen scale to get the salt right at 2% of the cabbage weight. That fixed it for me, no more jelly sludge.
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