Salting and fermenting white cabbage for choucroute

Choucroute is the sauerkraut of Alsace, where white cabbage is shredded, salted and left to ferment in its own juice, a method of keeping the vegetable through the winter. It belongs to the Alsatian household kitchen and to the cooperative producers of the plain around Krautergersheim, and it is the foundation of the garnished choucroute served throughout the region. The technique rests on lactic fermentation brought about by the bacteria naturally present on the leaves, with salt as the only addition apart from the aromatics of the cellar.

The cabbage used is the late white cabbage, Brassica oleracea var. capitata f. alba, in firm, heavy heads with tightly packed leaves. The outer leaves and the core are removed, and the heads are cut into fine, even ribbons with a mandoline or a special cabbage plane. The ribbons are layered in a stoneware crock or a barrel with coarse salt, juniper berries and sometimes a few peppercorns or a bay leaf, and each layer is pressed down until the juice rises. The mass is covered with whole leaves and a cloth, then weighted with a board and a stone so that the cabbage stays under its brine. After several weeks of fermentation in a cool place it becomes pale, supple and pleasantly sour, ready to be rinsed and cooked.

Fermented cabbage is eaten with salted and smoked pork, sausages and potatoes, as in the garnished choucroute of Alsace. The acidity and the freshness of the cabbage cut through the fat of the pork, while the juniper links it to the smoke of the meats. It is drunk with Alsace Riesling, or with beer, whose dryness and acidity refresh the palate against the richness of the plate.