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A jar of fermented red cabbage with oranges left and right and a small white bowl with cinnamon and cloves in the foreground

Fermented Red Cabbage with Orange and Spices

Tangy, fruity and deliciously aromatic, this fermented red cabbage with orange and warming spices makes a vibrant, flavourful side dish for festive roasts.
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Course: Side Dish
Cuisine: German
Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 2 kg red cabbage net weight
  • zest and juice of 3 organic unwaxed oranges
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp of ground clove
  • 1 pinch of ground nutmeg
  • 2 % unrefined sea salt amount based on weight of ingredients

Equipment

  • wooden board
  • knife
  • kraut slicer (optional)
  • large bowl
  • kraut pot, or jars
  • fermentation weights
  • Kraut tamper optional; alternatively, a clean glass bottle or just your hands

Method
 

  1. Clean the jars and lids thoroughly with dishwashing detergent.
  2. Remove the outer leaves from the cabbage heads. Wash some of the undamaged ones and put them to the side.
  3. Quarter the cabbage heads lengthwise and cut out the stem. Finely cut the cabbage quarters into slices or slice them with a cabbage slicer.
    One half and two quarters of a head of red cabbage
  4. Weigh the bowl you'll use for mixing the ingredients.
  5. Put the cabbage slices into the bowl.
    Red cabbage slices in a bowl, a quarter of red cabbage in a cabbage slicer on the left
  6. Wash the oranges, grate off their zest and press the juice. Add both to the cabbage in the bowl.
    Pouring freshly squeezed orange juice into a bowl with red cabbage and orange zests
  7. Add the ground cinnamon, clove and nutmeg.
    Adding spices to a bowl of red cabbage slices, and orange peel
  8. Now weigh the bowl with all the ingredients and subtract the weight of the empty bowl. You now have the weight of all ingredients.
  9. Calculate the amount of salt (2 % of total weight of ingredients).
    Adding salt to a bowl of red cabbage slices, orange peel and spices
  10. Mix in the salt and start kneading the cabbage slices thoroughly to break down their cell structure and incorporate the salt.
    Two hands kneading red cabbage slices as perparation for fermentation
  11. The slices will lose volume during this process, and brine will form. If you can't squeeze out enough liquid from the cabbage, let it rest for 15 minutes and knead it again.
    Brine forming in a bowl of red cabbage slices
  12. Put the cabbage in batches into the kraut pot or a jar and press each batch thoroughly down with a tamper, bottle or your fists until there's about 2 cm (0.8 inch) headspace.
    Red cabbage slices in a jar, pressed down with a tamper
  13. Take one of the outer cabbage leaves you put aside earlier, rinse it and cut it so that it can cover the cabbage in the jar. Put a weight on top to keep the cabbage slices and the leaf under the brine. All ingredients (including the cabbage leaf) must stay under the brine throughout fermentation.
    Putting a red cabbage leave on top of a jar with red cabbage slices
  14. Close the pot or jars with their lids (in case of twist-off lids, not too tightly) and put them on a baking tray.
    Putting a fermentation weight in a jar of red cabbage slices
  15. Put the jars in a place without direct sunlight and at temperatures between 20 and 24°C (68 - 75 °F).
    Jars with red cabbage slices, about to be fermented
  16. Let the cabbage ferment for 5 - 7 days (the colder the place, the longer the fermentation process takes), until brine no longer leaks out.
  17. If necessary,  fill the jars up with salt brine. For that purpose, mix 1/2 l of water with 15 g of salt and stir it until the salt has dissolved.
  18. Now put the jars in the fridge and let them mature for another 3 - 4 weeks before eating.

Notes

Yield: 5 jars of 1/2 l (1 pint)
Stored continuously in the fridge, fermented red cabbage can last 6 - 12 months, although its flavour and texture may change over time.
Once a jar is opened, store it in the fridge and consume within two weeks.