Gardenman, I'm not Dave, but I'm up early! :) Standard kraut recipe is 3T. salt to 5 lb. of shredded cabbage. I layer the cabbage in a large bowl, sprinkle with salt, repeat. Then I mix it well with my hands. Pack it tightly into a large container. It will create its own juice and that should cover the cabbage. Sometimes I have to wait a few minutes and press it down more to have the juice level high enough. Then fill a ziploc bag with brine and place on top of the cabbage to "seal" it. I make mine in a 2 1/2 gallon, barrel-shaped Snapware container with the snap top left ajar. Do not put a tight fitting lid on it, but loosely covered is good to keep out dust and curious critters. The gasses need to escape. Store for 3-5 weeks (guideline, depends on temperature) at 70-75 degrees. I start tasting at 3 weeks. When complete, you can leave it where it is (if cool enough for long term storage), can it, or refrigerate it. If you choose to can, it does NOT require pressure canning. Because it's officially now a pickle (through the formation of lactic acid), it may be BWB. You can find all the directions for making the kraut and canning on the National Center for Home Food Preservation website. Deanna

Thanks for the info everyone. I tasted the kraut again today. Whereas the saltiness was nearly inedible at 9 days, at 18 days it seems about normal. I'm really jazzed about this! I'll definitely do this again in a slightly larger quantity. I do have one question. I had removed some of the kraut at 9 days, and simply pushed the plastic bags in to top the remainder. There was a tiny bit of mold on the side of the jar where the bag was and a tiny bit in the kraut. I removed the mold and wiped out the inside top of the jar. At that point I couldn't smell or taste any mold. As a precaution, I boiled the kraut for a few minutes, then stuffed in a new jar and refrigerated. Did this boiling kill the beneficial lactibacillus bacteria? I'm trying to find more foods besides yogurt/kefir with probiotics. And, is is still safe to keep the kraut in the fridge long term, even after it's been boiled?

I'm getting a little worried. It has no odor at all. The juice at the top just tastes like salty water. Its been over a week and No bubbles yet, unless they are escaping around the bag. It hasn't overflowed the jar and hasn't been disturbed except moving the cloth to look, taste and smell. No scum on top either. I think it may be too cool in my house for it to ferment. I keep it from 64 to 68. From "Complete Guide to Home Canning," Store at 70� to 75�F while fermenting. At temperatures between 70� and 75�F, kraut will be fully fermented in about 3 to 4 weeks; at 60� to 65�F, fermentation may take 5 to 6 weeks. At temperatures lower than 60�F, kraut may not ferment. Above 75�F, kraut may become soft. Should I be worried?

"... tell us what you mean by "a good scrub" and how you go about it." Squeeze a couple of tomatoes out into a stainless steel wire strainer in the kitchen sink. Run cool water over the pulp and rub it around the bottom of the strainer bustin' up the mash and forcing some of the pulp through the strainer. Kinda scrape all the seeds and remaining pulp up into a pile in the center of the strainer bottom, and sprinkle a liberal amount of Comet with Bleach or pour a glob of Calgon with Bleach onto the seed mash. Let that set for 30 minutes or so maybe stirring it just a little every ten minutes to make sure the chemicals are interacting with the pulp pile. If it looks like the mix could use a bit more product, add some. Then take a wooden spoon or wear rubber gloves and rub the seed mash around the bottom of the strainer really vigorously until all the dissolved mash has been forced through the screen wire ... or as much of it as possible ... and the seeds look free of gel. Run some cool water over the remaining seeds and clean them up as best you can. Then knock all the seeds into a deep, steep-sided kitchen mixing bowl being very careful to remove all the seeds from the strainer and the wooden spoon or other tools, etc., and getting them all into the bowl. Then bang out the strainer really hard on the bottom of the sink and use a good long blast of water to thoroughly wash out the strainer making sure to dispose of any stray or clinging seeds ... down the drain! Now, fill the bowl 3/4 full of cool water by running the water into the bowl along one side to create a whirlpool effect. The good seeds should gather into a pyramid (if you have a lot of seeds) or a little mound at the bottom of the bowl. Carefully pour out the water in such a way as to dispose of the floating and remaining trash, and don't be too worried if a few seeds also leave the pile and go down the drain. The heaviest (most mature) seeds will generally stay together in a mass ... kinda like panning for gold. Oh yeah ... while the bowl is still 3/4 full of water, stir the water with your hand vigorously enough to agitate the seeds and help rid them of any chemical residue. Give the water a stir and the seeds should re-marshal themselves into a clump. Repeat the rinsing procedure until the seeds look clean and don't smell like bleach or feel slimey like they have a chemical residue on the seed coat. When you're finished rinsing the seeds and have poured off the last rinse water, remove the seeds from the bowl and onto a paper plate marked with the name of the variety. Move the seeds apart so as many of them are not touching one another as is practical. While you're doing this, kinda look real close to see if all the gel was dissolved off the seed coat. Let the seeds dry for a week or so. It doesn't take seeds as long to dry when you process them this way as it does when you ferment them ... because they're not waterlogged. Whenever you do any seed processing, make daggone good and sure that no stray seeds remain in the strainer, in the bowl, on your fingers, on your tools, under your fingernails, etc. And if you ever seed a seed somewhere outside the strainer, bowl, whatever ... even if you really think you're sure you saw if fly off the batch you're currently working on ... never assume you know which batch it belongs with! Throw it away. Okay? Well, not so technical ... but that's the short version.