Method: Dry-Salt Ferment

Why this method

When a vegetable is shredded or sliced thin, you don’t need to add water — salting it directly draws out enough of its own liquid to form a covering brine. This is the sauerkraut and kimchi method, and its defining feature is the denominator: salt is a percentage of the vegetable weight only, with no added water. The default is 2.0%. Because the brine is the vegetable’s own sap, the result is concentrated and intensely flavored, and the technique scales from a single jar to a full crock.

Parameters

Parameter	Value
Salt % (by vegetable weight)	2.0% default (range ~1.8–2.5%)
Fermentation temp	18–22 °C / 64–72 °F
Duration	1–4 weeks (longer when cooler)
Target finished pH	3.4–3.6 (sauerkraut); kimchi 4.2 falling toward 4.0
Vessel	Wide-mouth jar or crock with a weight and loose lid or airlock
Cold arrest	2–4 °C refrigerator once at target

Equipment

Gram scale (record the vegetable weight — it sets the salt)
Large mixing bowl for salting and massaging
Wide-mouth jar or fermentation crock
Fermentation weight to hold shreds below the released brine
Loose lid, cloth-and-band, or airlock
Calibrated pH meter
Non-iodized salt (pickling, kosher, or fine sea)

Workflow

Weigh the vegetable

Core and shred the cabbage (or napa, daikon, carrot). Put the bowl on a tared scale and record the vegetable weight — say 900 g. This single number sets everything.

Calculate the salt

Dry-salt default is 2.0% of vegetable weight. For 900 g that’s 18 g. The dry-salt calculator confirms the grams and corrects for salt purity; the fermentation predictor estimates the timeline at your temperature.

Salt and massage

Sprinkle the salt over the shreds and massage 5–10 minutes. The cells break down and weep. Rest 15–20 minutes and massage again until a pool of brine covers the shreds when you press them. The salt is pulling the vegetable’s own water out — you are making brine, not adding it.

Pack under the released brine

Press the vegetable firmly into the jar so its brine rises above it, leaving ~2–3 cm headspace. Set a weight on top so nothing floats. If the brine doesn’t quite cover, top with a little 2% brine (20 g salt per 1 L water) — never plain water, which would dilute below the safety floor.

Ferment at 18–22 °C and burp

Cover loosely or fit an airlock, hold at 18–22 °C out of direct sun, and burp daily if sealed. Taste from about day 5.

Finish by pH, then chill

When sour and still crisp — typically 1–3 weeks — confirm pH 3.4–3.6 (sauerkraut) with a calibrated meter, then refrigerate at 2–4 °C to arrest it.