Method: Sauerkraut

Why this method

Sauerkraut is the cleanest demonstration of dry-salting in the whole canon: you add nothing but salt, then let osmosis pull the cabbage’s own liquid out to form the brine. No added water, no starter. Salt at 1.8-2.25% of cabbage weight selects for Leuconostoc and Lactobacillus over spoilage organisms, and those bacteria drop the pH from a fresh-cabbage 6.0-6.5 down to a finished 3.4-3.6. Below pH 4.6 the kraut is safe from C. botulinum; you carry it well past that line and into the sour, stable 3.4-3.6 band. The whole method lives or dies on one rule: everything stays under the brine.

Parameters

Parameter	Value
Salt (dry-salt, % of cabbage weight)	1.8-2.25%
Fermentation temperature	18-22°C / 64-72°F
Duration at 18-22°C	2-4 weeks
Vessel	Wide-mouth jar, crock, or fermentation bin with weight
Target finished pH	3.4-3.6
Cold storage / arrest	2-4°C

Equipment

Sharp knife or mandoline

Digital scale (1 g resolution)

Wide-mouth jar or crock

Submersion weight + airlock or loose lid

Workflow

Weigh the prepped cabbage

Core and shred the cabbage 2-3 mm thick. Weigh only the shred you will ferment — salt is a percentage of this number. Reserve a few outer leaves whole for capping.

Calculate and add salt

Multiply cabbage weight by 0.018-0.0225. For 1000 g of cabbage at 2.0% that is 20 g of salt. Use non-iodized salt (anti-caking agents can cloud the brine). Let the dry-salt calculator do the arithmetic.

Massage until it weeps

Toss salt through the shred and massage 5-10 minutes. The cells rupture and release liquid until the cabbage goes limp and a pool of brine collects — see pounding & packing for the mechanics of cell rupture and brine release.

Pack and submerge

Press the cabbage into the vessel, knuckling out air pockets, until the released brine rises above the shred. Cap with a reserved whole leaf and a weight so nothing floats. Leave 3-4 cm of headspace.

Ferment at 18-22°C

Hold 2-4 weeks. Bubbling peaks in the first week. If a clear brine cap dips below the kraut, top up with a 2% brine (20 g salt per litre water). Taste for sourness, but confirm doneness with pH.

Confirm pH and chill

Finished kraut reads pH 3.4-3.6 on a calibrated meter. Move to 2-4°C cold storage to arrest the ferment; flavor keeps developing slowly for months. Predict your timeline with the ferment predictor.