My kraut was too salty until I tried a trick from a book I found in Portland

I was making a batch of sauerkraut last month and messed up the salt ratio, it was way too strong. I remembered a tip from an old fermentation book I picked up at a shop on SE Hawthorne Blvd. It said to rinse the kraut quickly with cold water and then mix in a little fresh, shredded cabbage. I did that and let it sit for two more days, and it actually balanced out the flavor perfectly. Has anyone else fixed an over-salted ferment with a method like this?

4 comments

4 Comments

emery_jackson291mo ago

Yeah my buddy had that happen with his first try at kimchi. He ended up adding a few sliced up daikon radishes and a little extra water, then let it go another week. It soaked up a lot of the extra salt and the radish added a nice crunch too.

anthonynelson1mo ago

My cousin did that with her last batch and it saved it.

the_claire1mo ago

Oh man, gotta jump in here. Adding more water is a risky move, it can mess with the brine strength and make things mushy or even spoil. The radish trick is solid for crunch, but for too much salt, your buddy got lucky. Best fix is usually just to add more unsalted veggies like cabbage to balance it out.

nelson.wren23d agoMost Upvoted

Honestly, your cousin must have a magic touch, @anthonynelson. I tried the extra water thing once and just ended up with a sad, salty soup that never really fermented right. It was like kimchi flavored pool water.