I just finished fishing the last bits of yummy fermented sauerkraut out of the jar, and I'm left with about a half jar of juice. What should I do with it? Drink it? Throw some new veggies in there? Or just dispose of it because it was just a carrier for the kraut? I've seen the juice canned at the store before, so I'm guessing it has got to be good for something if it is marketable.
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You should never "back-slop" sauerkraut. In other words, do not use sauerkraut juice as a starter for the next batch. The cabbage leaves already have enough bacteria to start the fermentation; backslopping just interferes with the normal population dynamics and causes your sauerkraut to skip some of the earlier steps. The sauerkraut juice comes from the late-stage sauerkraut and is full of acid-loving bacteria, but your new sauerkraut hasn't gone through the steps to create that acidic environment yet. Most of the recipes from Nourishing Traditions regards ferments are just flat out wrong. It's naive to toss in a cup of whey whenever you are fermenting something just because the whey has bacteria and the substrate needs bacteria. Better to understand the fermentation process, the population dynamics of the particular ferment you are attempting, and the best way to get the correct culture for that ferment into the substrate. Whey is useful in limited situations, while sauerkraut tastes best when wild-fermented. (There is actually science to prove this if anybody is interested.) |
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A couple things I do with both pickle juice and sauerkraut juice.
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According to a lot of sources on the webz, the juice is a wonderful digestive tonic, and i'm pretty sure it has other benefits. I'd also use part of the juice for the next batch. Besides speeding up the fermentation process it'll also help keep unwanted bacteria/fungi away from the cabbage because it contains a lot of good bacteria. |
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Boil up some bratwurst in the leftover juice, use it in a slow cooker with some apples and pork, or use it as part of a stock for soups/stews. God, I'm making myself hungry. I'm German, and all of this talk of sauerkraut makes me crave some of my Oma's cooking something fierce. |
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yes throw some veggies in there with salt. |
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One time I felt a sore throat coming on, so I gargled a bunch of sauerkraut juice and then chugged the rest. Besides being delicious, it seemed to have completely stopped my sore throat dead in its tracks. |
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You can also use it in salad dressings. |
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How long does it keep? One Naturopathic doctor gave us a recipe if you have the flu and are throwing up. He said a tablespoon of sauerkraut juice and a tablespoon of tomato juice every 20 minutes for two hours. That combination will kill any bug in the stomach. If you are giving it to kids then only a teaspoon of each instead of a tablespoon. |
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I use a small amount of mine in place of apple cider vinegar for marinades. I also drink it. I recommend Bubbie's brand...so delicious and only water is used for the fermentation. |
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We keep the sauerkraut juice from a jar of Bubbie's in the fridge and I periodically fill a shot glass and suck it down. Yum! |
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I can drink the juice all day, who needs 8 cups of water when you have pickle juice. |
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I use it instead of vinegar in my vinaigrette. Add freshly crushed garlic and salt. Keep in fridge or cupboard. When making salad, put 1 to 2 TBS in the bottom of the salad bowl, mix in twice as much EVOO. Put salad ingredients on top. Toss salad just before serving. But I still have too much skj and pickled veggie juice, so thank you all who responded. I am going to defrost that pork roast and marinate it in my extra skj! And I'm going to pickle some lovely broccoli I just got from an organic farm using the rest of my skj, and I won't have to use the kefir starter! Saving $$! |
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sauerkraut juice is commonly drunk in Belgium Hollanand Germany as well in Scandinavia.it is anin excellent detox tonic and a very good natural laxative. Many fasting regimes in Germany Holland and Belgium call for sauerkraut juice to be drunk on the first day to start detox and beet juice to be drunk on the second day to purify the blood. Anyway it is not at all uncommon to drink sauerkraut juice but we Americans are unfamiliar with it. Do be careful if you drink too much - you will probably spend the afternoon on the toilet but that might not actually be a bad thing if you're trying to detox. |
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This might sound crazy but I mix a shot of sauerkraut juice with seltzer water to make it more of a cocktail and sip it like a regular drink. |
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Rachel Maddow recently made a Pickle Back on Jimmy Fallon - pickle juice and whiskey. I know booze isn't Paleo, but maybe you could sub in the sauerkraut juice instead! http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/06/10006306-late-night-pickle-backs-with-jimmy-fallon |
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Repurpose it, but don't drink it straight up, or a whole bunch at one time! Sounds funny, but you'd be surprised how many stories my mom has as an emergency room nurse of young guys from college who would drink a whole jar of some kind of pickling or fermenting juice on a dare. They get severely dehydrated, experience unbearable cramping, and can get induced arrhythmia's. I assume you weren't going to chug it, but just saying, if you get the hankering probably avoid it. |
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I drink it as I go with eating the sauerkraut from my homemade brew, so there is never more juice left. |
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I would drink it if it was full of probiotics. I bought a canned one, which says pasteurized. I assume that means no probiotics left at all? I bought it hoping that there is something good still left in it, and because of not being ready to start fermenting things at home... |
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Yes, sauerkraut juice tastes awesome. But I worry about all that salt. When I make sauerkraut with only one head of cabbage I typically use 5 teaspoons of salt. I believe the RDA for salt (sodium chloride) is about one teaspoon daily, with the average American consuming at least twice that. Although since starting Paleo my salt consumption is low (probably no more than 1 teaspoon per day) I fear the salt in sauerkraut juice might cancel out the goodness of the probiotics. And so sadly, I dump out excess sauerkraut juice. _Lazza |
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Hmmm I am an Emergency Medicine physician and have never had any patients come in from such a dare though that does not mean it will not happen. Anectdottally speaking, I drank a whole jar of the remnant juice from my Bubbies about six hours ago. I did so reasoning it would not have much affect on me bc I have on two occassions consummed the entire jar including the juices over about two days on each occassion without any noted affect except sometimes when I would take a swallow and inhaled at the same time I would sort of choke or cough. My wife has the same phenomenom occur when she does. This appears to only occur when the juice is left in since it does not occur if you strain and rinse the sauerkraut. Not wanting to lose the preceious beneficial bacteria I no longer rinse and just strained today. Well within two hours of drinking the juice, I notice some profound gurgling and the demanding call of nature hailing me to the bathroom where I experienced diarrhea without cramps and nothing uncomfortable. I feel fine now but agree that the uninitiated should imbibe with small quantities on this valuable tonic until perhaps they and their gastro-intestinal tracts are better acquainted to Sauerkraut juice. An interesting area I am intrigued with is the protective effect the probiotic bacteria within fermented foods would have agains EColi, salmonella, Campylobacter bacteria. There was a fascinating article in the New Yorker I recently read that alluded to comments by VERY forward thinking Infectious Disease physicians who predicted that in the future physicians may very well be writing less prescriptions for antibiotics and instead writing prescriptions for bacteria to be ingested/administered for their efficacious clinical benefit. Google "Germs ar US" and New Yorker and you should find it if interested. Sean OMara |
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