Fermented Foods
Beginner's Sauerkraut: Two Ingredients, Endless Payoff
Cabbage, salt and patience. Everything you need to make your first successful ferment — and how to know it's going right.
5 July 2026 8 min
Fermentation
Living foods, made reliably
Fermentation is old, forgiving and quietly transformative. These guides give you the ratios, temperatures and signals to read so your first jar works — and your tenth is even better.
The five steps of any ferment
- 1
Choose
Fresh, unwaxed, undamaged vegetables. Quality in, quality out.
- 2
Salt
2% of vegetable weight for vegetables; brine at 3-5% for whole produce.
- 3
Submerge
Everything under the brine — this is the single rule that decides success.
- 4
Wait
18-20°C, out of direct sun, tasting from day seven onwards.
- 5
Chill
Refrigerate when the sourness is where you want it. Flavour keeps developing slowly.
Troubleshooting
White film on top
Usually kahm yeast — harmless. Skim it, check submersion, carry on.
Fuzzy coloured mould
Discard the batch. Mould means air contact; weight it down next time.
No bubbling
Too cold, or too much salt. Move somewhere warmer and give it more days.
Too salty
Rinse before serving and reduce to 2% next batch.