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Rant: My sauerkraut turned to mush because I forgot about it in the back of the pantry
I started a big batch of red cabbage kraut about six weeks ago, using my usual 2% salt ratio. Life got busy and I just left the jar sitting in a dark corner. Checked it yesterday and the texture was completely gone, just a slimy pink mess. I think the temperature in that spot must have spiked during a hot week last month. Has anyone else had a ferment go bad from a simple storage mistake like that?
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maxf332mo ago
But how do you even know it was the heat and not just time? Six weeks is a long ferment for kraut, even at a cool temp. Did you taste it at all before it went mushy, or was it a total loss from the start?
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sanchez.mary1mo ago
My neighbor Deb left a batch of kraut on her kitchen counter for 3 weeks during a July heatwave. She said it went from perfectly crunchy to complete mush in about 4 days, and the smell turned real sour and off. She's made kraut for years in cooler weather and never had that happen, so I'm pretty sure the heat was the problem.
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nathan1002mo ago
Actually that sounds like a classic case of not enough salt to me. A 2% ratio can be too low for some veggies, especially in a warm spot. Red cabbage is pretty sturdy, but heat makes everything ferment faster and wilder. Might want to bump it to 2.5% next time if your pantry runs hot, that extra bit makes a huge difference for texture.
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