That old timer at the county fair who showed me his kraut setup

Guy must have been 80, told me he's been using the same crock his grandma brought over from Germany in 1923. Said he never measures salt, just goes by feel, and I laughed but his kraut was the best I've ever had. Anyone else run into someone like that who just makes you rethink everything?

3 comments

3 Comments

mark_ward1mo ago

Hold your horses a little. Yeah, the old guy's kraut was probably great, but let's not turn a guy with a funky fermentation pot into a life coach. Tasting his cabbage and suddenly "rethinking everything" feels like a bit much. He didn't measure salt, okay, cool. If you try that and your batch comes out tasting like a salt lick, are you gonna rethink that too? It's good kraut, not a new philosophy.

brianm661mo ago

Yeah Mark_ward has a point but man, I'd still trust the old timer's hands over my measuring cups.

sagecooper1mo ago

Reminds me of the time my uncle tried to make pickles "the old way" with just a handful of salt and some river stones for weight. He swore by it, said the salt would find its own level. Three weeks later we cracked a jar and it was basically a salt lick in pickle form, completely inedible. He still insists it was "good for the constitution" but I think he just didn't want to admit the rocks were probably dirty.