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Thanks very much for your encouragement and recipe.

I have tried a few times, exactly as described. Each batch has just gone rotten with unsavory growths. Another attempt is always on the table :)

My sourdough starter is coming up on 2 years old and it’s wonderful, so I know fermenting IS possible in my kitchen :)

[Thanks very much for your encouragement and recipe.

I have tried a few times, exactly as described. Each batch has just gone rotten with unsavory growths. Another attempt is always on the table :)

My sourdough starter is coming up on 2 years old and it’s wonderful, so I know fermenting IS possible in my kitchen :)]

You’re very welcome. The key with fermentation is exactitude in weights and measures. The salt used needs to be sufficient to keep unwanted biological matter dormant until the lactic acid generated during fermentation takes over. If stuff is growing, you’re not using enough salt. Insufficient salt means it rots rather than ferments.

I provided rough measures, but in practice, I weigh both the salt and cabbage in grams, setting a hard target of 2.5% salt vs cabbage by weight. Some people season things by taste or random feel. I season by weight.

https://www.amazon.com/Lan-Sheng-Calibration-Conversion-Back-Lit/dp/B07MP1WFHZ
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CXM7CY6F

Of the scales I looked up on Amazon, the little sensitive one is for the salt, and the regular one is for the cabbage.

Fermentation is like making pastry. No such thing as low-salt fermentation. There’s not much give in the proportions, or you’ll end up with something completely different. Note that the weight of added water needs to be added to the cabbage number when calculating the weight of salt needed. But once I figured out that the key to generating enough brine to cover the greens was to help the salting of the cabbage along with a potato masher, I stopped having to add water. The manually-produced brine covered the cabbage just fine.

Anyhow, good luck on this new leg of your sauerkraut experiment.