Romania: fermented cabbage leaves

The main post for Romania details how to make sarmale, Romanian cabbage rolls based on fermented whole heads of cabbage. To save time but retain that special flavour you get with lactic acid fermentation, I decided to create my own recipe.

Lactic acid fermentation is a very common method of preserving food while enhancing flavour and nutrient accessibility. Be sure to check out my separate post with an introduction to lactic acid fermentation. While any plant part can and probably is fermented in some recipe, fermented cabbage has a status all its own. Maybe two of the most famous lactic acid ferments are after all sauerkraut and kimchi, both made from cabbage.

When fermenting cabbages whole in Romania, the cabbage core is removed and the head is packed with dried corn kernels and salt. The heads are then placed in a barrel together with spices like dill, horseradish and red beets. I am not sure but I think the corn might be to supply short carbohydrates (sugar and such) to help feed teh abcteria and the red beet might be for colour. (Another recipe uses a single head of red cabbage instead).

In this recipe, whole leaves of cabbage are peeled off and stuffed into a jar together with horseradish, dill and a few apple pieces and covered in brine. (Cynetyc at steemit.com used quince but I did not find any this time ​[1]​.) The original recipe The leaves were then fermented for 9 days before I made the sarmale. I took my inspiration from two forum posts, one at Steemit ​[1]​ and one at Wild Fermentation ​[2]​.

Conclusion

The fermented cabbage leaves turned out really well and were immensely flavourful with a very strong dill flavour. The only downside of my attempt was that it was very hard to preserve the leaves intact as I peeled of fresh leaves from a whole head of cabbage. They were simply too stiff and many of them tore while peeling. The jar I used was also on the small side so some broke when stuffing them into the jar. But now that I know how good they taste, I can make a larger batch. Maybe a whole head next time.

I will make these leaves again, maybe as whole cabbages next time (probably takes 6+ weeks ​[3]​). In fact, the flavour turned out so much better than my previous sauerkraut that I strained the old sauerkraut and replaced its brine with this Romanian dill version after cooking my sarmale…

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Fermented cabbage leaves

Inspired by the whole fermented cabbage heads found in Eastern European cuisines, I created my own, faster version by fermenting whole leaves of cabbage.

Course condiment

Cuisine Eastern European, Romanian

Keyword cabbage, Fermentation, Lactic acid bacteria, Lactic acid fermentation

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Author Henrik Persson | veganphysicist.com

Ingredients

• 1 small head of cabbage
• 1 tbsp grated horseradish
• a few sprigs dill
• 2 slices sweet apple e.g. golden delicious
• 40 g salt see note

Instructions

• Make the brine by dissolving 40 g salt in 1 litre of water.

  See post on the nitty gritty of lactic acid fermentation formy commentary on iodine and chlorine.
• Carefully peel of as many leaves as you can from the cabbage without breaking them, around 8 or so should be good. This is quite tricky.
• Stuff the leaves and spices in a jar and cover in the brine. Close the lid slightly but allow built up gases to escape. Alternately, close the id fully and open slightly every day to 'burp' the jar.
• Let sit at room temperature for 7-9 days. You can taste the brine to check if it is done. Should be sour and pleasant tasting.

Notes

On salt and water: See post on the nitty gritty of lactic acid fermentation for my commentary on iodine in salt and chlorine in water. Short version: doesn’t seem to matter much.