How to Press Cabbage

Ingredients:
-30 kilos of shredded cabbage
-about 8 small to medium onions, sliced
-a hefty chunk of fresh horseradish, cut into 1” chunks
-a bowl of salt
-a bunch of bay leaves
-whole black peppercorns
-caraway seed
-dill
-the heel of a loaf of brown bread
-a medium (about two and a half feet tall) ceramic jar with a hole big enough for your arm
-two or three pieces of oak wood, soaked in dill water
-a rock big enough to fit in the mouth of the jar

1. Put the piece of bread and the dill in the bottom of the jar, for fermentation.
2. Start layering the ingredients, beginning with about four big handfuls of cabbage, spreading it in an even layer around the bottom of the jar.
3. Add the spices: a big handful of salt, a handful of caraway, four or five crushed bay leaves, a handful of pepper, and some onions and horseradish. Sprinkle them evenly on top of the cabbage.
4. Put more cabbage on top.
5. Begin to press the cabbage. Use your fist and press down evenly on the surface area. Make sure to press the cabbage on the sides as well.
6. When the cabbage starts to get juicy, repeat. Add more cabbage, onions, horseradish, and spices.
7. About halfway through, taste some of the juice. Adjust the amount of spices accordingly.
8. Press until your arms fall off, and until all the ingredients have been used, following the previous directions.
9. Place whole cabbage leaves on top of the pressed cabbage. Top those with the pieces of wood, and put the rock on top of the wood.10. Leave the cabbage in the kitchen or another warm place for a week, then get a strong Slovak man to move it to a cooler place. Leave it there for another two or three weeks.
11. When it’s ready, make kapustnica (winter cabbage soup)* and cabbage salad!

If you can’t get a big cabbage-pressing jar and 30 kilos of cabbage, it’s possible to scale it down. Helena suggested using a five-gallon glass jar. It all depends on how many people are in your family and how much you like sour cabbage. You will need more cabbage than you think; remember, you’re squishing it, so it will compress.

*This is the next recipe I need to get.