Scale the USDA sauerkraut recipe to your cabbage or your crock: salt in spoons and grams for canning, table or kosher salt, quarts of kraut, and the fermenting time at your room temperature.
Sauerkraut Calculator - Salt Ratio, Yield and Time
Scale the USDA sauerkraut recipe to your cabbage or your crock: salt in spoons and grams for canning, table or kosher salt, quarts of kraut, and the fermenting time at your room temperature.
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Sauerkraut salt ratio, yield and fermenting time from the USDA recipe
Five pounds of shredded cabbage takes 3 tablespoons of canning salt, about 54 g, and makes close to 1.8 quarts of sauerkraut. This sauerkraut calculator scales the USDA recipe, as published by the National Center for Home Food Preservation (NCHFP), to the cabbage you have or the crock you want to fill, converts the salt for table and kosher salt, and reads the fermenting time off your room temperature.
Four things to tell the calculator
- Starting point - the cabbage you have, in pounds, kilograms or heads, or the container you want to fill, in quarts, gallons or liters.
- Amount - from half a pound to 200 lb, or a container from half a quart to 20 gallons.
- Salt - canning or pickling salt, table salt, Morton kosher or Diamond Crystal kosher.
- Room temperature - where the crock or jar will stand, in °F or °C.
How much salt for sauerkraut, by weight of cabbage
All rows follow the NCHFP rule of 3 tablespoons per 5 pounds. Kosher salts have bigger, lighter crystals, so the same weight fills more spoons: Morton kosher weighs 4.8 g per teaspoon and Diamond Crystal 2.8 g, against 6 g for fine salt (America's Test Kitchen).
| Cabbage | Canning or table salt | Grams | Morton kosher | Diamond Crystal | Kraut |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 lb | 1.75 tsp | 11 g | 2.25 tsp | 1.25 tbsp | 0.4 qt |
| 1 kg (2.2 lb) | 1.25 tbsp | 24 g | 1.75 tbsp | 2.75 tbsp | 0.8 qt |
| 2 medium heads (4.0 lb) | 2.5 tbsp | 43 g | 3 tbsp | 5.25 tbsp | 1.4 qt |
| 5 lb | 3 tbsp | 54 g | 3.75 tbsp | 6.5 tbsp | 1.8 qt |
| 10 lb | 6 tbsp | 108 g | 7.5 tbsp | 3/4 cup + 0.75 tbsp | 3.6 qt |
| To fill 1 gallon (11.1 lb) | 6.75 tbsp | 120 g | 8.25 tbsp | 3/4 cup + 2.25 tbsp | 4.0 qt |
| 25 lb | 3/4 cup + 3 tbsp | 270 g | 1 cup + 2.75 tbsp | 2 cups + 0.25 tbsp | 9.0 qt |
How long to ferment sauerkraut at each room temperature
NCHFP gives the times in bands. Sauerkraut is fully fermented when the bubbling stops; the calculator does not invent a figure for the gap between the bands.
| Room temperature | What NCHFP says |
|---|---|
| Below 60 °F | Kraut may not ferment |
| 60 to 65 °F | Fermentation may take 5 to 6 weeks |
| 70 to 75 °F | Fully fermented in about 3 to 4 weeks; the USDA recommendation |
| Above 75 °F | Kraut may become soft |
Five details in the recipe that are easy to miss
The salt does not add up. The ingredient list says 3/4 cup for 25 lb, which is 12 tablespoons. The method says 3 tablespoons for each 5 lb, which makes 15. By weight that is 1.90% against 2.38%. The result shows both and leads with the per-layer rule, since that is what you do at the counter.
A gallon crock holds about 11 lb of cabbage. 25 lb gives about 9 quarts, so one quart of kraut takes about 2.8 lb.
Leave headroom. The rim should be at least 4 to 5 inches above the packed cabbage.
The top-up brine is saltier than the kraut. 1 1/2 tablespoons per quart of water is about 2.85%, used only when the cabbage's own juice does not cover it.
A head is not a pound. USDA weighs a medium green cabbage at 908 g, about 2 lb, before the outer leaves and core come off.
Who ends up here
Someone with one head of cabbage and a quart jar, who needs the salt in teaspoons. A gardener with a late-season glut, filling a 5 gallon crock with about 55.6 lb. A cook who only keeps Diamond Crystal and would otherwise use less than half the salt by measuring it spoon for spoon like canning salt (25 g in 3 tablespoons instead of 54 g). And anyone with a cool basement wondering why the crock has gone quiet: at 58 °F the recipe warns the kraut may not ferment at all.
Sauerkraut questions
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