Cabbage was among the cheapest things a family could buy or grow in 1933. Salt cost almost nothing. Between them they produced a jar of food that kept through winter, cut against heavy cooking, and supplied vitamin C in the season when fresh produce vanished from the shelf. The fermentation works while the cook sleeps. This is economic independence at its smallest scale. A household that fills a shelf in September buys less in February and borrows less in March.
Sauerkraut Recipe
Ingredients
Firm white cabbage
1 teaspoon salt per jar
Cold water
Sterilized jars with lids
Directions
Wash and shred firm white cabbage. Pack sterilized jars with the cabbage. Put a teaspoon of salt in each jar. Add cold water and turn the lids about halfway, but do not seal them. Let the jars stand and ferment about two weeks, at the end of which time the cabbage should have turned to sauerkraut. Seal the jars at this point, not before.
New Journal and Guide, September 16, 1933.