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rb. said:
The only thing about the recipe I can't quite picture is the rock part. If the jar is sealed with the band on and the rock is on top of the lid why is the rock needed?

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There are lots of ways to do it - the only important thing is to rig some way to keep the kraut UNDER the brine at all times. Like Haus says, when the cabbage is in contact with air, bad things happen.

What I was trying to say - my method is to use wide-mouth quart canning jars. You know there are wide-mouth canning jars with wide lids and bands and regular-mouth canning jars with smaller lids and bands.

I pack the jars to about an inch from the top, make sure there's some juice covering the cabbage (add a little water if necessary to get it covered). THEN lay a regular-size (small) flat jar lid on the kraut. That lid is just sitting there because it's small enough to go inside the jar. The rock in a bag, or whatever weight you use, lays on top of that.

Then screw a wide-mouth lid and band on the jar, just to keep things clean. Does that make sense now?

The old-timers used to use straight-sided ceramic crocks to make kraut. They had a round wood disk that just fit inside the crock, and they'd lay the disk on the kraut and a weight (clean rock, brick, jar of water, whatever) on top of the disk. Then they'd cover the crock with a clean cloth. It's all the same - however you do it, just keep the kraut under the brine and have something on top to keep flies and gnats out.

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