Experienced housewives usually do not have problems with sauerkraut. Those who decide to try their hand at this traditional Russian cuisine direction for the first time may not get quite the expected results.

Here is one of the most common situations that Larisa (a user of a dacha forum) encountered: “I fermented cabbage, but it is bitter. I did everything exactly according to the recipe.

There can be several reasons, here are just the main ones:

• At room temperature, cabbage should ferment for at least a week. Sometimes housewives ferment for only 3 days, but this is not enough.
• In order for the bitterness to go away, the cabbage from under the yoke must be transferred loosely into another dish, and then let it stand a little longer. Only after that it can be laid out in glass jars.
• Some maturing varieties must first rest well for many months. If they are fermented immediately or almost immediately, they will most likely be bitter.
• You should choose varieties that are not prone to bitterness. For example, "Gift" is often bitter in blanks, but "Glory" is not bitter, but often cracks. Good for fermentation "Moscow Late". Also, from non-bitter varieties, Atria, Larsia, Megaton and Rinda can be distinguished.
• During sauerkraut, be sure to periodically pierce the cabbage with a wooden stick. If this rule is at least partially neglected, bitterness will almost certainly be.
• Bitterness may appear if a lot of dill or caraway seeds were added during salting.
• In a dry summer, any cabbage becomes more bitter.

But since they have already fermented with bitterness, then you still need to do something ... So much effort was spent on growing, waiting time before opening the first jar for testing.

Try to do the following: completely drain the juice and instead fill in an aqueous solution with sugar and salt, taken in equal proportions. As a result, the cabbage will partly lose its fragrant aroma, but after aging it will acquire additional acidity, which levels out the unpleasant bitter aftertaste.

And what cabbage do you have this year? Not very bitter? Share the secrets of fermentation in the comments.

It is hard to imagine a winter table without sauerkraut. Cooking it is very simple, and how many vitamins it contains! Everyone can afford this delicacy!

Sometimes there is such an unpleasant moment as bitterness in taste. Let's try to understand the reasons for the bitter taste. Causes of bitter taste. How to remove bitterness in cabbage. salting procedure.

May be bitter due to the fact that it was not pierced, the code was salted. As soon as the fermentation process begins, gases begin to form in the cabbage, which do not have the ability to independently exit from the depth of the container in which it is fermented.

It is necessary to help her in this, to pierce with a wooden stick with a sharp end. So you need to do, reaching to the very bottom, several times a day. You need to stop when the cabbage ferments.

Of course, this is not news for those people who ferment cabbage every year. But for beginners it will be very helpful. There is bitterness in cabbage, which goes away with gases during sourdough.

Bitterness may come from the salt. Salt for sourdough should be used ordinary table salt. Some take iodized, thinking that they are doing better, but not in this case. After salting, it is not recommended to immediately take out the cabbage in the cold. It must be kept warm in order to ferment well. After the foam has been removed, take it out to the cold.

Another reason may be insufficient salt.. AT classic recipe for 10 kilograms of cabbage take 200 grams of salt.

It may be that the variety is not suitable for salting. Cabbage varieties for this need to be taken later. For example, a very good variety "Glory", "Moscow Late", "Kharkov Winter", "Geneva f 1" and "Valentina f 1".

Highly important point is the cut time of the cabbage. It must be cut off after two days after the first frost hit. If it is cut off early, it wakes up bitter when salted, as it has not survived. Even after cutting heads of cabbage, it is not salted early. She needs to lie down and mature.

It can be bitter for a simple reason: it is not ready yet.. The salting process has not been completed. It's easy to know. Look at it, if the cabbage is white in color, it is definitely not ready. It should be slightly transparent and slightly grayish. At the beginning of salting and at the end, the color and taste are very different.

Even the barrel or container in which you salt the cabbage can be the reason.. A lot of people use glass three-liter jars. This is a very good option. The problem with storage disappears by itself. And she does not become soft - she just does not have time!

You can do it throughout the winter. As soon as you want. Only by April, cabbage heads become a little dry. When salting, there is not enough allocated juice. In this case, the top layer in the bottle just needs to be removed.

You can try to remove the bitterness in cabbage. When fermenting heads of cabbage, they must be carefully pierced with a wooden and thin stick in different places. Also, this stick is stuck in the middle of the container in which the cabbage is laid.

Before you are going to serve the cabbage on the table, put it on a plate and let it air out a little, sometimes mix it.

Do not rinse cabbage with water. This will ruin everything even more. If you can't part with it, you can save the day by turning sauerkraut into pickled cabbage.

Squeeze the juice from the cabbage, add a little bit of sugar, vegetable oil, a little vinegar and onion cut into half rings. After that, mix well, transfer to glass jars and put in a cool place.

Salting procedure

Cooking goes like this. Cabbage must be finely chopped with a knife or a special grater. Put the chopped cabbage in a bowl or bowl, sprinkling each layer with salt.

After that, mix by pressing down with your hands and transfer to prepared containers, where pickling will take place. It is very convenient to put cabbage in three-liter jars. It is convenient to store in them and at the right time it is always there. Glass is good because it does not have extraneous odors.

When fermented in such a container, there is no foreign aftertaste. Then put the jar in a bowl. This is so that the brine that wakes up from the neck does not fall on the table. Three days cabbage should stand warm.

Do not forget to pierce with a wooden stick several times a day to the bottom of the jar (so that carbon dioxide leaves). After this time, close the lid and take out to the cold or put in the refrigerator.

Cabbage is prepared with the addition of the following ingredients: carrots (grated), apples, cranberries and honey. Sauerkraut can be eaten with different side dishes. It is added as a filling in pies and dumplings. It is an important ingredient in the preparation of vinaigrette and other salads.

When serving, cabbage is poured with sunflower oil and onion cut into half rings is put.

Beijing cabbage is an early, dietary and healing product. Crispy juicy leaves do not coarsen for a long time as they grow. In the heat, with a moderate lack of moisture, they do not accumulate bitterness, they are not high in calories and taste good. Why is Beijing (Chinese) cabbage bitter in a salad?

The main causes of the bitterness of Chinese cabbage:

• Unpleasant taste, it happens, appears with errors in the technology of growing cabbage.

  Reference! Bitterness can occur if the harvest time is missed, the plant has already managed to release a flower arrow.

• In a very dry and hot summer, if the plant grows all the time on the sunny side. If there is no regular watering, at least two or three times a week. Because of the so-called plant stress.
• It happens that low-quality goods get on the shelves for sale, an excess of nitrates accumulates in the green mass of Chinese cabbage. Usually, it is a sulfur-containing substance. The presence of chemical compounds gives a bitter taste to the delicate leaves of Beijing.
• Sometimes bitterness is a feature of the variety (hybrid). Early varieties of cabbage, such as the variety "Khibinskaya", which are grown in open beds, ripen in 40 - 45 days and usually do not have a bitter taste.
• Improper storage or transport. The vegetables may have been thawed during storage. Rot appeared on the leaves, but the cabbage went on sale anyway.

How to determine the true cause of bitterness?

What can give bitterness in a dish besides a Chinese vegetable?

Beijing cabbage is stewed and boiled, used in salads and soups along with other vegetables, spices and fruits. Beijing cabbage has an unforgettable light taste.

Attention! The bitter taste of some vegetables and seasonings is their natural and natural taste. If a dish with the addition of Beijing cabbage is bitter, then perhaps radish or horseradish, mustard or grapefruit give this piquant taste to food. The list of truly bitter foods goes on.

And if the bitter taste in the dish was not provided for by the recipe? It happens that some vegetables acquire an unusual bitter taste. It can appear due to onions or lettuce, spinach, other varieties of cabbage, such as Brussels sprouts or kohlrabi. For example, there are some varieties of lettuce that are bitter on their own. Record holder for bitterness - an ordinary fresh cucumber.

Sometimes bitterness in a salad, where Beijing is added, can only appear the next day.

What should be done to eliminate the bad taste?

If the plant has bitter leaves, then you can remove the unpleasant aftertaste in one of the following simple ways.:

Important! When boiling and soaking, vitamins (ascorbic acid) and other useful substances also get into the water with bitterness. Cabbage is no longer bitter, but it has less health benefits.

How to understand that a vegetable is spoiling?

Beijing cabbage is a delicious and healing product that diversifies our table. To understand that the cabbage is spoiled, they carefully examine:

1. Is it properly sealed in cling film, is there any damage.
2. Is there rot on the leaves or are there traces of insect activity, bruising.
3. The forks of the plant should be evenly colored on all sides, tight and dense.
4. The head of cabbage must be healthy, without damage, unwashed, dry, peeled from damaged and weak leaves. With excessive moisture, it will quickly rot.

For food, it is better to choose cabbage slightly flattened on top.. If the stalk is cracked at the cut point, the cabbage will be juicy and not bitter.

Bitterness in Chinese cabbage, unlike cucumbers or lettuce, is an unpleasant but infrequent phenomenon. Methods for eliminating it are not difficult. Do not deprive yourself of the pleasure of pampering yourself with a dish of juicy and healthy Beijing!

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For several centuries, cabbage has been very popular and is a very healthy and nutritious vegetable. It has been cultivated since the Stone Age. It is assumed that the spread began with Ancient Rome. Already then there were several species and varieties. Cabbage appeared on the territory of Russia in the eleventh century. The very word "cabbage" originates from the Latin word "kaput", which means "head". In this article, we will look at why cabbage is bitter and the causes of cabbage bitterness.

Today it is simply impossible to imagine your life without this popular vegetable. Hundreds of famous dishes are prepared on its basis. Cabbage can be an independent dish, or maybe just a side dish.

But it happens that such a tasty and healthy vegetable crop brings grief. Sometimes cabbage leaves have a very unpleasant and alarming bitterness. Can this cabbage be eaten? How to cook it? All these questions are asked by hostesses when faced with such a problem. There are better ones that do not give bitterness

Causes of bitterness

The presence of bitterness is the prerogative of almost all cruciferous plants. Bitterness can appear in almost all varieties. So, for example, the well-known "amager" almost always has a bitter taste. And it's useless to fight it. But sometimes the following reasons can be the cause of spoiled taste:

1. Immaturity. If the vegetable is not ripe in the garden, it may differ in taste and often not for the better.
2. Insufficient amount of moisture. In a dry summer, due to insufficient watering, any variety will be bitter.
3. Soil composition. A vegetable takes all the nutrients from the soil, but if the soil has an excess of minerals and nitrogenous compounds, cabbage will not get a very pleasant taste.
4. Excess nitrates. Unscrupulous producers often violate the technology of growing vegetables. And they use too much nitrate for fast growth and a beautiful presentation. If the first three reasons are easily eliminated and it is quite possible to get rid of bitterness, then in the latter case, it will not work to improve the taste of the product. Nitrates are not removed during heat treatment, and even soaking, in this case, will not correct the situation at all. It is better not to use a vegetable poisoned with nitrates for food.

Ways to get rid of bitterness

1. Heat treatment. Clean the forks and wash well. Cut and boil for 10 minutes, drain the water. After this procedure, the taste will improve significantly, the bitterness will disappear.
2. Salt. Finely chop the head of cabbage, sprinkle with salt and mix thoroughly. Give time to stand so that the juice stands out. When it stands out, drain well. The salt will help bring back the good taste. It's also possible.
3. Lemon juice. Another effective and easy way to combat bitterness is soaking in a solution with lemon juice.

All these options are suitable both for salads and for frying and cooking stewed cabbage. That is, to use for different options for dishes, without any restrictions. You can watch videos with recipes on various sites on the Internet. The most popular cabbage dishes today are bigus, sauerkraut, vitamin salad, stuffed cabbage cutlets, etc.

The wording "eat raw" is truly surprising. Can cauliflower be eaten without prior heat treatment? Yes, you can, but the taste is unlikely to please.

Fresh cabbage juice is used for stomach diseases. Also, this remedy is used to treat constipation, gas formation in the intestines.

In cauliflower juice, even when cooked, the maximum amount of useful trace elements and vitamins is preserved.

boiled

Boiled cabbage is no less useful, it is well digested. But it doesn't cook for long. It is in this way that it is recommended to cook a vegetable in order to preserve valuable substances in the composition. Cauliflower is the basis of dietary nutrition.

Dishes from a boiled product will help recover after surgery. They will satisfy hunger and at the same time will not overload the stomach. Boiled cauliflower is useful for people with problems with the liver, gastrointestinal tract, because cabbage will provide the necessary density of the food bolus for optimal digestion.

They say that boiled cauliflower is one of the most dietary and healthy dishes for the human body. Cabbage is very easy to cook, it has a pleasant taste and is very easy to digest.

Features of cooking

It is easy to find cauliflower on sale, both fresh and frozen. When buying cabbage, you should pay attention to its expiration date.. You can store no more than 12 months. In a frozen vegetable, the inflorescences should not be small, without visible damage.

Fresh or frozen food

The process of preparing fresh and frozen cabbage is not fundamentally different from each other. The difference is only in the duration of cooking, and is about two minutes. Vegetables should not be defrosted first. You can only hold a few minutes in a saline solution. Although many housewives prefer to cook cauliflower without salt.

Cooking time for fresh cabbage takes 10-15 minutes, and frozen 15-17 minutes.

How to cook fresh cauliflower is described, and how to cook frozen is written.

For children and adults

The cooking process itself is the same. The only thing is that for children it is not worth salting the water. After cooking, the cabbage needs to be converted into a puree.. To do this, you can use a sieve or a blender. In this form, cauliflower is introduced to young children as the first complementary foods.

How many minutes should be kept after boiling?

During cooking, do not cover the container with a lid. In this case, the vegetable will turn yellow. Also, after cooking, do not leave the cabbage for a long time in hot water, otherwise it will be digested and the structure will become soft. You need to pull it out on a plate and let it cool, and then proceed to further cooking.

How long to cook? The duration of pre-cooking depends on the dish you plan to cook:

Why bitter after heat treatment?

Why is cabbage bitter after cooking? It is important during the cooking process not to overexpose the vegetable in boiling water. Otherwise, it will become soft, loose, lose its shape. It will also not be appetizing. appearance product, an unpleasant, bitter aftertaste will appear.

With improper preparation, not only taste characteristics will change, but a large amount of minerals and vitamins will be destroyed by prolonged exposure. high temperature.

How to cook: step by step instructions

How to properly boil cauliflower? There are several ways to cook cabbage. Still, it is considered traditional - cooking in a saucepan. Boiled cauliflower is a ready-made juicy and tender dish, which is part of children's and dietary food with a fat content of 0.3% and a calorie content of 29 kcal per 100 g of the product.

The best container for cooking is enamelware with a thick bottom..

It is better to soak the inflorescences in salted water before cooking, and if there is debris left somewhere, it will float up. They say that boiled cauliflower is one of the most dietary and healthy dishes for the human body.

in a saucepan

To cook cauliflower you need:

1. Pour water and put on a strong fire.
2. Add salt: for 1 liter of water you need 10g of salt.
3. You can add 1 tablespoon of acetic acid so that the vegetable does not darken during the thermal preparation.
4. Place cauliflower into boiling water.
5. The heating intensity of the container should be reduced.
6. During the cooking process, it is important to periodically test the readiness of the product.

The cooking time of cabbage in a saucepan is chosen depending on the further use of cauliflower.

In the microwave

Cooking with this method can be done in different ways.

1. Water is poured into a special container for the microwave, salted and inflorescences are placed there.
2. Be sure to cover with a lid.
3. Cook at full power for 5-7 minutes.
4. After immediately do not remove, you need to let cool.

If this time is not enough, you should turn on the microwave for another 2-4 minutes.

The first way to cook in the microwave:

1. Disassembled inflorescences are placed in a bowl.
2. Pour 3 tablespoons of milk for every 0.5 kg of cauliflower.
3. Salt, cover.
4. Simmer for 3 minutes at maximum power.
5. Then add spices and cook for another 10 minutes until cooked.

But in order to prepare a dietary dish, and this is most relevant in summer and spring, you can simply stew cauliflower.

In a double boiler

How to determine readiness?

As already mentioned, the overcooked vegetable is not tasty and does not have an aesthetic appearance. Therefore, it is important not to miss the moment of readiness.

To check the readiness of the cabbage, you need to pierce the base of the branch with a knife or fork. If it goes in easily, it means it's cooked.

What dishes can be made?

Boiled cauliflower dishes are healthy and nutritious. Boiled cabbage is part of the recipes for preparing many dishes, and therefore what to cook from cabbage after boiling will depend only on your imagination. They are excellent during Lent or for people who prefer vegetarianism. Basically, cauliflower is used in boiled recipes, for example, before frying in batter.

You can cook many different dishes from cauliflower. Cauliflower boiled in salted water seasoned with butter is delicious on its own. However, with a little effort, boiled cauliflower can be made into gratins.

How and what can you cook deliciously using boiled cabbage?

Cauliflower can be cooked:

• vegetable soups, puree soups;
• salads;
• casseroles;
• souffle;
• fried in breadcrumbs, batter, in an egg;
• as a side dish (cauliflower puree is a good alternative to a potato dish).

For the preparation of second courses from cauliflower, it is disassembled into inflorescences, blanched, and then fried in breadcrumbs, batter, baked in pots, or a casserole is prepared from it. Young sprouts are added to soups or vegetable stews. For the winter, cauliflower can be salted and pickled.

Conclusion

So, knowing how much time it takes to cook cauliflower and the sequence of execution, it's easy to prepare a low-calorie, satisfying meal for the whole family. With proper cooking, the inflorescences will keep their shape and retain valuable properties.. It is especially important to use this product for children at any age.