Armenian sauerkraut with beetroot for winter

Let's salt cabbage in Armenian? I know that this culinary recipe is much more complicated than the one we are used to, but food also requires a reverent attitude. The more work we put into the dish, the tastier and more unusual it turns out. And we pickle cabbage not for one day, but for the whole winter.

This recipe is written based on 50 kg of ready-made cabbage, but if you do not have a large barrel at home, but there is only a large, but not huge enough pot or bucket, then the number of products can be reduced several times.

Preparing the brine. For 50 kg of cabbage, we need 30 liters of brine. Therefore, we pour 29 liters of water into the container, leaving one liter to add spices. Pour allspice, salt, bay leaf and cinnamon into boiling water. And set aside to cool.

We clean the heads from the cover leaves and cut them into 2-4 parts. Garlic is divided into cloves, Carrots are cut into circles. We cut off the stems of the pepper, in a word, we carry out all the "sanitary preparation of plants". Cut the beets into thin plates. We cover the bottom of the barrel with cabbage and cherry leaves, and then we stack the pieces of cabbage very tightly in rows. Between the rows, we lay all the other products in equal parts – garlic, herbs, pepper, beets and carrots.

Cover the top layer with cabbage leaves again, fill with brine, cover with a cloth and put the load on top. The brine should cover the vegetables by 4-5 centimeters.

5 days we honestly keep everything at room temperature until fermentation begins. Then we transfer the barrel to the cold.