I've been experiments involving cabbage fermentation (a/k/a sauerkraut--sort of), and it's raised some questions for me that I hope someone here can answer.

1. What's the difference between fermenting sauerkraut aerobically, and anerobically? "Traditional sauerkraut" is fermented anerobically. But I did an experiment in which I fermented the cabbage aerobically, and it seemed to produce a similar result. What I did was, I put some spices in brine, quartered a head of fresh sabbage, weighted it down so that it was below the surface of the brine, and covered it with a paper bag (to keep out dust etc).

2. Can someone tell me why it is that cabbage seems to take so long to ferment, compared to, say, kerby cucumbers? Cucumbers are finished their fermentation in 10 days, give or take a day or 2. But cabbage, which is shredded and thus has far more surface area, seems to take several times as long to ferment. Why? What's the difference in the sugars? (I assume we're talking about sugars.)

Thanks.

1. The difference is whether oxygen is available and thus which bacteria will/will not take part in the fermentation. That you didn't find a difference in what you did is somewhat understandable but when conducted rigorously I would expect a difference.

2. Cabbage may, and I'm just speculating, contain less sugar.