The Daily Brine / In the jar / Don't Pour Out the Brine
In the Jar
Don't Pour Out the Brine
Every so often someone at the market finishes a jar of our kraut, looks at the inch of liquid left at the bottom, and asks if they're supposed to throw it out.
Please don't. That's the good part.
What's in the brine
When cabbage ferments, salt draws water out of the leaves, and that water becomes the brine. Over the following weeks and months, the bacteria living on the cabbage turn its natural sugars into lactic acid. What's left at the bottom of the jar is cabbage juice, salt, lactic acid, and the same live cultures living in the kraut. Tangy, salty, a little savory, and very much alive.
People have been drinking it for a long time
Kraut juice has as many names as there are places that make it. Germans call it Sauerkrautsaft. In Romania it's moare, and cooks there use it to sour their ciorbă soups. Across the Balkans it goes by rasol. In Russia and Poland, a glass of pickle brine is a time-honored remedy for the morning after.
In the US, kraut juice turns up wherever German immigrants settled, especially in central and western Pennsylvania. We picked up the habit in Philadelphia, where we started fermenting in a third-floor apartment, and we brought it home with us. Kraut juice shots have been a fixture at our market table ever since.
And then there's beet kvass
Beet kvass is what happens when the brine grows up and becomes its own drink. In Ukraine, fermented beet kvass has long been the sour backbone of a proper borshch. On its own, it's a deep ruby tonic: earthy, tart, and bright.
Ours starts with Certified Organic beets, plus ginger and garlic, and ferments into a smooth, crisp brew without the heavy sediment you find in a lot of root juices. A bottle should always pour vivid red to deep purple. It's one of the things we're proudest of.
Why people reach for it
Ask ten brine drinkers why they do it and you'll get ten answers. Some like a morning shot. Some want something salty after a long run or a hot afternoon in the garden. Some just love the taste.
Brine also carries lactic acid and the compounds a long ferment builds up, which researchers are only starting to study closely. We get into that in our post on slow fermentation. We'll leave the medical claims to the scientists and say this much: it tastes alive, and a lot of people feel good drinking it.
Ways to use every drop
- Take it straight, as a cold shot.
- Whisk it with olive oil and mustard for a salad dressing with some teeth.
- Splash it into a Bloody Mary, or use it as the brine in a dirty martini.
- Stir a spoonful into soup, stew, or borscht right before serving.
- Marinate chicken or pork in it overnight.
- Pour beet kvass over ice with a squeeze of lime.
One house rule: leave enough brine in the jar to cover your kraut. The vegetables stay crisp as long as they stay under.
If you're ready to drink the good part on purpose, our Sauerkraut Brine comes in 32 oz bottles, and it's one of our most popular things online. Beet Kvass and Pickle Juice come bottled too. No jar-scraping required.
~Dave & Carly & the F&F Crew
