Hub 04 · Fermenting Vegetables
What size fermentation crock do you need?
Three to five liters for most households, and smaller than you think. A crock has to be filled close to capacity, so buying big is the expensive mistake here.
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Three to five liters is the range that suits most households, and the honest advice is to buy at the bottom of it rather than the top. Unlike almost every other kitchen purchase, a crock that is too big is worse than one that is slightly too small.
Why bigger is not safer here
A crock has to be filled close to its working capacity. The space between the brine and the lid is full of air, and while the water seal keeps new air from getting in, a large volume of trapped air above a small ferment is not what the design intends.
You also cannot scale down the way you can with jars. A quart jar and a half-gallon jar are two products; a ten-liter crock used for three liters of cabbage is one product used badly.
How much cabbage a crock actually takes
| Crock size | Roughly how many cabbages | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| 2-3 liters | About 2-3 medium cabbages | One or two people, occasional batches |
| 5 liters | About 4-6 medium cabbages | A family that eats kraut regularly |
| 10 liters and up | A great many | A garden harvest, or preserving in bulk |
Shredded cabbage packs down a great deal, which is why these numbers surprise people. A cabbage that fills a mixing bowl becomes a fraction of that once salted, worked and pressed.
The two practical constraints nobody mentions
Weight when full. A five-liter crock full of brined cabbage, plus a stoneware vessel and stone weights, is heavy. Consider whether you can move it to where it will ferment, and back.
Where it lives between batches. A crock is not a thing you put in a drawer. If it will not sit out on a worktop, you need somewhere at floor level that it can occupy year-round.
Fridge space is the real constraint
Here is the arithmetic that decides it. Five liters of finished sauerkraut needs somewhere cold to live once the ferment is done, and that is roughly five liters of refrigerator space for weeks.
Most households do not have that. This is the single most common reason a large crock stops being used after one batch, and it is worth working out before you buy rather than after.
Check the weights are included and sized
A crock without weights is a problem, because generic weights rarely match the interior diameter. Confirm that stone or ceramic weights are in the box and cut for that crock — usually as two half-moons so they pass through the mouth. Our picks all state this in their listings; see best fermentation crocks.
Frequently asked
Questions
+What is the best size fermentation crock?
Three to five liters for most households, and buy at the lower end. A crock needs to be filled close to capacity, so an oversized one gets used badly or not at all.
+How many cabbages fit in a 5-liter crock?
Roughly four to six medium cabbages once shredded, salted and packed down. Cabbage compresses far more than people expect, which is why crock sizing surprises first-time buyers.
+Can you use a crock that is only part full?
It works less well — the air above the brine is a real disadvantage, and you cannot scale a crock down the way you can simply choose a smaller jar. Fill it close to its working capacity or use jars instead.
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