As regular readers know, I love a good taco. In fact, I even have a formula for delicious homemade tacos. One of the essential components of a great taco is something crispy and crunchy.
The Central American, lightly fermented cabbage slaw called curtido fits the bill perfectly, and has all the benefits of other fermented cabbage condiments like sauerkraut or kimchi. In El Salvador, this curtido is often served with puffy, cheese filled corn tortillas called pupusa. I think it’s great with everything. But especially tacos.
Making Curtido Cabbage Salsa
If you’ve ever made any kind of sauerkraut, curtido should be familiar. The key components are cabbage, carrot and onion. I like to add a few hot peppers, cilantro and lime.
The ferment itself is a simple shred-salt-stuff affair. Your life will be made better if you shred all the vegetables in a food processor. Feel free to adjust the seasonings to taste.
I aim to add 2% salt by weight to this ferment. If you want to adjust the proportions of the recipe (below), just follow this formula to figure how much salt to add:
Weight of curtido in grams x .02 = Grams of salt to add
After the vegetables in this ferment begin to give off their juices, make sure you pack the curtido firmly into your crock or jar to remove any possible air pockets from the ferment.
Printable Recipe For Curtido Salsa Kraut
Curtido Salsa Kraut
Prep
Total
A lightly fermented Latin-American kraut - excellent with tacos!
Ingredients
- 1 small cabbage, cored and finely shredded (1 lb. 12. oz. as prepared)
- 4 medium carrots, peeled and grated (8 oz. as prepared)
- 3 medium onions, peeled and very finely sliced onions (1 lb. 8 oz. as prepared)
- 2 garlic cloves, minced (optional)
- 1 bunch cilantro, minced
- 3-4 small, hot red peppers, minced
- Zest and juice of 2 medium limes
- 36 grams salt (about 2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon fine sea salt)
Instructions
- Clean and prepare a 1/2 gallon glass jar or fermentation crock for fermenting. Make sure it's scrupulously clean!
- Add all the prepared vegetables and the lime juice to a large, non-reactive bowl.
- Sprinkle the salt over the vegetables
- With clean hands, massage all ingredients together until the vegetables begin to give off moisture, about 3 minutes.
- Transfer the Curtido Salsa Kraut to the clean half-gallon mason jar or crock, pressing down firmly with clean hands as you go to eliminate any air pockets in the jar.
- Weight down the ferment. There should be enough juice from the vegetables to rise up and fully cover the solids. If there isn't, add 1 tsp of fine sea salt to a cup of water, then add enough of this brine so that the liquids fully cover the solids.
- Loosely seal the crock or jar, and leave the Curtido Salsa Kraut at room temperature out of direct sun, for 2 to 5 days.
- Check the ferment daily. Look for bubbles and other signs of fermentation, burp the lid to release any pent-up carbon dioxide in the jar, and taste the development of the Curtido Salsa Kraut with a perfectly clean spoon. If you notice any scum developing on the top of your brine, skim it off promptly.
- When you like the taste of the Curtido Salsa Kraut or after 5 days, transfer the ferment to smaller jars for cold storage in the refrigerator, where it will keep for at least 6 months.
Awesome, especially as I’m at the bottom of my lactofermented salsa.
You are the perfect person to ask this question: I see recipes *all the time* that call for “small hot red peppers” but never know what the author actually means. Fresh? Dried? Types?
Me too! What the heck kind of peppers are used? Can jalapenos be substituted?
Looks and sounds delicious. Will try this although I have never fermented anything (on purpose, anyway)!
I love curtido, but I’ve never made it! Thanks for this. (Hey, maybe I’ll try making it with festive red cabbage, for Christmas dinner.) Tiny typo: Plural of pupusa (to agree with “puffy, cheese filled corn tortillas”) is pupusas, with an “s” at the end. There’s a catchy and well-known Salvadoran song with a refrain that goes: Ay, me gustan las pupusas, con curtido y salsa de tomate…
PS — I fear I sound like a pedantic old fart in my comment above. Truly, I was just excited to see curtido and pupusas in your blog (which I love). Thank you!!
how do u weigh the slaw down in a half gallon mason jar? I am excited to try this!!!
After massaging the whole mix I pressed my veggies down with the end of a wooden spoon and used a chop stick to remove air bubbles. The ‘shoulders’ of the mason jar do a pretty good job of keeping the veggies below the surface if you don’t over fill the jars. I use the recap fermenters and it works fantastic this way!
How do you weigh it down and do you keep it weighed down entire time? I want to try it too.
Made this and love it!!!
For me a 3 day ferment was perfect and I am very new to the fermenting world. My husband who is an avid onion hater even likes it, my chef friend who has been fermenting for years immediately wanted the recipe.
Make this, you will not be disappointed 😀
So this is kinda like… Spanish coleslaw? Yum. I had no idea such a thing even existed.
Where is the Lacto?
The “Lacto” refers to the fermenting action of the Lactobacillus bacteria that digest the sugars and produces the preserving effect of acetic acid. A natural substitute for vinegar with its own flavor profile.
Darrell
Master Food Preserver
San Bernardino County
UCCE
Hi all. My wifey is from El Salvador. The recipe that she uses has white vinegar in the curtido along with pan toasted oregano. This really gives the stuff a “kick” that is out of this world. There apparently are many different kinds of curtido or as she has called it “escabeche”. Each has its own use. The deal with the vinegar is that it doesn’t go bad or ruin, it just gets more pickled. MMmmmMMMmmm.
This is by far my favorite ferment to date! SO delicious.
Thank you!!
Had some son in law made, asked for recipe !
Hi there everyone, it’s my first visit at this website,
and piece of writing is actually fruitful in favor of me, keep up posting these articles or reviews.