The Best Sauerkraut to Buy

Most advice about buying sauerkraut skips the one question that decides everything: was it heated?

A jar that can sit on a warm shelf for a year has been pasteurized. Heat is what makes that possible, and heat is also what ends the fermentation — so what you are buying is a pickled vegetable with the biology taken out. That is a legitimate food. It is just not the same food as the one that has to live in a fridge.

Three things separate the two on a label. First, where it was sitting in the store: refrigerated case, not centre aisle. Second, the ingredient list — cabbage, salt, and the vegetable or spice that gives it its name. Vinegar near the top means the sourness was added rather than fermented. Sugar and preservatives mean the same thing. Third, the container: glass with a vented lid, because a live ferment keeps producing CO₂ and needs somewhere to put it.

Everything on this page is raw, fermented in small batches in glass, and never heated. Five flavors, all $16.95, all shipped cold. If you have never had the living kind, start with Classic Caraway — it is the reference point the others are variations on.