Keto Sauerkraut

Sauerkraut fits low-carb eating for a boring reason: the fermentation eats the sugar.

Cabbage starts with some natural sugars in it. That is what the lactic acid bacteria consume during the two to three weeks in the crock — they turn those sugars into lactic acid, which is the sourness. What is left in the finished jar is a vegetable that was already low in carbohydrate to begin with and has had part of it fermented away.

Where it goes wrong is the label. Plenty of commercial sauerkraut has sugar added back, either to soften the sourness of a vinegar-based brine or to round out a pasteurized product that lost its complexity to heat. Sweet-and-sour styles are sugar-forward by design. Read the ingredients: if sugar is on the list, it was put there.

Ours has none. Cabbage, sea salt, and whatever vegetable or spice the flavor is named after — nothing else, in any of the five. Jalapeño and Garlic & Dill are the two that do the most work on a plate of eggs or a piece of fatty meat, which is most of what low-carb cooking looks like.