Making small batches, about 400g of cabbage at a time, in wide mouth pint jars with normal metal lids. I can spend around 20 on either a set of glass fermentation weights or a set of airlock lids, not both this month. Kitchen sits at 19 to 20C. I am usually home so daily burping is realistic. Which one actually solves more problems for small jars?
Weights, without much hesitation. Burping is a two second job you can do by hand for free; keeping the cabbage under the brine is the thing that actually decides whether you get kahm and soft edges, and in a pint jar the headspace is small enough that a single floating shred ruins the surface. Airlocks are convenience. Weights are the mechanism.
Cheaper option that works: a small ziplock bag of brine sat on top of the cabbage. It moulds to the jar shape and seals the whole surface better than a rigid disc, and if it leaks you have lost nothing since it is the same brine. Fill the bag with brine rather than water in case it does.
Been doing this for two years across maybe forty jars and never bought a weight. Also works with a cabbage leaf underneath to catch stray shreds.
Buy the weights and skip both if you like: fill the jar higher so the brine reaches the shoulder, and screw the lid on fingertip tight so it self-burps. I have never had a jar explode at that tightness in a 19C kitchen.
@iris_tanaka · 11mo ago
One vote for airlocks if you ever plan to go away for a weekend. Not the case you described, but it is the only situation where I have missed them.
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