So, I decided to face my fear of spontaneous fermentation, and I'm giving homemade sauerkraut a try. Went to the farmer's market this morning, got a gigantic head of cabbage.
Chop or shred the cabbage, layer it in your crock or other fermenting vessel. I used one gigantic head of cabbage, so I did it in quarters. Once you have 1/4 of the shredded bits in there, sprinkle it lightly with kosher salt.
Then, get a potato masher or other implement and pack it down as tightly as you can.
Continue the layering, salting, and packing until you're out of room or don't have any cabbage left.
Lastly, use a plate or something that will fit inside your fermenting vessel and cover most of the surface. Put on a nice heavy glass jar or something else that's heavy and food safe.
After this pic, I put it in a corner of the dining room and covered it with a large clean towel. After a couple of hours, the salt should have pulled enough moisture out of the cabbage to let the plate sink down and have it under the liquid level (hence the food-safe weight). If the cabbage doesn't leech out enough water to have a layer of brine covering everything, then mix up your own brine with some more kosher salt and some water. The cabbage needs to be completely submerged to make sure nothing nasty ferments in it.
Anyway, that's it. Now I just need to wait 3-4 weeks before sampling. I'll try and keep the thread updated with any progress, or with tasting notes at the end.