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Published 2014
In the West, the history of pickles goes back to the 3rd century bc, but all early pickles were ‘wet’ types made with brine or other liquids. The distinguishing features of sauerkraut are that it is dry salted, all the liquid in the resulting product being drawn out of the cabbage itself by the salt, and that it is preserved and flavoured by fermentation. The Romans had introduced dry vegetable fermentation with their development of silage as cattle feed, but the process was not extended beyond this for many centuries.