Hows my little kraut?

About two weeks ago I decided to make Sauerkraut. It is supposedly quite straightforward, easy, tasty, and only a tiny bit terrifying.

Here is how its done:

 I wanted purple kraut so we used our last two purple cabbages from our garden. These were planted specifically for this project.

 Step 1, finely chop your cabbage. I could have done this better.

 Mix in some salt as you chop your cabbage

 Throw in some more salt for good measure and mash up your cabbage to extract some liquid, the salt will extract more.

I found out that you can make it spicy so I threw in some delicious Transylvanian garlic and ground (really spicy) chili peppers.

 Cover your almost kraut and put something heavy on the lid to keep everything pressed down.

 Wait a few weeks. It is supposed to spontaneously ferment...

 After about 11 days I noticed that our house went from smelling a bit strange to smelling like someone was depositing their awful shits underneath our floors. I thought "this is normal". Laura wouldn't let me forget about how stinky it was. I finally gave in and shut the guest room door to keep the smell out of the rest of the house. When I opened the door later I nearly gagged on the horrific smell of the room and decided that it was time to call off the project.

This morning we brought it outside. Good thing too. When we pulled off the cheesecloth the smell magnified tenfold.

 Notice the bright blue mold on the bowl. Even with a light breeze I had to periodically run away to escape the smell.

The cabbage/Sauerkraut's final resting place. Back into the garden for some further decomposition and soil fertility enhancement.


So what did I do wrong?
Maybe a couple of things, Purple cabbage might have been the wrong choice. (but I don't want to admit that)
Before the sitting around for awhile stage you are supposed to add salty water until it covers your cabbage. I added regular water from our refrigerator, I should have probably boiled it beforehand too.
What else? I'm not sure. I do know that it will be difficult to convince Laura that it will be a good idea to attempt this experiment another time.

I'm happy our house doesn't stink anymore.