Below is a link that is pricey. It comes with a bucket and proper microbrials.

Even in winter, you can dispose of the waste even though its not working. After all, its better there than throwing it out.
Later, when the weather improves it will start percolating and, depending on where it is, how big it is, how you feed it and how long you wait for the finished product, it will provide what can help your soil.

If the idea of not building one cuz its late in the season, then put off putting the stuff under the sink--it will stink and invite bugs...you don't want bugs eating in your kitchen.
Next spring, begin the building and adding all sorts of things to it to break down.

If its the just the two of you and you don't garden in any sizable fashion, then I recommend you forget about starting a composting bin and just buy some compost when you have need of it.

You could make Bokashi -fermented compost. I'll include a link on how to make your own from the US distributor of EM-1.

I have fermented green om in a 32 gallon plastic barrel without the use of bran, sawdust, or the like. I just sprinkled the om with Activated EM-1 as the material was put in the container and let it do its thing.

Making the dry Bokashi and adding it would help soak up liquids in the kitchen waste, but I don't know if that would be necessary. The microorganisms eliminate orders as they work, though you may detect a slight fermented 'odor' that I do not find unpleasant.

Terran

P.S. URL for EM-1 Activation process.

http://www.teraganix.com/Activated_EM_1_s/261.htm

what exactly do you mean by bagged fertilizer? I have been composting for a while and now and then my pile becomes "varmit-feeding station"!

Or keep a bag of chicken manure next to the pile, and add when things cool off. Toss and it's hot again. Worm friendly and easiest for this city dweller. Alfalfa meal, alfalfa pellets, or cottonseed meal are other options, but a little more expensive. All are easy and local here in my area of the city.

I just got a couple new bags of chicken poop yesterday and it must be "good stuff". That whole side of the house has a definite fragrance today. = :-o

During the cold of winter mice will find a way into the dry, bottom sides of my pile,looking for a place to stay dry. The pile then becomes a cat feeding station in the evening, for our neighborhood working cats (different than spoiled house cats that go out to play during the day and cause problems with the birds. BTW).
Integrated pest management !

Open sack next to compost pile ... when I add from my bucket of kitchen scraps, cover it with a shovel of fertilizer. Do the same with UCG when I have them. I think a shovel full of soil would do as well.

I cold compost ... just pile it up and let nature take its course. Working on my 3rd good sized pile this year. Next spring, the one I started this spring will be ready for harvesting. Some times when things get ahead of me, I just dig a hole and bury the bucket of scraps.

But indoor compost requires more attention than an outdoor pile, and a gallon container is very small; you'd probably end up with several of them cooking at once, all of them needing near-daily mixing and monitoring against moisture build-up, with probably the need to add more carbon at least a few times once you think they're done. Other problems include heat-transmission from the metal, rust as mentioned above, and the fact that any imbalance can be stinky and messy.

If you'd still like to try it, I recommend adding a reservoir to your container--it's a lot harder to maintain a proper moisture balance without one, though that, too, is possible--and if you're using a sterile carbon-source, you might look into rhodobacters.

[Obligatory disclaimer: I play with bokashi. Not always the retail version, though it is reliable and, if approached correctly, not expensive. (Also, bokashi fermentation allows me to reclaim nutrients from meats and dairies as well as more traditional compostables.) Rhodobacters are in EM, though there are other ways to acquire them. Dried leaves that have fallen on healthy soil, for example.]

Good luck!

DSF

While appreciating that individuals have a unique mental image of what a definition attempts to describe, parameters too broad can be misleading or non-factual.

Rust is not composted metal nor is its formation due to composting.

Since this forum titluary discusses composting, "rotting" seems in the description as in "IALBTC" or "cold composting". As the process requires time and soil life interaction, I'm certain I wouldn't want something rotting under my sink or in my house.

Concern with Carbon/Nitrogen ratios implies a hoped for thermal reaction producing humus. As dsfoxx so ably states, production as per OP's scenario could be difficult.

If you are intent on doing it inside I would also recommend looking into Bokashi.