Pickling Veggie:. Old Fashioned Way.

A new skill I am attempting. Fermented pickles. If I don't get mush... I'll try more veggies.

20L Pickle Crock.
Attachment 49827

Followed recipe: http://www.wildfermentation.com/making-sour-pickles-2/

Attachment 49829
Put in the basement pantry. Set it and forget it.... Well maybe not forget it. I'll try not to mess with them for a few days at least. This crock has a cool airlock system. The rim is filled with water so it only lets CO2 out and nothing in. I put a couple different sizes of pickles in there the bigger ones are on the bottom so I can compare. I also used grape leaves from my garden.

It is a very simple process. 2 gallon water ... about 3/4 cup of water (no chlorine water it kills probiotics), garlic and dill. dump it in there and place in a cool place.

Did you cut blossom end? Important to keep the Cukes from gettjng mushy
I just started playing with fermented stuffs as well. Made a super tart hot sauce and have kraut going currently

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Originally Posted by DFBrews

Did you cut blossom end? Important to keep the Cukes from gettjng mushy
I just started playing with fermented stuffs as well. Made a super tart hot sauce and have kraut going currently

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I didn't cut them, but scraped any non cucumber stuff off with a knife, hopefully that is enough. :-(

Tasted one last night. It tasted like a salty cucumber. There was a couple little bubbles at the top of the brine though!

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Originally Posted by rbeau30

Put in the basement pantry. Set it and forget it....

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So..... I forgot it.


While the whole thing was a success, (they were VERY Tasty) I kinda forgot about the cucumbers pickling over the winter and just remembered I had them in the crock.

Very oderifous situation. The cucumbers liquified inside but the skins turned into leather.

So.... I was able to clean the Pickling Crock of the stank and nasties. The crock weights are not glazed and there was nothing I could do to get rid of the awful smell. So before I chucked them and asked a potter to make me new (glazed) ones, I figured since I had two cast iron frying pans that I got at a yard sale that needed stripping/reseasoning, I would stick the crock weights in the oven on a clean cycle with them.

Worked like a charm!

Ready for this year's attempt at pickling!

I've done a bunch. Personally, I like the way they taste after 4-5 days rather than letting them go the whole way. I put them in the fridge to stop the process.

Try asparagus. It's fantastic.

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Originally Posted by Tim K

I've done a bunch. Personally, I like the way they taste after 4-5 days rather than letting them go the whole way. I put them in the fridge to stop the process.

Try asparagus. It's fantastic.

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Will do! Asparagus Patch did better than last year. We planted an extra bag this year hopefully in the next couple years we will get lots.

I am going to try canning it next. Right about the time that they taste yummy. I heard it can be done

So I got a new batch today (4 lbs of pickling cukes). Going to can it once it is finished.

I used the SPICES portion in this recipe: http://www.wildfermentation.com/making-sour-pickles-2/

I am following the BRINE and PROCESSING part of the pickle recipe in this PDF (which I am adding to my W5HTF preparedness reading material website.): http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/us...gGuide6_06.pdf


THIS is what I am shooting for:

Attachment 60058

I have some red kraut going right now good luck Rebeu

Okay so round two ended up better. Skimmed a ring of mold off the top of the brine, freed about 3 or 4 of the pickles from the weights. Some are a little mushy but the ones toward the bottom are delicious!

I am going to can them tomorrow. These were almost exactly 3 weeks. I probably would have liked a bit sooner. I'll try the next batch at two weeks now.

Here's my first try right before the brine. Fingers crossed.

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08...f698d5046d.jpg

I canned my fermented pickles tonight. I'll try em in a week. see if they got mushy or whatever.

I'm going to a farmer's market this weekend I am not sure which. This next batch will be in the crock for 2 weeks instead of nearly 4 like this one. They are not as crunchy as I would like... but they are very tasty.

Attachment 60565

As another idea, I am going to see if I can get a potter to make some glazed weight stones for my crock. The ones I have are not glazed an porous... making storage kinda... iffy. I don't wish to throw them in the cleaning cycle of the oven every year. I wonder though, if the porous weight stones serve a purpose by trapping the lacto-bacillus bacteria from batch to batch to make things start fermenting faster?

Attachment 60615

Went to the Boulder Farmer's Market. Quite impressed.

Got some cukes, carrots, grean beans, pickling onions, and cauliflower.

We will see what I come up with in 2 weeks!

Using my own home grown garlic and grape leaves.

Veggies turned out good! I still think I should have maybe canned these last weekend (@ 1 week). The house stays in the mid-70s so that is probably why these ferment quickly. But they weren't too mushy this time. The Green Beans were tasty, and I really liked the way the carrots turned out. They still had "snap" to them, but you could tell the brine had made its way through to the middle.

I did find out that if you pickle purple carrots you will get the "Susan G Komen Foundation" edition brine.
Attachment 60912

Okay, I'm going to put a pickling crock down on my wishlist. This sounds too interesting not to try. :)

Dammit, rbeau30, I'm running out of room! Tell me about the cauliflower. How'd that turn out? Did you pickle it with other veggies?

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Originally Posted by TheGrey

Okay, I'm going to put a pickling crock down on my wishlist. This sounds too interesting not to try. :)

Dammit, rbeau30, I'm running out of room! Tell me about the cauliflower. How'd that turn out? Did you pickle it with other veggies?

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I love pickled Couliflower. This turned out very nice. It still retained its texture very well. It does absorb more salt than the other veggies. I was able to compare better since this time I threw all the veggies in there. If I were to do couliflower again I would do it separately and reduce the salt. The salt slows down the fermentation process though,, so having less of it would make everything ferment faster.

Glad to see you might try it out!

If you want to experiment, you an try with any glass container and a weight to hold the veggies down. Maybe a humongous pickle jar and a small tea saucer?

If the vessel is clear I would keep it out of sunlight.

The recipes really only consist of seasonings (garlic, dill, peppercorns, grape leaves, etc) and saltwater. Then I follow the canning procedures in the canning Guide put out by the USDA for fermented foods.



I believe Pickling is going to be a necessity in a SHTF scenario. If one can get to the point of actually growing enough veggies, this is going to be a great way of preserving food. Remember. Pressure canning take a LOT of fuel. Also most modern Pressure Canners cannot be put in a fire.

I harvested my jalapeños yesterday and got enough to to do one quart jar. Can't wait.

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Originally Posted by Tim K

I harvested my jalapeños yesterday and got enough to to do one quart jar. Can't wait.

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Tim! That sounds delicious!

Reading Material:
For those of you that want to read up on this stuff. These couple references I have found helpful:

A little expensive (it is a small book for 7 bucks), but it has some good info.
Attachment 60935 http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Fermentat...sap_bc?ie=UTF8

The rest of the Chapters are good but this one deals with Fermented foods. Complete Guide toHome CanningGuide 6Preparing and CanningFermented Foods andPickled Vegetables



The link to the PDF also is a document that explains a Low Temperature Pasteurization Method for processing foods so they stay as crunchy as they can.

Chef Jon recently made a video about this. Please enjoy. I like the Chef John videos because the recipes are usually somewhat easy and are a good way for people to baby step their way into cooking in general, in my opinion.



Here is the blog with the ingredients. Someone in the blog comments mentions the book that is brought up in this thread.

http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2015/...naturally.html

Found some more. Bread and butter pickles (MUCH faster recipe)



Accompanying blog: http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2014/...-of-great.html

Here is the super short version of pickling jalapenos.



Accompanying blog post: http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2012/...gs-i-hear.html

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Originally Posted by Irving

Found some more. Bread and butter pickles (MUCH faster recipe)



Accompanying blog: http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2014/...-of-great.html

Here is the super short version of pickling jalapenos.



Accompanying blog post: http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2012/...gs-i-hear.html

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These sound very tasty, I think I am going to make those Bread and Butter Pickles (I like the history lesson too!). These are Un-Fermented pickling veggies. I really like Chef John's videos.

Is there any reason why I can't pickle cucumbers in an actual pickle jar that I got from Costco? I figure I can cover it in newspaper and set in on the floor of my pantry. Any reason that won't work?

Also, this scene/s from Portlandia reminded me of this thread. The end is not for children.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYey8ntlK_E

You can pickle things in glass jars for sure. You need a weight which can be a smaller jar, a rock, or even a plastic bag filled with brine and then cover with cloth. I have not tried newspaper. The crocks are cool though because they make little burping sounds all day.
[Coffee]

So I tried the Food Wishes pickling video that I had posted above, and apparently everything just turned to mush (I was out of town). I tried it again last week. The results were better, but still not great. First, I doubt there are quality cucumbers this time of year and all the middles of mine seem to have first turned mushy, and now disappeared. The outer ring of what is left is still decently firm though, enough to give me hope to try again. The other problem I had this time though, is the taste. I used dill from the store, and some fresh garlic, but I otherwise used a store bought pickling spice.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/b4...=w1632-h918-no

Check out the ingredients though. Cinnamon is first in the list, and you can definitely taste it in the pickles. It pretty much ruins the taste. If it weren't for the strong cinnamon flavor, I'd chop this batch up into a relish and use it to make tuna or chicken salad or something. I still might actually. Wish I would have read that back before I bought it. Oh well, another lesson learned.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/BW...=w1632-h918-no

Seems strange that they would put cinnamon in for pickling spice, but hey, what do I know...

I think I'm going to have to make the bread and butter pickles from your 2015 post. Those look awesome.