{"id":3327,"date":"2015-05-24T19:41:17","date_gmt":"2015-05-24T19:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wpmigration\/?p=3327"},"modified":"2015-06-21T20:34:17","modified_gmt":"2015-06-21T20:34:17","slug":"making-pickles-with-fermentation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/articles\/making-pickles-with-fermentation\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Pickles with Fermentation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Pickles are personal.<\/strong>\u00a0 Since pickled (or fermented) veggies are so easy to make at home, I can get creative and make them just as I like them!\u00a0 In fact, if you want to get the great probiotic benefits of a true fermented vegetable and avoid unnecessary food coloring and preservatives, you have no choice but to make them at home.\u00a0 Cutting out Yellow #5 and #6 is what finally led me to make my own cucumber dills, and if I occasionally eat a store-bought one at a picnic, I\u2019m taken aback at how slimy and flavorless they seem to me now.<\/p>\n

\"Making<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Making Pickles with Fermentation<\/h3>\n

Since I do use small batch jars,<\/a> I will give only rough estimates on spices per jar.\u00a0 Of course, since my recycled jars are irregular in size from one another, this is only a rough estimate.\u00a0 Here\u2019s the beauty: you need to check on your pickles while they are fermenting.\u00a0 If you taste one a week later and it tastes bland, it is never to late to add dill, mustard seed, peppercorns, garlic, or onion. <\/strong>\u00a0If they are too salty, drain off some of the brine and add plain water.\u00a0 They are so fixable!\u00a0 If you have a jar that came out amazingly well, use that jar\u2019s brine as a starter for the next jar and keep the good thing going.<\/p>\n

If you have fuzzy pickles:<\/strong> it means that your pickles were not covered completely in the brine and oxygen got into them.\u00a0 It might not actually be mold as you first assume; there is a kind of yeast<\/a> that creates this weird film on top.\u00a0 Scrape it off, wash off your weight (if you use one to hold the food below the liquid) and the lid.\u00a0 You\u2019re good to go.\u00a0\u00a0 If you do have small spots of mold (it can be various colors\u2014shocking at first), you will want to get a deep serving spoon or ladle and scoop out the section with the offense.\u00a0 I recommend adding a little more salt (it\u2019s a mold inhibitor) and definitely more water to ensure that all of the vegetables are completely covered.\u00a0 I give it a taste test, too. \u00a0Trust your gut.\u00a0 It if stinks, don\u2019t taste it\u2014pitch it.\u00a0 \u00a0Sometimes I just really don\u2019t like the flavor of that particular jar after removing the mold.\u00a0 I find that jars that have had mold sometimes result in a slimy product.\u00a0 In such cases, I don\u2019t keep the jar at all. If I remove the mold but the pickles taste great, I keep them going.<\/p>\n

\"Spices<\/p>\n

You have some options:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Use a tannin to retain crispness.\u00a0<\/strong> You can use 1\/2 tsp of black tea per jar, or leaves from a cherry or oak tree.\u00a0\u00a0 I have always used cherry leaves from my sour cherry tree\u2014but we moved, so now I\u2019m resorting to black tea.\u00a0 I can\u2019t taste it, though, so it is all good. \u00a0If you choose not to use a tannin, you will not want to let it ferment as long before moving to cold storage.<\/a><\/p>\n

2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Your choice of flavors<\/strong>.\u00a0 Spice, sweet, or sour; you can play with using things like onions or mustard and in what quantities.\u00a0 My recipe below tends to be tangy-sour.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0You can use a tried-and-true prepackaged spice blend<\/a> from Pantry Paratus and call it a day.<\/p>\n

3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Fermenting weights<\/strong> are ceramic discs that hold the vegetables below the brine and will give you great odds against mold.\u00a0 However, they aren\u2019t necessary.\u00a0 I\u2019ve rigged things up before\u2014small measuring cups, plates (when using the bucket method), and I recently discovered that my strawberry huller<\/a> worked beautifully in a small jar to help hold down the pickles!<\/p>\n

4)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Type of lid<\/strong>: you can use cheesecloth or actually use a lid.\u00a0 I like a real lid because if I have too much evaporation between checks, I run the risk of food rising above the brine, and it keeps everything clean.\u00a0 I prefer to use Tattler lids (because they’re BPA free) <\/a>on Mason jars, but on my recycled jars, I frequently just use the lids that came on them, with something to help keep the food pushed down (a weight) so that the food isn\u2019t touching the lid at all. \u00a0With a lid, though, the jar will \u201cburp\u201d up the displaced gases and so checking it does become rather important to release that pressure.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Jars<\/p>\n

For my pickles, I prefer (per jar):<\/strong><\/p>\n

*8-10\u00a0 peppercorns (I use black but some people only use white in pickles)<\/address>\n
*\u00bd-1 tsp mustard seed (use less if adding powdered mustard or ground seed)<\/address>\n
*2 full garlic cloves (use less if mincing it first)<\/address>\n
*1-2 tsp dill (I dry my own, so my seeds & dill weed are typically mixed together)<\/address>\n
*Either a Tbs of brine from previous batches or some whey from yogurt or sour cream (as a \u201cstarter\u201d)<\/address>\n
*Sea salt (try specialty flavors for a kick, like Hawaiian black or Himalayan pink)<\/address>\n
*Filtered water (needs to be filtered\u2014your city water might contain chlorine which will inhibit the fermentation process)<\/address>\n

 <\/p>\n

1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Boil filtered water with sea salt:\u00a0 Use 2-3 Tbs per quart of water.<\/p>\n

2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 While you let the brine cool, put the garlic and leaves (optional) on the bottom, but save the rest of the spices for the top.<\/p>\n

3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Slice the cucumbers and layer them in the jar.<\/p>\n

4)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Add the spices on top\u2014I have a theory it imparts more flavor when you pour the brine over them and they tend to shift to the bottom eventually anyway.<\/p>\n

5)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When the brine is at room temperature, pour the brine over the spices.\u00a0 You must cover all of the vegetables and spices! If they try to float, use something in the jar as a weight (Even nice, smooth rocks from outside can be boiled and used).<\/p>\n

6)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Be sure to push the vegetables down to let air pockets escape!<\/p>\n

7)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Put on a lid or use cheesecloth.\u00a0 Leave jars in a warm place.<\/p>\n

8)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Check them every day or every-other-day.\u00a0 Taste them after 1 week. When they are to your liking, refrigerate.<\/p>\n

\"Making<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

If you would like to learn more about fermentation, click here:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Fermented<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pickles are personal.\u00a0 Since pickled (or fermented) veggies are so easy to make at home, I can get creative and make them just as I like them!\u00a0 In fact, if you want to get the great probiotic benefits of a true fermented vegetable and avoid unnecessary food coloring and preservatives, you have no choice but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[19,226],"tags":[402,284,370],"yst_prominent_words":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Making-Pickles-with-fermentation.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9Fvks-RF","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3327"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3327"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=3327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}