Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation Sour pickles

I just made a crock. I have a special crock made for fermenting vegetables. It was made in Poland, and it has about a 5 litre capacity. They also have larger crocks, but the smaller one I use is great for sour dill pickles. The crock has a special recessed lid so you can use water to seal the lid to prevent mold, and still allow the fermenting gas to bubble though. Crocks generally come with weighting stones to keep the veggies under the liquid to prevent spoiling. I cut the flowering end of the cukes about 1/4 inch to eliminate the flower enzymes. Legend has it that the flower end makes cukes mushy, so I never broke that rule.

I use 4-5 pounds of washed small cukes, no oil or wax coating
handful of crushed wild garlic, or store bought garlic
one dried Hungarian hot pepper (mild)
6 bay leaves or a few oak leaves for tanic acid
2 TBS pickling spice
4 really large dill flowers
6 TBS pickling salt per quart of water that does not contain chlorine, so distilled, spring water, or well water. I use 3 quarts or so to fill crock 1 inch from the top with weighting stones in place.
Naturally you can also add asparagus, green tomatoes, cauliflower, celery, onions, cabbage, carrots, or other peppers. Naturally that would be a piccalilli, not sour dill pickle. Still good stuff.

The fermentation takes 3-4 days at 70F or so. I just keep the crock in a five gallon bucket in the cellar. 7 days will be very sour tasting, but very good. Probiotic liquid is cloudy, and that is natural. Fermentation stops when you put them in a cold fridge. They keep until Christmas of so, but never last that long. Pretty easy to make, no (heat) boiling and relatively fast.

That's cool, Terry. Thanks for sharing. I may want to.take a stab at that.

Where's a good place to buy the crocks?

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_1_11/188-2400842-8728222?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=fermenting+crock&sprefix=fermenting+%2Caps%2C246

I am old school because I am first generation, so I like the original crocks. You can also just use a water trap on top of a mason jar or a trap on a food service 5 gallon bucket. The key is anaerobic fermentation, so no air in, only gas out. I made some lids for mason jars for 5 bucks or so to give away. Just a wine trap, grommet, and plastic lid. You can also buy premade mason jar traps.

https://www.amazon.com/FARMcurious-...amp;sr=8-8&keywords=fermenting+crock

I made a mistake in the recipe, it should be 6tbs salt/ half gallon. Not 6 per quart. even a little less like 5 tbs per half gallon is OK. Depend on the density of the salt when measured by volume. Naturally you can't use iodine salt. Sorry about my mistake.
Grape leaves can also be used instead of oak or bay leaves.

Curious.

How does the taste and texture of the pickle differ than doing the more common canning process?

Thanks for the recipe and links Terry.

Thanks for the recipe..they sound delicious!

They sound really good.

just one detail though, they are pickled and not fermented. Different processes.

If all the simple details are taken care of, the pickles are crisper than the cooked version. So you can expect great results if you follow the "rules".
+You need young, smaller cukes
+You need to cut a bit off the flowering end, because there are enzymes in that i immediate area that may make the pickles mushy
+You need some tannin source like oak leaves, bay leaves, horseradish leaves, or grape leaves to help with crispness
+You need the right salt. The pickling salt is easy to find, but it must be pickling salt. Salt concentration is an issue, a half cup per gallon for fine salt, and maybe up to 3/4 cup per gallon for flaky sea salt.
I use dill flowers, wild garlic, and typical pickling spice mix. I generally like a little heat, so I add a fresh hot pepper or a dried whole pepper.
Fermentation time is 3-7 days depending upon the "sourness" desired. You do not need a fermentation starter like yeast, it is naturally occurring on the veggies. You also have the same microbes in your guts to help digest, so this is a natural pro-biotic. After curing they can be moved to the fridge for months.
The fermenting process is anaerobic, so it is necessary to have a type of gas release, while preventing fresh air from molding the pickles. You can get a fancy crock, or put a wine/air trap on a mason jar or 5 gallon food grade bucket.
While the instructions probably seem long, you can make a batch in 15 minutes. It is easy, and since there is no intense sterilization, and boiling, it is nice to do during hot summer months. Youtube has plenty of recipes, and examples. A very similar process is used for sauerkraut, although that takes longer to ferment, and no water is needed, just salt.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactobacillus

Thanks Terry - good stuff.

Will pick up a few of those lids and try it out small scale first with the the Mason jars.