Sour pickles - 06/26/16
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.
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.