Author Topic: Dill pickles  (Read 1502 times)

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Offline RoosGirl

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Dill pickles
« on: January 07, 2018, 06:11:03 pm »
Pickling cucumbers
1/2 cup coarse salt
2 quarts water
2 Tbsp vinegar
garlic
bay leaves
mustard seed
dill seed
Fresh dill

Dissolve salt in water and add vinegar.  Wash cucumbers individually and very well.  Cut ends off and discard, they will keep your pickles from being crunchy.  Prepare cucumbers to your preference; slices, spears, whole, etc.  I find that one pound of cucumber slices is just slightly too much to fill a quart canning jar.  Place 1 clove of peeled garlic , 1/2 tsp mustard seed, 1 bay leaf, 1 Tbsp dill seed, 1/2 tsp all spice seed and a couple sprigs of fresh dill to each jar.  Pack in the cucumbers on top.  Pour salt & vinegar water over top leaving room for pickling weights.  Cover jars with cheesecloth and secure with rubberbands.    Jars needs to be kept between 70 - 72 degrees until done fermenting.  In the summer I do this by placing the jars in a large cooler with a single ice pack on the opposite end of the cooler from the jars.

I recently purchased these and am liking them so far:

https://smile.amazon.com/Year-Plenty-Fermentation-Fermenting-Sauerkraut/dp/B01C6MI80S/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1515347827&sr=8-4&keywords=pickle+pebbles

https://smile.amazon.com/masontops-Silicone-Waterless-Airlock-Fermentation/dp/B01LWS63OF/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1515347827&sr=8-5&keywords=pickle+pebbles

It's important to get any trapped air bubbles out.  I do this by tilting and bumping the jar around.  You can also stick the end of a wooden or stainless spoon in and press around.  The fermentation process will produce gas bubbles, so don't put a tight light on until fermentation is complete.   Fermentation takes about 5 days, but is temperature dependent.  Colder will take longer, too cold and it won't ferment.  Warmer is faster but your cucumbers will not stay crisp.  Fermentation is complete when no more gas bubbles are rising to the top.

Your brine may turn milky, this is completely normal and from natural and harmless bacteria and yeast in your environment.  You may have a few white dots of mold form on the top of the brine.  You can scoop those out with a spoon; the pickles are still edible.  If you see black mold or your brine has a foul smell it's best to discard and start over.

This method of pickling I believe is technically called a "Sour pickle".  When fermentation is complete I like to remove a couple of tablespoons of brine and replace with a little splash of white vinegar because I like that flavor better.  Store with closed lids in the fridge and they will keep for several months.

The raw garlic can make the pickles a little spicy, the longer you leave the garlic the spicier they get.  You can experiment with spices.  Some people add hot peppers, horseradish, etc.  I have read that adding an oak leaf will help the cucumbers stay crisper, but I have never tried it.  This brine method can be used with any veggie you want to pickle.