Cucumbers

[zoramargolis]

Last Sunday, at the Dupont market, I found some beautiful bright green young pickling cukes at the big West Virginia stand next to Adam, the milk guy. It took me a few days to find the appropriate quart-sized jar. All I had was small ones for making jam. Yesterday, I had what I needed, and I made kosher-style dill pickles, using my mother's method. Which is to put a tablespoon of kosher salt and some fresh garlic cloves in the bottom of a sterilized jar (I added some pickling spices, which she stopped doing after many years--coriander seed, mustard seed, red pepper flakes, bay leaf, a few whole black peppercorns and allspice berries), packed the cukes in good and tight. Shoved some fresh dill on top and filled the jar with filtered water. You tighten the lid and rotate the jar a few times to dissolve the salt. Then this is important--you loosen the lid a bit, and set the jar on some newspaper somewhere that a powerful scent of garlic won't be a problem. In my case, on my service porch. After a couple of days, depending on the ambient temperature, the pickles will start to ferment, and the liquid bubbles. If the lid is too tight, the jar could explode. The newspaper is there to soak up any liquid that exudes from the jar. When it seems as if the bubbling has died down, tighten the lid and refrigerate the pickles. These don't get processed, and must be kept refrigerated--like Bubbie's or BaTempte brand. If you eat them quickly, they are half-sours. If you leave them for a couple of months, they become full sours. If they smell off or seem slimy, there was bacterial contamination and they should be pitched. Clean jars and well-rinsed cukes are the best way to avoid this.

I ate a lot of these kind of pickles when I was growing up. We had an old refrigerator in our garage, dedicated to pickle jar cold storage.

[Heather]

Zora, I have never had the nerve to try fermented pickles. I have quart jars...maybe we could trade jars for pickles sometime?

[ScotteeM]

Last Sunday, at the Dupont market, I found some beautiful bright green young pickling cukes at the big West Virginia stand next to Adam, the milk guy. It took me a few days to find the appropriate quart-sized jar. All I had was small ones for making jam. Yesterday, I had what I needed, and I made kosher-style dill pickles, using my mother's method. Which is to put a tablespoon of kosher salt and some fresh garlic cloves in the bottom of a sterilized jar (I added some pickling spices, which she stopped doing after many years--coriander seed, mustard seed, red pepper flakes, bay leaf, a few whole black peppercorns and allspice berries), packed the cukes in good and tight. Shoved some fresh dill on top and filled the jar with filtered water. You tighten the lid and rotate the jar a few times to dissolve the salt. Then this is important--you loosen the lid a bit, and set the jar on some newspaper somewhere that a powerful scent of garlic won't be a problem. In my case, on my service porch. After a couple of days, depending on the ambient temperature, the pickles will start to ferment, and the liquid bubbles. If the lid is too tight, the jar could explode. The newspaper is there to soak up any liquid that exudes from the jar. When it seems as if the bubbling has died down, tighten the lid and refrigerate the pickles. These don't get processed, and must be kept refrigerated--like Bubbie's or BaTempte brand. If you eat them quickly, they are half-sours. If you leave them for a couple of months, they become full sours. If they smell off or seem slimy, there was bacterial contamination and they should be pitched. Clean jars and well-rinsed cukes are the best way to avoid this.

I ate a lot of these kind of pickles when I was growing up. We had an old refrigerator in our garage, dedicated to pickle jar cold storage.

I got inspired by this, and picked up some pretty pickling cucumbers last Saturday--some green ones and some little yellow ones. They're in a quart jar on my counter now. I made the concoction on Sunday afternoon, following Zoramargolis's description as well as a recipe from a cookbook by Sally Fallon.

I've been turning the jar once or twice a day, and so far no overflowing or explosions! But I haven't seen any bubbling, either. Tonight I'll put the jar in the refrigerator. I hope this works!

[DanielK]

I've been turning the jar once or twice a day, and so far no overflowing or explosions! But I haven't seen any bubbling, either. Tonight I'll put the jar in the refrigerator. I hope this works!

The recipes I have say that the fermenting/bubbling doesn't start for 3-4 days, and that it can be 10-14 days before the bubbling stops, which is when you're supposed to dump them in the fridge. I don't think you're ready for that yet...

[zoramargolis]

I got inspired by this, and picked up some pretty pickling cucumbers last Saturday--some green ones and some little yellow ones. They're in a quart jar on my counter now. I made the concoction on Sunday afternoon, following Zoramargolis's description as well as a recipe from a cookbook by Sally Fallon.

I've been turning the jar once or twice a day, and so far no overflowing or explosions! But I haven't seen any bubbling, either. Tonight I'll put the jar in the refrigerator. I hope this works!

If you refrigerate them now, you will have almost-raw half-sours, which can be very good. They won't have all of the qualities I associate with a dill pickle, though. If your kitchen is air conditioned, it may take several days for the fermentation to start. I had mine on my un-airconditioned service porch, and they were bubbling like crazy after two or three days. I brought them into the cooler house, to slow the process down. I made a second batch, and both are now finished and residing in the refrig. I noticed a white scum on the dill weed at the top of both jars, when I decided they had fermented enough. I removed the dill weed and discarded it, and lest there had been some bacterial activity at the top of the jar, I poured off a bit of the brine and topped up the jars with plain water. The pickles are crisp, garlic-y, just salty enough and are a uniform khaki-green throughout. They taste fantastic with pastrami sandwiches!