Well… we had a surplus of cucumbers so I’m trying a fermented pickle for the first time. The cukes filled about 2/3 of a 5 gallon crock. Hard to find a recipe for that size so I had to adapt. The brine formula is standard so it’s really a matter of taste for the rest. I’ll let you know the result in about 2 weeks.
I started these on Friday. It appears that the miracle of lactic fermentation is occurring…
They smell delicious.
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I love Korean fermented pickles, but I always eat the whole damn thing before it ferments (I’m a half-sour fiend). In case you’re interested, here’s a recipe. http://crazykoreancooking.com/recipe/cucumber-kimchi
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Any got a recipe they like for half sour to full sour pickles? My last batch was not very sour and the saltiness was too strong. It was brine, dill, coriander, garlic, peppercorns, and mustard seed. Obviously the brine was too salty, so I am not sharing it! I still ate them all, but I want true sour pickles!
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I mostly do peppers,
and I don’t have anything, but maybe post here too!
And
Okay, maybe all the old ferment threads are here? I just noticed the OP was from 2016.
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Hi Tim. My go-to for wet brining to lacto-ferment veggies/pickles (well I guess technically cukes are fruits) is 3% salt by weight of the water used. I’ve gone as low as 1.75% but had iffy results (some batches got funky and I suspect it was bad bacterial growth). Serious eats recommends 3.5% but I think that’s too salty. I’ve seen recommendations anywhere from 1.5% to 5% salt.
As for the level of sourness, that’s just time on the counter, in my opinion. Once in the fridge they stop getting more sour (or slow down so much I can’t tell the difference). A couple weeks on the counter is about half-sour, 3-4 weeks are pretty good sour.
I skip your peppercorns but otherwise my recipe is similar to yours, with the exception that I add a couple of bay leaves to each jar. Even though I cut off the flower end, I still sometimes got mushy pickles (supposedly there are lysozyme-producing cells in the flower end). I read somewhere that the tannins in bay leaves (or even better, grape leaves) inactive the enzymes.
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Brine fermenting is a bit tricky in that it’s easy to over or under salt the produce. If, for example, you have large, pickling cukes and they are fairly tightly-packed, with less overall water in between them, a 5% brine works well. Here the metric system works well: 50 grams of pickling salt per liter of water. This sounds like a lot, but the cucumbers are mostly water and will dilute the salt over time.
Other authorities have different ratios for Lower East Side or New York Deli style fermented pickles:
Kirsten & Christopher Shockey, in “Fermented Vegetables” recommend 3/4 cup unrefined sea salt per gallon of unchlorinated water. (20 pickling type cucumbers)
Linda Ziedrich, in “The Joy of Pickling” writes to use 1/2 cup of pickling salt per three quarts of water. (about 4 pounds of 3–5 inch pickling cucumbers.)
While the idea of using sea salt is appealing, the sodium level varies, as does the mill, weight per volume. Pickling salt is a bit more standardized.
Both of the above books are excellent and I’ve used them for a variety of ferments. I’m fond of Ziedrich’s “Lower East Side Full-Sour Dills”. Some years ago, I fermented 15 pounds of a pickling cucumber “National Pickling” using her recipe/method and they came out great. Since it was summer, I had to haul a massive Harsch crock to the basement, where it was much cooler. Ideally, you want to ferment at cool temperatures, below 75°F (24°C).
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My dad once prevailed on my mom to make deli pickles. After all, the gravlax he had requested turned out great, right? So … crocks and all … were accompanied by a whole lot of very salty language (lol how appropriate) from my mom. Along with something about “never again.” The next time they went to New York, they came back with a stash of pickles from Guss. There’s always a way if you’re willing to pay.
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Was the attempt not successful? I make pickles every summer, it’s not that big of an ordeal.
Yes, it was successful, but she felt like it was a waste of her time when good, fresh deli pickles were readily available.
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Oh, yeah, I could see that. I enjoy the process, myself.
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If there is a process to be undertaken, I will invariably try it, at least until I have it down well enough to say that my product is as good as or better than a purchased product. My one big exception is not growing produce or animals. I have not fermented much (sauerkraut, kimchi, and pickles). I get a fermented beet hummus at the farmers’ market, but I figure I’ll work on pickles before I tackle beets.
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Good point, Robert. With my 3% reco, and saying much more than that was too salty, I was kind of stuck in my own head, thinking only about the relatively smaller cukes I typically ferment.
When I lived in the country and had my own well I made half sour fermented pickles. I moved away from the country and am now on a municipal water system, East Bay Municipal Utility District. I can no longer make those pickles. It is because EBMUD adds Chloramine to the water. And Chlormine prevents fermentation. Chloramine does not dissipate by letting it sit out, or boiling. So if I want to make tose pickles I have to use untreated water. Any thoughts about this?
My mother made half sours — once— at the behest of my father … but we, like you, had a well.
I’ve been making fermented dill pickles for a few years now using a recipe from the 2nd Avenue Deli Cookbook. I Googled the attached and it’s almost identical. I use Persian cucumbers, use a pickling spice mix (instead of do ing my own), and add a bit of white vinegar, but the method is the same. At 4 days they’re half sour and I always go to 6 or 7.
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The easiest solution is to buy distilled water and use that. There are water filtration, reverse osmosis membranes which can remove most water contaminants, including bacteria. I use one in a greenhouse, made by Spectrapure. There are many variations with these systems. These are for high volume and there is wastewater generated.
For home use, we use a Big Berkey filter. It’s a stainless steel bodied system, with two or more gravity-fed filters which are very good at removing contaminants and bacteria. The list of contaminants removed is here, and includes chloramine.
I’ve been using the Berkey filters for many years, even with really pure well water. It’s another layer of safety, primarily against possible bacteria. The level of filtration also extends the life of coffee/tea makers. Definitely worth trying. You may be able to get a chloramine test to confirm the chemical has been safely removed.
Activated carbon filters should reduce the concentration. I dont know how much is “still too high” or how little is “low enough”.
ZeroWater and other hand-held types claim to reduce it significantly. I don’t know if repeated passes reduce it even further (suspect you rapidly hit diminishing returns, even if so).
If you check beer brewing forums there might be chemical tablets you can get to break down and precipitate out the residual.
Edit - I see Robert already covered some of this.
