Fermented Pickles
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Well, my second batch of sauerkraut has been harvested from my fermenting crock and my crock was looking so sad and lonely all empty like that. We have enough ‘kraut to last us a while now. But I just couldn't leave my crock with nothing to do! It needed a job. And that job was pickles.
I gathered my ingredients at my local farmer's market and I was ready to go. Not really knowing too much about what I would need, I decided to wing it. I figured that pickles seasoned with dill, garlic, and pepper would be perfect. I wasn't sure how many pickles would fit in my crock, so I just bought a bunch. In hindsight, I could have fit more!
Peeling the garlic was the only prepping I did for these pickles. I loaded everything into the crock, filled it with water, added salt and gave it a stir. I placed my weights on top of the pickles and after placing the lid on, I forgot about them for a week. Just a week, friends! Probably sooner if it is warmer in your kitchen. Check them after 4 days if you like!
After a week I tasted my pickles. Great flavor, the ingredients were spot on! However, some of my pickles were hollow in the middle. I have heard this happens frequently with fermented pickles. It turns out that pickles need sufficient tannins to be present in order to keep that pickle perfect crunch. Now I just need to find some grape leaves. Or oak leaves. There is always a next time.
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Fermented Pickles
Ingredients
- pickling cucumbers for this recipe I used 16, but the crock can handle more
- one bunch of dill
- 8 cloves of garlic peeled
- handful of peppercorns
- 3 tablespoons of salt
Instructions
- Rinse your pickles and place them in the fermenting crock.
- Add the dill, peeled garlic, peppercorns and salt.
- Add water to cover the pickles and place the weights on top to keep everything at least an inch below the water level.
- Add your lid and fill the trough with water to create an air lock.
- Your pickles should be ready in 4 to 7 days!
Notes
How do you like to season your fermented pickles?
You might try black loose leaf tea for the tannins. I used them in my cultured cucumbers, and the pickles were able to stay pretty crisp.
You mean adding loose tea when putting salt, garlic etc in it? How much tea for a quart size jar?
I am going to try this today. Thanks for the recipe. What kind of weights do you use? I am going to use a wide mouth quart size mason jar for the pickles. What kind of weight can I put on it?
Tamara really likes these weights she found on ebay. Hope this helps!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/110750934578
You can use strawberry leaves to keep the crunch too =)
Can the brine/whey mixture from making these pickles be re-used to start a new batch?
Yes it can!! I do this quite a bit. Good luck!!
Thank you! I tried zucchini pickles with whey and salt, and they were great. I am going to make another batch, they didn’t last too long. LOL
Is there any way to do this if you don’t have a fermenting crock?
A mason jar will work perfectly fine! Here’s an article on supplies: https://ohlardy.com/what-you-need-to-culture-fruits-and-vegetables
Would dry dill work for this or does it need to be fresh?
Dried herbs will work fine.