Comments on: Sour Pickles – Fermented Goodness!

By: James Bean

James Bean — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 20:30:13 +0000

Update #2: Did as you suggested Luke and worked out weights.

Initial Experiment: (Great Full Sours after 10 days@80F)
355 Grams Cucmbers (about 2/3 of a Quart basket)
173.1 Grams Salt (about 6 Tbls )
3000 Grams Water (about 12 Cups )
Salt to Cuke ratio 2.05:1

5 Gallon Experiment
11.36 Kilos of Cucumbers ( about 1/2 Bushel )
12.00 Kilos of Water ( about 48 Cups )
1.03 Kilos of Salt ( about 36 Tbl )
Salt to Cucumber Ratio of 11.03:1
Note: This is after the adjustment. Initial load was about 34:1 with the 1 Tbl Salt per Cup of Water.

Clearly the need is to use a much larger container, say 10 Gal for 1/2 Bushel pickling cuckes, or I will adjust the salt as time goes on. Too much and the fermentation stops. Too little and the cuckes don’t pickle and fermentation gets out of control. Would be nice if there was a simple way to measure salinity, say by electrical resistance and adust daily to maintain 5%. More Googling.

By: Luke

Luke — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 11:51:01 +0000

I think you might be on to something. It would be really interesting to measure the salinity of the brine overtime. I bet it would be better to work with weight. You would want the weight of the salt to relate to the combined weight of the water and cucumbers. I will have to do some googling.

By: James Bean

James Bean — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 01:19:40 +0000

Update:
Made 5 gallons and ran into a glitch…so what else is new…

In the larger container the packing permitted a larger ratio of vegetable matter to liquid. Up through day two things progressed as normal. Day three presented scum and some mold !!! on the surfaces. Cleaned off and tested liquid and found it almost normal. Supposition is that given the tighter packing of cucmbers and therefore less brine the osmotic action has diluted the salt to the point where some surface mold occurs. having used the starter the flavours and crunch are not compromised at this point. I have added an additional 1/4 TBL per gallon of salt. This should help deter adverse bacteria while letting the Lactobaccilus do it’s job. Dumped in raw my hope is that as it dissolves and is absorbed by the cucumbers that the partial salinity wiil be higher at the top of the crock where infection is most likely to occur.

By: Luke

Luke — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 13:17:28 +0000

That is a really interesting idea! I saw you can make Greek style yogurt by straining yogurt. You are left with a bunch of whey and this seems like a good use for it. Thanks for the suggestions!

By: James Bean

James Bean — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:15:23 +0000

Tried this out in my two gallon crockery pot. For the first week they were very salty, but once the osmotic action really kicked in they were perfect.

Two notes:
1 – They weren’t garlicky enough for me so I added about one half head of garlic rough minced for 2 gallons. Mmmm.
2 – To get the good bacteria off to a huge head start and choke out bad bacteria I strained off the whey from a tub of Yogurt with active Lactobacilus Acidophilus – the bacteria that gives the tang… and dumped a quarter cup in 2 gallons as a starter culture.

By: Luke

Luke — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 11:59:52 +0000

Hi Kevin, It could be that your cukes were too old/ripe. Using young, small pickling cukes helps guarantee a crisp pickle.

It also sounds like the lactic acid bacteria didn’t get started up and perhaps another strain took over. Did you do a good job of washing everything?

They may end up being soft inside, but they shouldn’t be mushy.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 11:47:30 +0000

I used your recipe but must have done something wrong I’ve had the cukes brining for 10 days and they aren’t very tangy and the inside is very mushy. Any ideas what went wrong?

By: Luke

Luke — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 21:00:44 +0000

Hi Tony, The longer you let them ferment, the more sour they get. I sample them every a couple of days and then just put them in the fridge when they have hit the right sourness.

By: Tony

Tony — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:18:21 +0000

I pickled some cukes but they turned out to be very sour. Is there a way to reduce the “sourness”?
Please let me knpw.
Thanks,

Tony

By: Luke

Luke — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 17:06:41 +0000

Please do! Best of luck with the pickles!

By: Gary Spear

Gary Spear — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 03:35:45 +0000

I’ve been wanting to make pickles for a while so I’m glad found this post on your blog. I read it a few weeks ago and was finally inspired this week to step out into the creative world of fermenting pickles.

You can find that blog here:
http://gspear.wordpress.com/2009/02/14/death-sink-holes-a-daddy-day-pickles/

Thanks for the advice, recipe and inspiration. I’ll let you know how they turn out.

By: Luke

Luke — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 03:08:26 +0000

Laurie, they should come out pretty similar. That being said, every batch I have made has tasted a little different… but they were all great pickles. It is so easy to do, it is definitely worth a shot!

By: Laurie

Laurie — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 22:57:47 +0000

So will these come out to be like the good old, Jewish deli pickles? I call them garlic pickles but the local farmers market sells them as full sour. I’ve got a ton of “Rocky” cukes and really need to get moving on the pickling!

By: Cookthink: Crumb Cake And Pickles: 5 Things To Do This Weekend

Cookthink: Crumb Cake And Pickles: 5 Things To Do This Weekend — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 19:18:44 +0000

[...] 5 My favorite pickles aren’t made with vinegar. Now that cukes are showing up at the farmstands, why not try fermenting some? [...]

By: Blueberry cobbler « Long Island Foodie

Blueberry cobbler « Long Island Foodie — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 15:12:30 +0000

[...] to me, and this is the year that we’ve resolved to not only making jam, but can tomatoes and pickle cucumbers. So I figured I would start with the jam as tomato season is still another week or two away and [...]

By: Coffee and Vanilla

Coffee and Vanilla — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 09:57:51 +0000

I love Polish cucumbers, especially when they are only 3-4 day old and still half raw :) Long time I want to make them, but I can’t find small cucumbers here in London….

By: Maggie

Maggie — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 03:36:03 +0000

This is on my to do list for this summer. Thanks for the recipe and the links!

By: Recipe: Pickled Zucchini - The Zuni Cafe Way

Recipe: Pickled Zucchini - The Zuni Cafe Way — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:14:42 +0000

[...] prime fodder for pickling. This type of pickle does not rely on fermentation for its acidity, like sour pickles. Instead vinegar is used to preserve and flavor the [...]

By: Lydia (The Perfect Pantry)

Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 17:17:28 +0000

For some reason, I’ve never been able to grow dill in my herb garden, so whenever I see a nice big bunch at the farmstand, I buy that and some little Kirby cukes, and make pickles. I love being able to control the sourness. Sometimes I want them very sour, other times just barely half-soured. It’s fun to play with those little bacteria.