How does a 3 year old pickle still have amazing crunch? It’s been made with simple salt fermentation!
If you’re into food preservation then you need to learn basic fermentation techniques that don’t require water bath, pressure canning or using vinegar. None of these methods contain probiotics. The only way you get that is with salt fermentation. And that will lead you onto a better road for improved wellness.
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Vegetable Fermentation At Home!
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I started my Ferment batch last week and of course the wife likes her vinegar pickle so had enough cuc’s this season to satisfy both. BTW she loves the Garlic honey ferments so still feeding her the needed probiotics daily.
There’s NOTHING and I mean NOTHING like Homemade Salt Brine (fermented) pickles!! When I was young, my great-aunt and her kids ran a general store and gas station. Beside the cash register, on the floor was a tall whiskey barrel FULL of fermented pickles, homemade, and for only 10¢, you could grab the tongs, get a big ol’ pickle in a napkin and a free 2 pack of saltine crackers!
Memories AND nutrition!!
Today, my wife Fay also ferments Kraut, carrots with garlic (our favorite), and spiced radishes! Her salt brine dilly green beans are a hit as well!
Somewhere along the line, people switched from fermented food to sugary sweets and ruined their guts in the process.
Sorry this post is so long, but you can also use left-over brine to marinade meats!
If you wake in the middle of the night with leg cramps, drink some dill pickle brine.
You can mix it with buttermilk or mayonnaise in order to make crispy fried chicken!
You can mix left-over brine with 2 parts olive oil, a dash of Dijon mustard, and garlic for a fantastic salad dressing.
You can use left-over brine to mix with chopped veggies for a quick ferment.
You can put a spoonful or 2 in your Martini or Bloody Mary.
For a real treat ~ splash some in your Beer along with a quartered pickle slice and some salt.
Alright Zac, you convinced me. I haven’t had a crunchy pickle since my husband and I divorced in the late 1990″s. “Sigh.” I will buy The Perfect Pickler, cause it’s about as close as I’m likely to get.
Fermentation is Jehovah’s cleansing of the “Vegetative foods”. People say “Jesus declared all foods clean”… They fail to quote Leviticus 11. What IS FOOD according to Jehovah? I live in the body which our Father made from the Earth. A tiny fraction of time. I will live forever in some form, Billions of years, but 120 in this form.
OK, lets say I get 80lbs of cukes this year and I dont have room in the fridge, How shelf stable are fermented pickles? or is it an option to ferment then water bath can? either way im gonna have to get a few kits for the lids lol
1:43 if you’re having a hard time with the pickles, what I’ve found is that, due to dill and cucumbers being available in the summertime, the ambient temperature is too high to ferment in a crock, like I do with sauerkraut. It’s important to to the fermentation in a clear glass jar and a sunny window helps to keep the bad fungi at bay until the acidity can take over the job. I calculate 2% salt for the total liquid capacity of the jar (half gallon in my case, so about 38 grams of salt.) dissolve the salt in a cup or two of boiling water then let that cool to room temperature while you pack the jar with pickling cucumbers and spices (I use generous amounts of dill seed heads, garlic, allspice, mustard seed, whole dried cayenne pepper, etc) and then pour in the cooled brine and fill the rest of the way with water. I don’t use the bubble gas trap, so check on them and vent every day so they don’t explode. It only takes a few days to get them to the sourness that I like(fairly sour) and then you can store them in the fridge for years. I don’t use alum, but I do slice off the flower end of each cucumber because that tissue contains enzymes that will soften your pickles. I don’t care if my pickles are super crunchy, but mine never get really soft and mushy either, even after multiple years in the fridge.
I also make escabeche, but brine fermented, which I don’t think is Latina grandma approved, but I like it. Carrots, onions, radishes and garlic with some cumin.
1:55 meh, I’ve bought my cucumbers at the store for years, but you do need to be picky. I’ve often passed on a grocery store where an ex cucumber has gotten its rot on the other cucumbers. I’ve also used Persian mini cucumbers with good success when I couldn’t find good pickling cucumbers.
Also, I’ve heard that grape leaves will stand in for alum for preserving the crunch, but I haven’t tried that.
The book, ‘the art of fermentation’ by Sandor Katz is an excellent resource for pretty much every consumable ferment.
I literally just received that book a few days ago.
Do a video of a garden tour.
I started my Ferment batch last week and of course the wife likes her vinegar pickle so had enough cuc’s this season to satisfy both. BTW she loves the Garlic honey ferments so still feeding her the needed probiotics daily.
I make fermented salsa for the probiotics
Why do you need to buy the kit to ferment pickles? I’m looking for a very true honest answer
There’s NOTHING and I mean NOTHING like Homemade Salt Brine (fermented) pickles!! When I was young, my great-aunt and her kids ran a general store and gas station. Beside the cash register, on the floor was a tall whiskey barrel FULL of fermented pickles, homemade, and for only 10¢, you could grab the tongs, get a big ol’ pickle in a napkin and a free 2 pack of saltine crackers!
Memories AND nutrition!!
Today, my wife Fay also ferments Kraut, carrots with garlic (our favorite), and spiced radishes! Her salt brine dilly green beans are a hit as well!
Somewhere along the line, people switched from fermented food to sugary sweets and ruined their guts in the process.
Sorry this post is so long, but you can also use left-over brine to marinade meats!
If you wake in the middle of the night with leg cramps, drink some dill pickle brine.
You can mix it with buttermilk or mayonnaise in order to make crispy fried chicken!
You can mix left-over brine with 2 parts olive oil, a dash of Dijon mustard, and garlic for a fantastic salad dressing.
You can use left-over brine to mix with chopped veggies for a quick ferment.
You can put a spoonful or 2 in your Martini or Bloody Mary.
For a real treat ~ splash some in your Beer along with a quartered pickle slice and some salt.
Alright Zac, you convinced me. I haven’t had a crunchy pickle since my husband and I divorced in the late 1990″s. “Sigh.” I will buy The Perfect Pickler, cause it’s about as close as I’m likely to get.
Thanks Zach! We have to do better with pickles this year. Will be getting the perfect pickler.
Fermentation is Jehovah’s cleansing of the “Vegetative foods”. People say “Jesus declared all foods clean”… They fail to quote Leviticus 11. What IS FOOD according to Jehovah? I live in the body which our Father made from the Earth. A tiny fraction of time. I will live forever in some form, Billions of years, but 120 in this form.
Ok ok I’ll try again.
That cookbook also has cucumber kimchi in it!!!! I’ll be trying it.❤
Does that mean the new motto for the Perfect Pickler is “I’m your pickleberry”? UGH. I’m so sorry. I’ll see myself out lol
OK, lets say I get 80lbs of cukes this year and I dont have room in the fridge, How shelf stable are fermented pickles? or is it an option to ferment then water bath can? either way im gonna have to get a few kits for the lids lol
I just fermented my baby cucumbers into a pint. Soon to be gone. Carrots and cauliflower in the fridge yesterday
Did you put the pickles cucumber in the fridge for three years?
1:43 if you’re having a hard time with the pickles, what I’ve found is that, due to dill and cucumbers being available in the summertime, the ambient temperature is too high to ferment in a crock, like I do with sauerkraut. It’s important to to the fermentation in a clear glass jar and a sunny window helps to keep the bad fungi at bay until the acidity can take over the job. I calculate 2% salt for the total liquid capacity of the jar (half gallon in my case, so about 38 grams of salt.) dissolve the salt in a cup or two of boiling water then let that cool to room temperature while you pack the jar with pickling cucumbers and spices (I use generous amounts of dill seed heads, garlic, allspice, mustard seed, whole dried cayenne pepper, etc) and then pour in the cooled brine and fill the rest of the way with water. I don’t use the bubble gas trap, so check on them and vent every day so they don’t explode. It only takes a few days to get them to the sourness that I like(fairly sour) and then you can store them in the fridge for years. I don’t use alum, but I do slice off the flower end of each cucumber because that tissue contains enzymes that will soften your pickles. I don’t care if my pickles are super crunchy, but mine never get really soft and mushy either, even after multiple years in the fridge.
I also make escabeche, but brine fermented, which I don’t think is Latina grandma approved, but I like it. Carrots, onions, radishes and garlic with some cumin.
1:55 meh, I’ve bought my cucumbers at the store for years, but you do need to be picky. I’ve often passed on a grocery store where an ex cucumber has gotten its rot on the other cucumbers. I’ve also used Persian mini cucumbers with good success when I couldn’t find good pickling cucumbers.
Also, I’ve heard that grape leaves will stand in for alum for preserving the crunch, but I haven’t tried that.
The book, ‘the art of fermentation’ by Sandor Katz is an excellent resource for pretty much every consumable ferment.