Re: Make your own pickles?
 

Made the first batch last night.

Tried one at like 5 this morning. BAM got hit with a huge blast of tang/flavor. I'm guessing they only get stronger. I may add a little more water to tone it down a little. Beause honestly, I can't remember for SURE putting in 1.5C water (I halved the recipe due to the amount of cucumber slices I wound up with).

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

Unlike fermented pickles which will continue to get more sour as they sit in the fermenter because the live lactobacillus will continue to make the brine more sour, vinegar pickles typically won't get any more sour once the flesh is saturated because the brine is at a fixed / constant pH.

For thin slices, this can occur in a little as a few hours, especially if you used boiling brine.

You don't want to take the acid level down too low as you need to have a certain acidity and saline level when making refrigerator pickles so that they absorb the herbs/spice flavors, don't become unsafe to eat through bacterial contamination, and are preserved. 1:1 with typical distilled white vinegar is already getting low, a bit more water is probably ok, but a lot would turn these from pickles to cucumbers in spiced water.

Besides water dilution, you can also add white sugar to the vinegar-salt brine to cut the bite.

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

Thanks for the input. Yeah, brought the brine to a boil before adding. I may add a tsp of sugar or something. I'll see how they are when I get home.

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

Homemade pickles are great, we do lots of Cukes, Zuchinni and our favorite...
Pickled Green Tomatoes!!! Use any recipe that works with a cuke will work with a tomato

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

I've been pickling green beans lately with this same recipe, except I sub jalapeños for the peppers. Everyone loves them!

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

Still been making these constantly. Switched back to cucumbers as my kids like them better than the beans.

Quick question regarding the brine:

When I make a batch of pickles, I let them sit overnight, then start eating the next day. A jar never normally lasts for 3-5 days after. Can I just dump the brine back into the pot, boil, and reuse? I'm sure the spices will lose a little strength. Just more of a safety question really.

On the other hand, it only takes 15 minutes to throw everything together, and the brine is pretty cheap... Just thought about it today. Made a jar of slices (supermarket cukes) on Wednesday evening, and it's already over half gone. I just keep thinking that the brine could have a longer useful life.

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

Vinegar brine & spices you can reuse a few times, I'll reuse until it clouds - about 3 runs, could probably go more cycles though. I add a splash of fresh vinegar and a bit more salt each time and make sure you bring to a boil to sterilize the brine before reuse.

For fermented pickles, so long as there isn't some undesirable bacteria in there, you would only need about a cup or two of the lactobacillus brine as a starter to prime the new batch. I once tried a 60%+ reuse, the bacteria I wanted ended up dying off too soon and the result tasted really "off". Wasn't harmful or anything, just tasted really funky.

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

Exactly the response I was hoping for. Thank you!

My parents (divorced for a number of years) had the same comment regarding your recipe. Both have told me that my paternal grandparents would've been proud. They were both very much into canning and pickling. They both passed a number of years ago, but I was able to eat their pickled/canned food growing up. From what I remember, everything they made was spectacular.

Of course, I gave credit where credit was due. Though I only add 1 jalapeño (seeded and chopped), and a little ground cayenne, because those chiles you listed are not available in my small town. So I had to make due.

Excellent recipe, and everyone raves about how great the final product is. :)

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

If you like carrots, here's a good recipe I saw on Good Eats about ten years ago. It's called "Firecrackers" and is for spicey pickled baby carrots. The chili flakes and peppers I use are homemade cayennes from my folk's garden and give the carrots a pretty decent amount of heat.
Recipe by Alton Brown.

1/2 pound mini carrots
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups cider vinegar
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon chili flakes
2 dried chilies


Place carrots in a sterilized spring-top glass jar. Bring the water, sugar, cider vinegar, onion powder, mustard seeds, salt, and chili flakes to a boil in a non-reactive saucepan. Boil for 4 minutes.

Slowly pour the hot pickling liquid over the carrots, filling the jar to the top. Place the chilies in the jar. Allow the carrots to cool before sealing. Refrigerate for 2 days up to 1 week.

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

Did someone say pickles??
http://www.cigarasylum.com/vb/pictur...pictureid=7535

http://www.cigarasylum.com/vb/pictur...pictureid=7536

We put up 58 quarts this year. Over half are spiked with 1-1/2 habenero peppers for HOT pickles. Love em.

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

Now thats pickling right there.

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

Yea Man... Way to make a day of it... :tu

Hot Pickles? :hm :dr

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

I make homemade dill - regular and hot. I also make some bread and butter pickles..yummy

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

I make my own too, both picked cukes and peppers out of the garden. You can really fiddle with the pickled cukes and tweak the flavors to your taste using various spices and boiling the spice/vinegar/salt/(sugar optional) for 10 minutes before canning. They have always turned out great. I use the boiling water bath canning method, but there are a lot of ways to do it.

If you really want a wild tasting pickle, try the fermentation canning method with a bacterial starter. No tangier pickle exists that I have tried.