Make your own pickles?
 

Anyone make their own pickles?

I am a big fan of a good pickle. I'm not talking any of those floppy fluorescent green POS you buy off the shelf (like Vlassic or Mt Olive). I decided give pickle making a try last week.

A coworker is growing pickling cukes, the short fat one. They bring in bags of them, so I figured why not give it a try.

So I searched the interweb for a Claussen type, "refridgerator" pickle recipe.

I had a gallon glass jar, packed it with these cukes cut in spears, and a handful of whole Jalapenos, garlic, dill weed and seed, pepper and brine. Let them sit for 10 days, and they turned out really really good. Tangy, dillly, garlicy, spicey and crunchy goodness.

Anyone else do this or have a special recipe?

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

those sound awesome, i wanna try it now

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

I used to make a bunch every year. I lost the second big fridge so i can't do them anymore. Part of what I do has them sitting in a lime bath for 14 - 18 hours...... Love me some crisp, hot homemade pickles.

The pepper I use is sold at Krogers and is just called "Tiny Peppers" on the jar. I have no idea what they are. Very easy to raise and lower the heat in the jar depending on how many you put in. The brine mix I use is from Mrs. Wages. Good stuff.

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

I make pickles every year. Whole dills and "sandwich slicers".
I didn't grow dill, so I'll use a packaged pickle mix this year. When I grow my own dill, I use garlic, dill, and a few banana peppers in there.
They're awesome. :tu

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

my grandfather used to make them and store them in those big 2 gallon glass jars.. very similar to what you mentioned above (sliced, with seed, pepper, onion, etc).. I could literally eat them all day long.. love pickles..

I think this might go on my Winter "I'm bored as hell" project list.

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I also enjoy making my own pickles. There's a farmer's market just down the road from my apartment, and on weekends they have vegetable wholesalers; this means that I can get tons of veggies for awful cheap. With such prices (and the fact that you have to buy entire crates/bushels at a time), pickling becomes a great option.

What I do varies only slightly by vegetable. Since I do not have a pressure canner, I only make fridge pickles. To further combat botulism, I get vinegar (or a 50/50 mix of vinegar and water) boiling hot before pouring it into the container with the veggies. Garlic, onions, jalapeno, cilantro/coriander, dill, and other flavorings have all graced some of my pickle jars. Really, it's all about using what's at hand to make something delicious :)

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

Interesting. This was my first time doing this, so I just used the brine recipe I found online. This recipe called for a 4:1 of distilled water to distilled vinegar with 2 tbls of kosher salt for every quart brought to a boil. Do you think that's too diluted to ensure safety?

At this ratio they have a good level of vinegar tang, it seems that a stronger brine would be pretty potent.

I decided to pickle the bag of Jalapenos my coworker brought me. I just sliced the peppers and used brine and some whole garlic cloves. Can't wait to try these.

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

Try some whole ones too Jason.I'll be expecting some samples soon ;)

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

but of course :D

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

I've never really gone by a recipe. I looked at a few recipes to get a general guideline, then I just made it up as I went along. :)

I didn't mention it, but yes I do (when I remember) add salt to my pickled vegetables.

I don't know the biomechanics of the safety, but if they're recommending a 4:1 ratio then I'd say it should be pretty safe. You can ask those who attended the Lake Herf and tried my okra and asparagus; pure vinegar seems to work just fine.

Good eats :D Let me know how those jalapenos pickle up.

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

I love pickles, so making your own seems like a kinda cool idea

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These sound mighty tasty! I'll have to try this.

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What a great idea!!! I'm a fan of pickles that have heat. Let us know how they turn out.

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

i hole heartedly agree

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

The cuke pickles turned out great. The Jalapenos I threw in with the cukes were hotter than average. The pickles have a slight heat, but I eat hot all the time, so I'm not so sensitive to the spice. I am told by others that they have a kick.

I cracked the jar on the straight pickled jalapeno I made last week. They are pretty nice. Not like store bought, that are soft, these have a crispiness to them. These I had sliced, if I get more peppers I'll try blanching them and pickling them whole.

A note on the cucumber pickles.. I noticed that some of the cuke's center (seed portion) got pretty soft and just fell of the cuke. I think this is because these were over ripe. I think if you try this you want the cukes to be dark green. As they ripen the centers get softer and spongier and the seeds get bigger.

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

Y'all have inspired me to try to make some of my own pickles. Sometime this week I'll be making my first batch. I'm going to go with a spicy garlic recipe I found online. Mmmmm mmmm mmmm.

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Could I use cucumbers from the store to make my own pickles?

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Yes, but you'll find that the "pickling cucumbers" make better pickles--they're shorter and fatter. Standard pickles might do alright, but they'll probably end up getting quite soft during the pickling process.

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

That's exactly what happens to them. I made two one gallon jars of "regular" cucumber pickle slices a month or so ago when I couldn't get pickling cucumbers at the farmers market here. On the thinner slices the cores got very soggy and some collapsed entirely. The thicker slices held together though.

Also, I discovered for "regular" cucumbers, you need to peel them, as the rinds tend to stay rather tough for a long time in the brine.

On the recipe I used - it started out a number of years ago as Alton Brown's Bread and Butter pickles, which are really good, but I grew tired of the B&B and was looking to re-create a real deli pickle ala Chasens or Jerry's. Ended up cutting the sugar way back, yes there is still some in there to balance things (you can't taste it - but it rounds out the flavor), omitting the turmeric, cutting the celery seed quantity down, and using nothing but distilled white vinegar (it's cheap) rather than the fancy vinegars he calls for - I also upped the amount of vinegar a bit, about the called for amount of pickling spices, with some additional brown mustard seed and a metric asston worth of chopped fresh garlic in the jar with the slices. While I didn't duplicate the deli pickle I was aiming for, but I'm really liking the results.

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

I like that "toughness", it gives it that crisp snap when you take a bite.


The recipe I used called for tumeric and mustard seed, but I did not add them (because I didn't want to spend the money, lol) also black pepper corns, but I just used ground black pepper, which I thought gave it a nice peppery taste. In the gallon jar along with the cukes I added about 4 pinches of dill weed and 4 pinched of dill seed, about a teaspoon or 2 of black pepper, about a tablespoon of minced garlic and 3-4 jalapenos.

I was very please with the results. I think next time I will get the tumeric.

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That might not be bad, if it was possible to bite though the rind on the ones I bought - some of them are like shoe leather.

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Interesting. These were the pickling cukes or regular? How was the ripeness, dark or light green?

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

Regular & dark green.

Could have just been the grower too - some of his produce is a bit odd (like his radishes, they're the size of racquetballs) at times. But the price was good, $3 for enough to fill 2 one gallon jars when sliced, and he was the only one selling cucumbers at the farmers market that day anyway.

Oh, another good reason just occurred to me about why to peel store bought "regular" cucumbers - it's the only way to completely remove the wax that is sprayed on them.

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Just made my second batch. My first batch turned out fantastic. Picked up the cukes at the local farmers market. I also discovered a variety of garlic called German white garlic. It is a very powerful rich flavored hard neck garlic. I put a clove or two of that garlic some red pepper flakes, 8-12 black pepper corns, a bunch of fresh dill also from the farmers market, some white onion per quart jar. I added a couple of jalepenos to one of my jars this time and a habanero to another as an experiment and I can't wait to see how they turn out.

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

Totally forgot about this thread. Thanks for topping it gvarsity.

I'm still tweaking the recipie, but this is my latest recipie though.

Use smaller cucumbers, in the larger ones the seeds are fully developed and rather than pith (the bitter white flesh of the cucumber) they are surrounded by a membrane that turns to goo rapidly in the brine. The less developed the cucumber, the better.

Best results I've had are with what I believe are called "munchers" - small (about 6" to 8" length overall, 1-1/2" or so diameter) very crunchy and horribly bitter cucumber when you eat it raw. These make fantastic pickles...

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Enough cucumbers to fill a gallon jar, cut into spears (IIRC, about 4 lbs - I buy them by eye/volume, so I don’t pay that much attention to the weight)
3 cups white vinegar
3 cups distilled water
1 TBS dill seed
1/2 TBS dried dill weed
1 cup coarsely chopped garlic
3 TBS canning salt (if using kosher salt, use 5-1/2 TBS)
1/2 TBS brown mustard seed
1 TBS whole peppercorns
1 TBS Corriander seed
6 dried chilies jalopones (Japanese Chilies - look in the Mexican foods section of your market)

Clean and sterilize a 1 gallon jar, pack with cucumber spears.

Mix all other ingredients into a non-reactive saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil for about a minute or two, and pour into jar over spears.

If it appears that you will not be able to pour all of the brine into the jar, use a spoon to get all of the spices into the jar and top with remaining brine.

Seal immediately and place into refrigerator for 10 days to 2 weeks.

Done properly, this recipe should not ferment.


All measurements are approximate - just keep the water and vinegar at 1:1 ratio and don’t go overboard on the salt.

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

I have made a few batches of pickled green beans that turned out excellent. Fresh dill, white onions, fresh garlic, a pile of cayenne all went into the wide mouth jar before stuffing it with the beans and filling with brine. I added a habanero to some of the jars to really kick up the heat. In my celery-averse opinion, these things are the only way to garnish a Bloody Mary.

I think the next batch will have black pepper added.

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

I'm glad to hear some one mention beans. That was next on my list of things to try. I love pickled beans and hadn't tried making them yet but figured there was no difference between beans and cukes in terms of process. Anyone pickle any other veggies I was tempted to do some pickled mushrooms or brussle sprouts as well.

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

I love homemade stuff!

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

I can vouch for this recipe for pickled jalapeños ...absolutely delicious...

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/pic...nos_escabeche/

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

this is an informative thread!

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

I've used that recipe before, it is good.

I grew bored with the cooked peppers and the oil, so I went searching for somethng that would have pepper with some snap to it, not unlike a pickle, and I've been using this one of late and it's been working out quite nicely.

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archive...d_peppers.html

In fact I just made up about half a gallon worth of red jalepenos, a quart of red fresno peppers and a few mixed jars w/ onions and carrots too earlier this evening.

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

To the top!

A coworker just brought in some regular cucumbers from his garden. Says his wife makes pickles with them, but more like the cicular slices, and peels them first. They are about 8-10" in length, maybe 2" diameter. Going to stop by the grocery store on the way home to pick up some items to make some of my own.

Anyone have any current recipes to add? Otherwise, I'm just going with the guideline of:

"All measurements are approximate - just keep the water and vinegar at 1:1 ratio and don’t go overboard on the salt."

Probably start with the recipe above, and tweak it once I try the first batch.

Also, I have a reverse osmosis system with a water spout at my kitchen sink. Think that will suffice instead of buying distilled water?

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

RO water is fine.

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Thanks! Is the above recipe still pretty close to what you use?

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

I'm doing more with fermented pickles these days, but yeah, that recipe still works. Rachel Ray has a good "quick pickle" recipe too, in which she calls for Persian cucumbers, but I'll use it with just plain old salad cucumbers cut thin (1/16" thickness) on a mandolin. Don't even need to peel the salad cucumbers when you cut them that thin.

Spices on pickles are pretty free form - some batches I'll add fennel, others, I've skipped the dill entirely and used cumin and fresh habanero peppers, sometimes more vinegar, sometimes I don't even bother with cucumbers and use something like tomatillos. Just have fun with it.

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

See, the fermented pickles is what I was originally looking at. In fact, this article has been brought to my attention twice recently, through a google search for "sour pickles" and just now for "fermented pickles".

http://www.wildfermentation.com/making-sour-pickles-2/

Gonna have to research this a little more too.

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

There are many different fermented recipes out there.

Few recommendations:
1) use a scale for the salt as 6TBS of some salt, say kosher salt, is not the same as 6TBS of pickling & canning salt. The kosher salt is much lighter and packs less densely. In the above example, the pickling & canning salt would be about twice as salty as the kosher salt. Sea salt falls somewhere in between. Alton Brown recommends 5.5oz of salt per gallon of water - so it doesn't matter what type of salt you use, you'll still end up with about the same salt content (percentage).

2) never, ever, ever use salt with iodine or anti-caking agents added. The iodine will screw with the lacto fermentation and anti-caking agents can end up introducing off flavors.

3) if you use dried dill weed / leaf then you are going to need to put it in a spice bag or a piece of cheese cloth tied with cooking twine because the stuff floats. Anything that floats on the surface of the fermenter is subject to growing mold, which you don't want. Some other spices like coriander, fennel and some mustard seeds, will float for a day or so before they become waterlogged and sink.

4) don't confuse kahm yeast with mold. Kahm yeast is a bright white filmy layer that forms on the surface of the brine. It's basically harmless. The worst it will do is cause a subtle off flavor if it is allowed to go unchecked for weeks. It's actually kind of hard to skim, but just get what you can once every 3-7 days, depends how fast it's forming. Not all batches will develop it. Mold looks like what we grew in petri dishes in high school biology class - that you want to get out.

5) use pickling cucumbers or gherkins, the smaller the better. Salad slicers don't ferment well, the rind is too thick and the area around the seeds ends up falling apart. Pickle the salad slicers in vinegar.

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

Just checked out foodgawker. The sheer volume of recipes there is incredible. But for a beginner like me, I'm glad there was only one recipe you linked to in that thread.

What type of salt to you use in that recipe, Peter? Kosher?

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

Wow, lots of great info/advice. Thanks! Now I need to buy a scale too. Off to walmart after work I guess. Well, I need to buy cheesecloth and cooking twine too.

Regarding the salt... I use Morton coarse grind kosher salt. Can't remember if that has additives in it or not, but I'll make sure before I use it.

I should really have an herb garden by now.

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

I use kosher salt.

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

That's the blue box Morton's kosher salt, right? I think it has an anti-caking agent in it.

If you are going to wall-mart, just grab a box of the Morton's canning and pickling salt it has no additives whatsoever. Comes in a green box, it's cheap too, less than $2 for 4 lbs IIRC.

You don't have to use dill weed (leaf), you can do the whole thing with dill seed.

On the leaves - you can also use blackberry or rasberry leaves, just don't use too many as they have a stronger flavor. The leaves are there to provide tannins to keep the pickles somewhat crisp.

Remember, there are so many variables in this type of fermenting of foods that sometimes things will go better than others. It might take a few tries to get things the way you like them but the results are totally worth it.

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Awesome. I have tons of raspberry plants around my yard. I'll just grab some leaves off of those.

Yep, dark blue box for the morton kosher salt. I'll pick up the pickling salt.

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That's what I've used and it works fine. However, when it comes to food, I trust Adam's judgement. I'm going to pick up some of the pickling salt and try it out.

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

Peter, I used the blue box Morton's kosher salt for years with refrigerator/vinegar pickles, and all really I experienced was some sediment and clouding of the brine from the anti-caking agent, while some people don't care for that clouding, it's not a big deal IMO. I switched to Diamond Crystal kosher salt a year or two ago to get away from the additives - can't say if it tastes different or not though.

But fermenting is a different process. The additives are going to behave differently under these conditions where we are using live bacteria to sour the cucumbers.

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

Gotcha.

Thanks for the clarification.

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I should start doing this. I go through a jar a week.

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Me too. My kids LOVE pickles, so they disappear fast. Hoping they like these too.

Re: Make your own pickles?
 

I've made a few batches of dill pickles and use the pickling salt, works like a champ. If you like a little spice, cut up a jalapeno and put 4 slices in the bottom of the mason jar before you load in the pickles :tu

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Here's a photo of kahm yeast from one of my 2 gal fermenters.