# Pickled Cucumbers



## Pleasure Master (9/1/13)

Does anyone have a recipe or technique they use?


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## fraser_john (10/1/13)

Pleasure Master said:


> Does anyone have a recipe or technique they use?



Hmmm, depends on what you want to make......

I have two, one for making dill pickles, highly garlic flavoured, good as a side dish for burgers or ribs. Second is an American side dish called bread and butter pickles, sliced cucumber (picked early before seeds form) pickled with lots of spices, capsicum & onion.

PM me if interested in either.


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## Airgead (10/1/13)

fraser_john said:


> Hmmm, depends on what you want to make......
> 
> I have two, one for making dill pickles, highly garlic flavoured, good as a side dish for burgers or ribs. Second is an American side dish called bread and butter pickles, sliced cucumber (picked early before seeds form) pickled with lots of spices, capsicum & onion.
> 
> PM me if interested in either.



Heck with the PM.. Post em both here for everyone. They sound great.

Cheers
Dave


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## tricache (10/1/13)

Airgead said:


> Heck with the PM.. Post em both here for everyone. They sound great.
> 
> Cheers
> Dave



+1!! Totally!! Sounds awesome!


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## Pleasure Master (10/1/13)

Yeah, I'll thripple that, post 'em up!





Oh, and I'm a dill man..

And if you're in Brisvegas by any chance, try and locate some of these;

http://www.facebook.com/PickleheadPickles


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## capretta (11/1/13)

in a book i own called chartucerie they say that any vegetable can be naturally fermented in a 5% brine solution. its the magic number, strong enough to kill baddies, weak enough to keep the goodies alive.. 
so, 1 litre of water / 50g of salt.
i dissolve the salt in a smaller volume of water to make it easier to cool. add your herbs and spices as neccesary to the boiling water with the salt. im a fan of allspice, bay, dill etc. when you pour the liquid make sure it covers all of the cuckes, add a grape leaf for extra cruncy pickles.
pickles made this way require no vinegar, but shoud be left in a cool (no warmer than 24c) place to ferment for at least a week. liquid will bubble out so dont put them on top of your favourite matisse. 
Try one after a week and if its not sour enough they can be left longer... ive left them for as long as a month. they get very cloudy and gross looking but they are ok as long as there is not a mouldy film on top. After they are sour enough, pop them in the fridge.
try asking your grocer to get you a box of baby cuckes, or even pickling gherkins, probably cost you about 20$ and make a superior product as the inside of an adult cucke gets very soggy over time.


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## fraser_john (13/1/13)

Sorry for delays....

Adding 3/4 teaspoon of Calcium Chloride per pint of liquid used in any pickling helps to assist with keeping the pickles crisp, so do this for both recipes as well. Being good brewers, we should all have this water adjustment salt in our brewing pantry.......

Alternatively, Calcium Hydroxide (pickling lime) can be used instead of Calcium Chloride, resulting in an even crunchier pickle, do some googling on its use.

For any pickling, avoid burpless cucumber varieties unless you harvest small with no seeds, the skin on burpless cukes also tends to be thicker & tougher.

Canning salt has no iodine in it, which is what you want, buy canning salt if you can get it. Table salt has both iodine and non caking agents which may make pickle liquid cloudy and unappealing. Use granulated canning salt if you can get it.

*Dills*
8lbs 4-6" cucumbers, seeds ok but the fewer the better, cut flower end off about 1/2" from end, cut length ways into quarters
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup canning salt
1 quart vinegar
1 quart water
3 tbsp of Hoyts pickling spices
Green or dried dill (1 head/jar or large pinch depending on taste)
For garlic dill, cut one clove garlic into small pieces (optional)

Was and drain cucumbers, cut flower end off
Combine sugar salt, vinegar & water in large pot
Tie spices in a spice bag add to vinegar mix
Simmer for 15 minutes
Pack cucumbers into hot jars leaving 1/4" headspace
Put one head of dill in each jar (large pinch dried dill depending on taste)
Laddle hot liquid over cucumbers leaving 1/4" headspace
Remove air bubbles using chopstick & jiggling jar.
Add lid just past finger tight.
Process jars 15 minutes using boiling water canning method (google)

Yields 7 pints of pickles, wait 4-7 weeks before trying.


*Bread & Butter Pickles*
4 lbs 4-6" cucumbers (small with no seeds), cut into 1/4" or thinner slices
2lbs onions thinly sliced
1/3 cup canning salt
2 cups sugar
2 tbsp mustard seed
2 tsp tumeric
2 tsp celery seed
1 tsp powdered ginger
1 tsp peppercorns
3 cups vinegar

Combine cucumber & onion slices in large GLASS bowl. Layer vegetables with the salt as you place them in. Cover with ice cubes. Let stand 1.5 hours. Drain & rinse well. 
Combine remaining ingredients in large pot bring to boil, add cucumbers & onions and bring back to boil. Pack hot pickles & liquid into hot jars (bertolli pasta jars are great) leaving 1/4" head space. Remove air bubbles using chopstick & jiggling jar.
Process for ten minutes using boiling water canning method (google it).

Yields 7 pints of pickles, wait 4-7 weeks before trying.

In place of mustard, celery, ginger & pepper corns, the Hoyts pickling spices can be used but you still need to add tumeric!!!!



Enjoy!


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## Pleasure Master (13/1/13)

thanks for that, now to go shopping..


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## QldKev (13/1/13)

How do the Dill pickles compare to Polski Ogorki style.

I'm thinking about making some.


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## fraser_john (14/1/13)

QldKev said:


> How do the Dill pickles compare to Polski Ogorki style.
> 
> I'm thinking about making some.


I'm not sure, never had them, or, even heard of them....googling...but looking at a recipe here, they look very much the same


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## benno1973 (14/1/13)

Sour lacto-fermented dill pickles can be pretty close to polski ogorskis, depending on how long you leave them to ferment. Capretta covered it pretty much, but my recipe is:

8-10 cucumbers (pickling cukes when they're available from the markets, but lebanese will do also. The fresher the better).
4 cloves of garlic
8 peppercorns
1-2 tsp *dried* dill
some sort of tannic leaf (grape leaf, horseradish leaf, strawberry leaf)
5.4% brine solution (54g salt/1L water) - enough to cover pickles

Wash the cucumbers, chop 1cm off both ends and submerge the cukes in ice water for an hour. This ensures crunchy pickles, and is especially required if the cukes aren't freshly picked (i.e. are bought from the market). After removing from the ice water, pack the cukes into a wide mouth jar along with the garlic, peppercords, dill and tannic leaf. I use dried dill, as I find that fresh dill sometimes (depending on how old it is) can add a funky favour that isn't always welcome. Dried dill is easier to have on hand as well.

Pour the brine solution over the top of the cukes and ensure that the level of the brine is above the level of the cukes. I don't heat the water to dissolve the salt, the salt will dissolve if you stir the water enough. Cukes tend to float, so you'll need to weight them down with a heavy plate or a smaller glass jar that fits in the wide mouthed jar. Stick this in a cool dark cupboard somewhere. It's bound to bubble up and overflow, so sit the whole lot on a plate to catch anything that overflows. You want the temps to be as cool as possible (preferably 18-21C), so stick it in the fermentation fridge if you're happy that you won't get cross contamination. But higher temps will work, don't stress too much. Lacto is pretty forgiving.

Half sours take a few days to ferment out, and full sours around 1-2 weeks, depending on temperatures. You'll see the water go cloudy, which happens with lacto ferments and white powdery stuff collect at the bottom of the jar. All normal. If white mould forms on the top of the liquid, you can remove it. If you get mould of any other colour, probably best to discard and start again. I like really sour pickles, so I've leave them for up to a month, which can result in some funky mould growing on the surface (pic here), but the pickles below are still delicious and crunchy.

Once they are sour enough for your liking, stick them in the fridge to slow down the fermentation process. I used to buy the large jars of polski ogorskis, but I actually prefer these pickles as they can be tailored to my preferences.

For anyone nervous about pathogens, measure the pH of your pickles during the ferment and you'll find that it drops pretty quickly. There's a quote somewhere from someone from the CDC saying that there have been no cases of botulism from home vegetable fermentation - most non-commercial food borne cases result from improper canning of low acid foods.


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## punkin (15/1/13)

I've had a quick style pickled cucumber salad that was right up there with any chinese pickles i've had too.

A girl who came to a BBQ at my place said that her Greek MIL showed her. Twas just thin slices with some combination of vinegar/salt/sugar or somesuch and a process for washing and squeezing that i wish i could remember. All done in 15 mins and VERY good.

I've tried to replicate it a few times without success.


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## Gbprohunter (15/1/13)

I made up a batch of pickled zucchini on Sunday. The recipe was given to me by a farmers wife that owned a property i used to hunt in an area called 'Campania'. It was stored in one of those big old Bushells jars in the fridge and kept for weeks but it never seemed to last that long! Our climate is ideal for growing this type of veggie but it seems to crop all at once and this is a good way of using up some of the excess...

1kg peeled/sliced zucchini
2 medium onions sliced
1/2 cup salt

Combine the lot in a bowl and cover with cold water, let sit for an hour.

In a large pot combine:

2.5 cups of sweet malt vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp tumeric
12 peppercorns

Bring to the boil, turn off the heat and then add the drained zucchini/onion to the pot. Let that sit for an hour and then return to the heat and boil for 3 minutes. Place in a large jar and store in the fridge.

This is delicious on a piece of sourdough toast, or with any type of BBQ, cold or roasted meats. I had some last night with my latest batch of kangaroo sausages and the two went together perfectly.


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## benno1973 (15/1/13)

My recipe above for lacto-fermented cukes can be done just as well with baby zucchini BTW, which is a great way to use them at this time of year when they're going bananas. They stay ultra-crunchy too.


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## drsmurto (15/1/13)

I make a pickled zucchini brew every year when the zucchini plants kick into overdrive. Pick them small (<2cm in diameter). Add some small pasta shapes, kidney beans, capsicum, vinegar, turmeric, chilli, and whatever other herbs/spices float my boat.

Preserve.

Very keen to try my hand at pickled cucumbers, i go through plenty of the Polksi Orgorki jars.

Tried adding a photobucket link but that is not working?


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## drsmurto (15/1/13)

Pic now added.


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## benno1973 (15/1/13)

Look good Smurto. I assume the pasta shapes 'cook' in the vinegar so they're soft, not crunchy?

Also, great to see Brew Food topics show up the the Latest Posts panel. About time!


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## drsmurto (15/1/13)

Pre-cooked the pasta.

Pre-soaked zucchinis, onion and capsicum in salted ice-water overnight. Bring to the boil, add vinegar. Add vinegar, cooked pasta and everything else.

Load in to preserving jars and then run a preserving cycle which from memory is 92C for 1-1.5h.

I eat it as a side-salad or load it up on to some sourdough with aged cheddar.

I preserve fruit, make passata etc using this system. Inherited the kit from my Mum after all their fruit trees died and the kids had moved out. Now it's my turn to pass that tradition on to my kid(s). A bit old fashioned perhaps but my love of fresh produce come from my child hood so i want to pass that on.


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## capretta (15/1/13)

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="Kaiser Soze" data-cid="989482" data-time="1358132930"> <p> 
<br />
Half sours take a few days to ferment out, and full sours around 1-2 weeks, depending on temperatures. You'll see the water go cloudy, which happens with lacto ferments and white powdery stuff collect at the bottom of the jar. All normal. If white mould forms on the top of the liquid, you can remove it. If you get mould of any other colour, probably best to discard and start again. I like really sour pickles, so I've leave them for up to a month, which can result in some funky mould growing on the surface (<a href='http://tumblr.bentheurbanfarmer.com/post/33827680010/i-think-my-dill-pickles-have-a-surface-mould'>pic here</a>), but the pickles below are still delicious and crunchy.<br />
<br />
</p></blockquote>


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## capretta (15/1/13)

2 goes trying to get quotes on my mobile.. thats as good as you get sorry.


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## capretta (15/1/13)

Looks epic though kaiser, after making my own cheese i thought i would eat any sort of mould but you are re testing my limits! Time to ferment some veggies!


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## Pleasure Master (16/1/13)

Wow, this topic has gone hot! ..apparently..

I have a question, can one use 'swing top' jars as appossed to screwy on lid type?


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## benno1973 (16/1/13)

Absolutely! Swing top Fido jars are the ducks nuts for pickling. Fido jars apparently relieve pressure as fermentation progresses...


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## Pleasure Master (18/1/13)

Kaiser Soze said:


> Absolutely! Swing top Fido jars are the ducks nuts for pickling. Fido jars apparently relieve pressure as fermentation progresses...


Any insight on to how that happens, not to sound like an asshole, but how?


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## benno1973 (18/1/13)

Pleasure Master said:


> Any insight on to how that happens, not to sound like an asshole, but how?


I only heard about it the other day and questioned it myself. But it seems that there's a bit of reference to that on the internet, like this for example:




> Fido’s vulcanized rubber gasket is an airlock. It keeps the oxygen out, while allowing CO2 to escape. The difference, though, is this: the *CO2 needs to build up more pressure before the lid is lifted and the CO2 escapes* between the rubber gasket and the glass rim.


And here:




> The white gasket you see on the Fido acts as a built-in airlock. There is a photo of the Fido in my Sauerkraut Survivor series that shows the foaming on the side from the excess CO2 escaping. There are other people (bloggers and on the Wild Fermentation group) who have experienced this as well. The Fido is a canning jar and was made to keep out oxygen and yet let excess CO2 be released.


I don't personally have any experience using them for fermenting, so I can't confirm. And if I did ferment in them, I'd probably take the safer option and burp them occasionally...


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## Pleasure Master (26/1/13)

Just thinking, is there a potential for botulisim with making pickles?


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## QldKev (26/1/13)

Pleasure Master said:


> Just thinking, is there a potential for botulisim with making pickles?



Only if you no-chill [sharedmedia=core:attachments:59806]


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## benno1973 (26/1/13)

Pleasure Master said:


> Just thinking, is there a potential for botulisim with making pickles?


Nope, not really. They're either lacto-fermented or done with vinegar, both of which lower the pH enough to prevent botulism. 

A quote from a USDA specialist:





> There has never been a documented case of foodborne illness from fermented vegetables. Risky is not a word I would use to describe vegetable fermentation.


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## benno1973 (1/2/13)

Just found the quote I was after...



> Leaving foods unrefrigerated for two weeks or more can be disturbing to those who weren’t raised with a crock of pickles in the hallway. But U.S. Department of Agriculture research service microbiologist Fred Breidt says properly fermented vegetables are actually safer than raw vegetables, which might have been exposed to pathogens like E. coli on the farm.
> “With fermented products there is no safety concern. I can flat-out say that. The reason is the lactic acid bacteria that carry out the fermentation are the world’s best killers of other bacteria,” says Breidt, who works at a lab at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, where scientists have been studying fermented and other pickled foods since the 1930s.
> Breidt adds that fermented vegetables, for which there are no documented cases of food-borne illness, are safer for novices to make than canned vegetables. Pressurized canning creates an anaerobic environment that increases the risk of deadly botulism, particularly with low-acid foods.


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## Endo (25/2/13)

I make these: http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/23995/bread+and+butter+pickles

I think the vinegar you use will make all the difference. I used the Macro Cloudy Apple Cider vinegar from Woolies and they came up great.


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