Make Five Flavors of Pickles in one Afternoon

10 quarts of Lacto-fermented Pickles in 5 Flavors

    The honest answer is I love cucumber pickle brine. I love the pickles too, but the brine is a cook’s dream. I use it in soups, sauces, in salads, to drink…. The thought of making five different herbal pickle brines in one afternoon is my idea of heaven. Not only that, but you will have a pickle to suit every mood, or pregnant friend. Let’s face it dill is no longer the only pickle. Pickles are practiced the world over, and in a variety of spice and herb flavors. I’ve channeled a few for you, and me.
    The miracle is that once again we can initiate the transformation of basic ingredients into something as complex as pickles. It’s just vegetables, herbs and spices, water, salt and the aid of our microbial friends. Once you’ve passed lacto-fermentation 101. If you haven’t read Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz it’s time, if for no other reason than it’s literature, and great summer reading. But really, it’s simple to get started. This post won't answer everything but it will give you successful  pickles, fingers crossed behind my back. ​

Five Inspired Pickling Mixes

 French Inspired

Tarragon flavor prominent, this will be good with fish dishes
1 cup fresh tarragon, 2 bay leaves, ½ cup celery tops

Turkish Inspired

Subtle chili heat, mint takes on a background note with spicy warmth of cumin
1 cup Fresh Mint, 2 teaspoons toasted cumin, 2 dried Thai Chilies

Sweet Pickle Inspired

Complex but subtle-like a chow chow done right.
1 cup fresh wild fennel leaves, heads and stems, 1 stick ceylon cinnamon, 4 cloves,
​1 teaspoon black pepper   ​

Slavic Inspired

Dill is prominent, with a horseradish bite, mustard and turmeric lend a warm support the dill flavor
1 cup fresh dill leaves and heads, 2 horseradish leaves,
​2 teaspoons black mustard seeds, 1 teaspoon dried turmeric powder

Italian Inspired

Like an antipasto platter- all the flavors marry well with nothing predominate but wanting to return to the flavors.  
½  cup fresh basil, mix of varieties nice, ½ cup wild fennel leaves and heads, ½ cup fresh parsley leaves and stems, large head garlic cloves peeled and separated.

Chichkov stepped up to kiss her hand, and she almost shoved it inside his mouth, giving him the opportunity to notice that she washed her hands in pickle brine
Nikolai Gogol
​Dead Souls

How to make  the Pickles

Clean five wide mouth half-gallon mason jars, and five pint regular mouth jelly jars
Rinse 10 pounds of pickling cucumbers
Carefully make sure the blossoms and any remains of the blossoms are removed off the blossom end.
Create 5 % Brine
Dissolve 15 tablespoons 200 grams
(one cup minus 1 tablespoon) sea salt in 5 quarts filtered water, stir until salt is dissolved.
Gather and Measure Herbs and Spices
Put them on separate plates ready to use. Make sure you have 2 grape leaves per jar or other tannin rich leaves. 
Pack the Jars
Lay a grape leaf at the bottom/ Put 5-6 cukes upright in a circle/ add herbs and spices/ keep layering until all of the herbs are used and about 10-11 cukes are in a jar/ leave 3 inches of head-room at the top of the jar.
Set Jars in something to catch spill over. I use a large chafing dish
Pour Brine into each packed jar leaving one inch or so of head-room, lay a grape leaf over the top, tuck it in creating a barrier with brine over the top.
Apply jelly jar weights
Push jelly jars in firmly so everything in well under the brine, two inches of brine over the top of grape leaf.
Set in a cool place, I set mine in a cool back room near the floor, between 65-70F Cover with a light cloth to keep out the dust.

When are They Done?

Depends on the temperature and rate of fermentation, but between two and four weeks. You will know because their color will change to a dull green, they will be sour instead of salty. And, you will keep snitching them. 

Things you may notice

Brine becomes cloudy, this is due to lactic acid bacteria growth during the fermentation period. Safe and ok.

Scum on brine surfaces while curing, cucumbers caused wild yeasts, molds and bacteria--clear off the scum as it appears and make sure that everything is kept well below the brine, pickles still fine.  

Your  pickles are fabulous. Great, enjoy them and use that divine pickle juice. 

​Oh NO ! Turned mushy, and foul.
Sorry, don’t eat them, throw them out. Probably fermented at too high a temperature, or blossom ends had rot.  Try again don't give up ! It's happened to the best of us. 

Brains behind the Brine

Q: What is a pickling brine?
A: It’s a solution of pickling salt and water.

​Q:What does it affect?
​A: The sourness of the pickle, the rate of fermentation, and how long the pickles will keep. More salt will slow fermentation, traditional brined pickles use about a 5% brine or 3 tablespoons salt per quart of water. Krauts use a lower 2-3 % brine.  

​Q: What is brine strength and how do I calculate it? A: Brine strength is the weight of the salt as a percentage of the weight of the solution.
​An easy way to calculate it for the kitchen is to remember that every time you increase the amount of salt in the same amount of water you increase the brine strength.

Brine Chart
​1 quart water (946 ml) + 1 tablespoon salt (17g) = 1.68 % bn
1 quart water + 2 tablespoon salt (34g) = 3.35 % brine
1 quart  water + 3 tablespoon (41g)  salt = 4.94% brine
1 quart water + 4 tablespoon salt (58g) = 6.46 % brine 

Temperatures do Matter
Lower and slower makes the best pickles.
Room temperature 65-70F is best.
Keep them out of the heat.
Right now it’s 69F inside my pickle jars

​Under the Brine Doing Fine
Pickle fermentation is an anaerobic process, the microbes who do the bulk of the work, don’t need air. Too much air hitting the vegetables will provide the bacteria we don’t want a place to thrive.  Under the brine doing fine, keep everything well submerged in the 5% brine and you will be ok.  ​

Pickling Favorites

The Joy of Pickling by Linda Ziedrich
    I have workhorse cookbooks, those books you return to for reference and ideas often. This is one of those books. I trust that she knows her stuff, it's well thought out and precise, plus lots and lots of marvelous recipes. She writes in an easy and engaging way with stories, and quirky quotes. I know I'd like Linda, even though
​I only know her on the page.