Pickle recipes?

[landis]

Some of the cucumbers have already come up and are ready to harvest, so I made two quarts of pickles last night.

I cheated a bit and used Mrs. Wages pickle mix (all you have to do it boil water, vinegar, and add the mix to the sliced cucumbers).

Does anyone have a good Kosher Dill recipe?

I know some people ferment their pickles, like this:
Kosher Dill Pickles (http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2008/05/arthur_schwartz_1.html)

4 quarts (scant 4l) water
6 tablespoons coarse white salt (kosher, if available)
18-20 Kirby cucumbers, scrubbed
8 cloves garlic, unpeeled and lightly-crushed
2 tablespoons pickling spice (see links below)
6 bay leaves
1 large bunch of dill, preferably going to seed, washed


1. In a large pot, heat 1 qt (1l) water with the salt until the salt is dissolved. Add the remaining water.

2. Prepare three 1 quart (liter) wide jars by running them through the dishwasher or filling them with boiling water, then dumping it out.

3. Pack the cucumbers vertically into the jars, making sure they're tightly-packed. As you fill the jars, divide the garlic, spices, bay leaves, and dill amongst them.

4. Fill the jars with brine so that the cucumbers are completely covered. Cover the jars with cheesecloth, secured with rubber bands, or loosely with the lids. Store in a cool, dark place for 3 days.

5. After 3 days, taste one. The pickles can ferment from 3 to 6 days. The longer the fermentation, the more sour they'll become. Once the pickles are to your liking, refrigerate them.

[flyangler18]

I've done the recipe in Charcuterie a few times, and it's quite tasty:

For 10 baby cukes:

65 grams kosher salt
2 grams dill seed
1/2 cup white wine vinegar
3 grams black peppercorns
10 grams Pickling Spice (recipe below) or store-bought will do.
1.25 liters water

1 bunch fresh dill
10 pickling or baby cukes

1. Combine all the brine ingredients in a small pot, bring to a boil and boil for 3 minutes. Cool completely.

2. Place the dill and cukes in a 1 gallon jar and pour brine over them. Allow to pickle for 3 weeks.

Pickling Spice:
20 grams black peppercorns
20 grams mustard seed
20 grams coriander seed
12 grams hot pepper flakes
14 grams allspice berries
8 grams ground mace
2 small cinnamon sticks, crushed or broken into pieces.
24 bay leaves, crumbled
6 grams whole clove
8 grams ground ginger

1. Lightly toast the peppercorns, mustard seeds and coriander seeds in a small dry pan, then just crack the seeds with the back of a knife

2. Combine cracked spices with the remaining ingredients, mixing well. Store in a tightly sealed plastic container or glass jar.

Yield: 1 cup

[landis]

That sounds fantastic flyangler, thanks!

[ben the brewman]

i know if you want crispy pickles you need to make sure the cucumbers never get hot. meaning you dont want to boil them in the brine and you want to let the brine cool before adding it to the cucumbers.

[MikeFlynn74]

Why not use pickling salt and not boil?

[flyangler18]

Why not use pickling salt and not boil?

No reason you couldn't - although you'd probably have to adjust the amount slightly.

Although in the case of the recipe above, boiling also helps release aromatics from the spices in the mixture.

[fireballmatt]

We've done a bit of pickling in the family, here's how we generally do it...

Wash cukes. Let me say that again, WASH CUKES! Put your flavorings into the jar. I use dill and mustard seed - about 3 stalks of dill and 1Tbs. mustard seed.

Pack cukes tightly into the jar. You don't want them floating because any part above water can mold which will ruin the whole batch. However, you also don't want them pressing too firmly into each other. I get about 4-5 in a jar. I buy 2 jars worth at a time; I guess about 10 cukes and usually end up using less but it gives me flex room to get a good fit

Pour brine over - I mix up 1quart of water and 2Tbs in another quart jar and pour in the packed jar until the cucumbers are under water. No heating necessary, just stir until the salt is well dissolved in the water.

Cap. Screw the lid down so that they are well covered, but don't cinch it down tight - just until it begins to take more force - this will allow them to 'breathe' as oxygen / CO2 will need to escape.

Three weeks seems to be the magic number. The batch that went 2 weeks still had some white spots. My most recent batch went 3 and is fermented throughout. 72 degrees is the recommended number I just leave mine in the brew fermenting fridge.

This is quite an easy recipe and results in nice crunchy and flavorful pickles. I might have to try the recipe earlier in this thread, it sounds interesting...much heavier on the ingredients too.

If you want to do some interesting pickling/fermenting of foodstuffs, try kimchee, it is WONDERFUL and goes great with smoked meats (IMHO natch.)