Naturally fermented pickles – Vinegar Free

Naturally fermented (cultured) pickles produce the most delicious sour flavour thanks to the naturally occurring good bacteria.  The pickles float in a cloudy brine that is delicious. Many are known to drink this brine for the flavour and beneficial bacteria. When we had sore stomach’s as kids, my mom or grandmother would have us drink a little sip of the pickle or sauerkraut brine. It really helped! 

The following recipe is directly from my European grandfather, Erich.   Some of my best memories growing up are visiting my grandparents house during harvest season, my favourite time of year.  Their cold storage was always pungent with the smell of heavy brine wafting from several massive earthenware crocks which were almost as tall as my ten-year-old self. Opening the heavy stone lid and reaching in for those super-sour-garickly pickles was so much fun!

STEP ONE

Find a local source of pickling cucumbers that are nice and firm.  If you buy soft cucumbers or tough skinned cucumbers you might end up with bitter, soft pickles. The freshness of your cukes is very important in producing a fantastic finished product.

STEP 2

Immediately wash the cukes in very cold water. If they were not harvested that day let them soak in a cold bath to crisp up as I’m doing pictured above. Be sure to de-bud the ends of the stalk.

STEP 3

Wash your crock (or wide-mouth glass jars) really well.  I use boiled water off the kettle to wash ensuring everything is sterilized.  Unwanted bacteria introduces mold which might cause the batch to go off. Once your container is washed and the cukes are ready, add the following herbs to the bottom of the crock: 

* One fresh grape leaf (grape leaves are rich in tannins that inhibit an enzyme in the cukes from going soft. If you don’t have access to grape leaves skip this step and don’t worry)
* Peeled, whole garlic cloves…as many as you want! I use 1 -2 whole bulbs, peeled, separated
* Fresh dill weed, and some dill seeds fresh or dried
* Mustard seeds, whole
* Peppercorns, whole
* Coriander seeds, whole
All of these spices are to taste.  For a one-litre jar, I’d use half a teaspoon of each spice and 1 whole head of garlic

STEP 4
Next, layer all the freshly washed cucumbers on top of all the spices and garlic. You don’t have to pack them tightly, just pile them in.

STEP 5
Now let's make the brine. 

I find 3 litres of water nicely covered 6 pounds of cucumbers. So, in a clean mixing bowl I dissolve 6 TBSP of sea salt into non-chlorinated tepid (not boiled!) water. If this math scares you: Just fill a pot of water, eye-ball how much water you think will cover your cucumbers by three inches.  Then, add sea salt by the TBSP and keep adding salt until it reaches a mouth-puckering saltiness that’s enjoyable.  If it’s sickeningly salty, you’ve added too much salt. Too much salt means the environment will be too sterile, and the cukes won’t culture, all the salt just kills the good bacteria. Too little salt, and the unwanted molds will take over and you’ll have a rotten batch.  Once you’ve mixed your water and salt solution, pour over your pickles to cover them by three inches.
*note: if you are using chlorinated city water, boil all your water and then let it cool down (without a lid to off-gas) to room temp and use that for your brine. 

STEP 6
Keep the cukes under the brine to protect them from being exposed to air. To do this, place a weight, such as a plate small enough to fit inside your crock on top of the pickles, and then set a weight on top of the plate to keep it in place.  

If you’ve made your pickles in a canning jar instead of a crock, use a small jam jar filled with water to act as the weight.  The goal here is to keep the veg under the water solution. Make sure your weight (a rock, jar filled with water etc) is also really clean!  I sterilize by boiling a giant rock in water for 5 minutes. Once you've secured the weight, let your jars sit undisturbed in a a cool area of your kitchen, laundry room or garage. Not the fridge. 

STEP 7

Check on it daily. With a clean spoon, sccoop away the “skin” and foam that will begin to form (pictured above).  While this doesn’t look pretty, it’s not bad, it’s just a sign that the cucumbers are fermenting and turning into pickles! Put the plate, weight, and cover back (after quickly washing them), and return the crock to the cool location.

Check on the pickles every few days, scooping away the foam and skin.  If the plate and weight are getting slimy, wash them with soap and boiled water. After about 7-10 days, you won’t have to scrape the foam anymore.  Just leave them and check for taste! After about three weeks, they can be removed from the crock and put into canning jars and then into the fridge.  Once in the fridge, they will continue to slowly ferment and age deliciously.  In the fridge, they can last up to a year.  Then they will be REALLY sour, but so good!

Here I’m checking on the pickles after about two weeks:

They are turning sour, but not quite finished culturing for my taste buds.  So I left them in the crock for another week. Below, after three weeks, they are nearly perfect! So, I transferred them into gallon jars to store in the fridge to slowly ferment through the season.  They are SO GOOD! You can eat them anytime. 

  ENJOY!

Questions? please drop them below in the comments!

 Blessings!

Seraphina