Time to pickle!

Home made pickles

Sunday, September 24, 2023

  

As fall comes, try pickling extra veggies.  My favorites are the traditional pickles, pickle relish, pickled garlic and hot sauce.  You can pickle any veggie you have extras of.  Peppers love fall temperatures and are a great option for pickling.  Home pickling is super easy and a great way to preserve those extra veggies for winter eating.

My husband loves the stacker type pickles on his burgers.  I slice up my extra cucumbers to just the length and width my husband likes them for his burgers and use herbs and spices with organic apple cider vinegar for pickling.  The trick is to make sure you do not put less salt or vinegar in them than the recipe calls for.  Salt and vinegar are preservatives.  They keep the dilly solution acidic enough so your pickles do not spoil.

You can make any variety of cucumbers into pickles.  Pickler cucumbers have been bred to be smaller and have smaller seeds than slicer cucumbers, but both have the same fresh cucumber taste.  Don’t let the cucumber get too big, this results in big seeds and slows down cucumber production.

I can a jar at a time.  You want your cucumbers fresh for preserving.  I harvest the cucumbers before they get too large.  This does two things, it keeps the size of the seeds in the cucumber down and it keeps the vine producing.  All vegetables are in the business of insuring survival so they give everything they have to producing their seed, the vegetables we harvest.  If you keep removing their seeds, they keep trying to make more!

I typically can 2-3 cucumbers at a time.  These will fit nicely into a quart canning jar.  Make sure the jar and lid have been sterilized.  I slice them lengthwise to the size that will fit on a bun; make sure you remove the ends of the cucumber as some ends are bitter.  I add 2-3 flowering dill heads, 4-5 sprigs of salad burnet or tarragon, 2 cloves (the spice), 4-5 garlic cloves, 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar, 1/4 teas of caraway seeds, 1/4 teas of peppercorns, one cardamon seed pod, 3 tablespoons of salt, a bay leave, and a grape leaf to keep the pickles crunchy.  Fill the rest of the jar with water (about 2 cups is all that is needed).  If you like 'em spicy, throw in a pepper or two with stem removed.  Slice the pepper in half to get the spicy seeds.  

There is also ready to use pickling spice you can buy if you want to keep it simpler.

Sliced cucumber with herbs from the garden for seasoning

You can get a good jar seal by heating the water and seasonings on the stove to a boil, let cool, add the vinegar, then pour over the sliced cucumbers in the jar, and put the lid on. It is critical that you have at least the amount of salt and vinegar recommended or the pickles can go bad.  I shake the jar a couple of times a day until the salt is completely dissolved. You let them ferment in a cool, dark place 1-4 weeks and they are ready to eat!

Unopened pickle jars will keep for a year or longer in the pantry.  Once opened, keep refrigerated and eat within a couple of months.

You follow the same basic procedure for peppers or any vegetable you want to pickle.  

I like to make hot sauce with my Cayenne and Jalapeño peppers.  It is super easy.  I just take the peppers we like, slice them up and completely cover with organic apple cider vinegar in a quart canning jar.  Let sit in the refrigerator for 2-4 weeks.  Then put mix in food processor and process until smooth.  I then put back into a quart jar.  You now have your own hot sauce!  I keep my jars in the refrigerator.

For more on fermentation for food preservation, a good book is "Wild Fermentation" by Sandor Ellix Katz.  For traditional pickles and pickled peppers, I use Ball's Canning Book.

Cucumber ready to harvest

I love taking my garlic harvest and pickling all the cloves.  I first learned about picking garlic when I went to a general store in Albany, Georgia.  They had many local canned items in Mason jars for sale.  I saw the jarred garlic and mouth it.  They added some spicy peppers in the jar that gave it a kick.  I loved it!  It has become my favorite way of preserving my garlic harvest.

How to pickle garlic

  1.  Get quart canning jars.  I use Tattler or glass lids.  The vinegar eats at metal lids.  Easy, low tox canning of summer's bounty
2.  Either make or purchase raw apple cider vinegar.  Any neutral tasting vinegar will work.  I just like the nutritional benefit of raw vinegar.  Make your own apple cider vinegar

3.  If using your own garlic or purchasing whole cloves, separate the cloves and remove the "skin".  You can also buy separated cloves, sans skins in many grocery stores that you can use.

4.  Slice 2 or 3 hot peppers and place in the jar, if you like your garlic a kick.

5.  Fill the rest of the jar with garlic cloves to an inch or so below the mouth of the jar.

6.  Fill the jar with vinegar.

7.  Put the jar in the frig.

8.  Use cloves any time a recipe calls for it!

Another way to preserve cucumbers is to make pickle relish.  This is not the sweet pickle relish.  I use this for egg, salmon or tuna salad.  

How to make pickle relish 

  1.  Get your canning jars, lids and rings.  I chose the pint size since one pint of relish lasts me a few weeks.  You can go smaller or larger, depending on how quickly you will use the relish.  I use Tattler (BPA free plastic lid) or glass lids.  The vinegar in the relish eats at metal lids.  Easy, low tox canning of summer's bounty

2.  To let the pickled relish taste shine through, the recipe calls for white vinegar.  You can use apple cider vinegar.  Any neutral tasting vinegar will work as long as it is at lease 5% strength.  Make your own apple cider vinegar

3.  Here are the ingredients.  Feel free to adjust the spices to your taste.

8 pounds of cucumbers (peeled or with skin) finely diced

1/2 cup pickling or canning salt (finely ground salt with no additives)

2 teaspoons turmeric

2 medium onions, finely diced

2 tablespoons dill seed

1 tablespoon mustard seed

4 bay leaves

4 cups white vinegar (can use any vinegar with 5% strength or higher)

4.  Wash, peel and dice your cucumbers, place in large bowl, add salt and turmeric, cover with water  and let mix soak for 2-3 hours.  Drain in colander or fine meshed sieve and rinse well.

5.  Add cucumbers, chopped onions, seasonings and vinegar to large stock pot.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes.

6.  Remove bay leaves and fill hot pint jar with mixture, leaving 1/2" head space, making sure all bubbles are removed.  Screw on hot lid and place in pressure cooker or pot large enough that pint jars are covered with at least 1" of water.

7.  Bring canner/large stock pot to a boil, process for 15 minutes.  Wait 5 minutes before removing.

8.  Remove jars straight up from pot; do not tilt.  Allow jars to fully cool for a full 24 hours.

9.  Gently remove ring and test seal by lifting jar by seal, while supporting jar with other hand.  If seal holds, relish can safely be stored in the pantry.  If seal does not hold, relish should be placed in the refrigerator.

The vinegar and processing per the instructions are critical for food safety.  The acidity mush be high enough to use the boiling water method.  For low acid foods, pressure canning is required for food safety.  For more detailed instructions on canning:

Sites & resources for canning  

For options on jars, see my blog:

Easy, low tox canning of summer's bounty