Here is a simple method for making crock pickles. In my continuing endeavor to eat only things we produce, nothing processed, I figured it was time to make some snacks, most of my pickles in the pantry I had canned are gone, so I figured I would make some crock pickles. So I had ordered a case of pickling cucumbers from my food supplier, will be interesting to see how these work since I have no idea when they had been picked
I went through and picked through them and disposed of any soft ones and packed them in a food grade bucket
I boiled 2 and a half gallons of water and let that cool
and dumped in in 1 and 3/4 cup of pickling salt
some will use a spice bag for the following ingredients, I don’t, so I dumped in a small jar of dill seeds and stirred well
I measured out a tablespoon of peppercorn and mustard seeds and added that
I took a head of garlic
and broke apart the cloves, these things are a pain to peel
so take a knife, lay the blade flat across the clove
and press down, it will cause the skin to rupture and will slide right off
so I peeled about 10 cloves and threw those in the pot
I measured out 2.5 cups of red wine vinegar and dumped that in as well, here is where I strayed from most recipes as well, most recipes call for distilled white vinegar, well trying to be sustainable as possible, it will be a lot easier for me to make wine and using the barrel system create wine vinegar instead of going and buying distilled white
I stirred it well
and poured it over my cukes
I set a plate with a pan of water on top to hold the cukes under the brine
and covered with a cloth and sat it in the corner, time to wait
After a week, I figured I would check out how the pickles are doing
looks good, smells good
so I fished a pickle out,
I sliced it up, middle was good, brine was forming a inner rind
I chalk this up as a success!
Do you can these after you are done or just leave them in the container you pickled them in? I’ve heard of some pickles going soft in the brine mixture if they sit too long.
we just leave them in the container and eat of it, there were some soft ones when we got near the end, those went to the animals
Do you jar these?
I just leave them in the bucket and eat of them, can also put in fridge
I’ve heard that putting grape leaves in the brine keeps the pickles crisp, I haven’t tried it, wondering if you had
We have not
Was a week long enough to brine the pickles? Did you notice a time when the pickles were at their best ? A couple weeks or more/ less time?
About 2 weeks they were the most flavorful
I have created my first crock of pickles and the appear to be great, BUT, the garlic is turning blue. Does any one have a clue as to why this is? I used Kosher salt, distilled white vinegar, boiled the vinegar and the water…
I think that is a chemical reaction to the vinegar.
I would agree
Its because you used a young garlic picked to early! Pick out large fresh garlic bulbs! AND DONT USE GARLIC that is pre peeled from a jar or package!
Snappy Pickle,
We aim to please!
So a couple questions..
Are they crunchy? I hate soft pickles.
What temp was the area you had the bucket sitting?
yes, very crunchy, we have them sitting in our pantry at room temp