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quite a fine pickle
In recent years I’ve been trying my hand at various preserves and jams and pickles, taking some nice summer fruit and vegetables and saving them for the dreary days of winter. In the past I’ve canned tomatoes and made blueberry jam, and the last couple of years Melanie and I have made applesauce. (In fact, we’re planning to pick some fresh apples tomorrow and should have the recipe up for you next week.) This year, I’ve added pickles to the mix.
Now true preserving aficionados will tell you that what most people call pickles are in fact cucumber pickles because, in fact, you can pickle all kinds of things. I once made a carrot and hot pepper pickle from a recipe by Alton Brown that he called “firecrackers.“ You can also pickle cauliflower, green tomatoes, and a lot more.
But I wanted to cucumber pickles. I grabbed some nice pickling cukes at the farmer’s market a couple of weeks ago, a couple dozen just so I could give it a go. Then I needed a recipe. I knew that I didn’t want to spend all day making them so it had to be simple. I also wanted to make my favorites, half-sours. I’m not a huge fan of dills, but they’re okay. Thus I found several recipes online that made half-sour dills. I was intrigued. One of the recipes said that it was the traditional method his Jewish grandmother passed down to him. Very interesting.
I was dubious about one thing. The jars would not be heat-sealed or vacuum-sealed. In fact, they were to sit in a cool, dark place, uncovered, for up to a week. But, but, what about bacteria? Nevertheless, I was willing to be the guinea pig. I would sample the wares warily before giving them to anyone else.
Besides the brine was full of dill and garlic and hot peppers and salt. What could live in that?!
After three days I checked and the brine was now cloudy and smelled like pickles. At this point, I chickened out. I couldn’t let them sit uncovered for a week, so I popped tops on them and vacuum sealed them.
Four more days and they were supposed to be ready. I crossed my fingers, popped one of the jars, and fished out a pickle. It wasn’t as firm and crunchy as the store-bought pickles, but then these weren’t cooked pickles. I think the manufactured ones must have something added to keep them from getting mushy. But these weren’t too mushy either. They still had a satisfying snap and bite.
But the flavor! It was intense and spicy, which was unexpected. I think I’m going to really enjoy eating these.
I’m not quite ready to post the recipe because I want to be able to replicate the results of my mashing together several others and to figure out whether any of my off-the-recipe actions were warranted. But at this point I’m declaring my half-sour dill cucumber pickles a success.
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