Katie wrote:I can't see this thread title pop up without thinking of Engelbert Humperdinck.

Seriously though, I've got plenty of gift cucumbers on hand and am reviewing this thread for ideas, starting at the beginning with smashed cucumber salad.

LOL! Let's face it, that's pretty much what he meant.

And yes, smashed cucumber salad sounds wonderful.

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As I suspected, these fermented garlic dills did not take long. 10 days and they were ready. Pulled them out of the crock today . . .


Fermented Garlic Dill Pickles
I swear there are more here than I started with. Is it possible they fermented and multiplied?


Jarred Up
At least one of these jars is going to a friend's house. I'll probably keep a few but I have a lot more pickling cucumbers coming in later this week.

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Three more pounds of beautiful pickling cukes and some pristine dill arrived today (from Nichols Farm). Deployed some more of our small but mighty homegrown garlic and got another batch of garlic dills going . . .


Mise En Place & Kuwabara White #2 Tall Petty, 115mm
Spices (black mustard seeds, yellow mustard seeds, fennel seeds, gochugaru, black peppercorns), horseradish leaves, homegrown garlic, pickling cucumbers (washed and trimmed of their blossom ends), slitted jalapenos, flowering dill and pickling salt (later combined with distilled water to create a 3% brine).

Simmered the spices briefly in a portion of the water, let it steep and cool off. After that, casually layered the cukes, garlic, dill and horseradish leaves (which supposedly help maintain pickle crispness) into the pickling crock, placed the weights to hold everything down and poured in the spice water, along with enough brine to cover just past the weights. No need to check these for at least a week but I'll be keeping a close eye on the collar of the crock and adding water as necessary to make sure a seal is maintained.

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Jarred up the fermented garlic dills that I started back on August 13 . . .


Fermented Garlic Dill Pickles

~13-day ferment turned out just fine. When I reached into the crock, everything was cool to the touch, which was kind of neat. I don't think I've ever encountered that before (or noticed it) but I took it as a good sign. Considering I included horseradish leaves this time for the express purpose keeping them crispier, it's ironic that this batch seems a wee bit softer than the last batch. They still have a nice crunch, though.

I already have good homes in mind for these jars. By early next week, I hope to be onto the next fermentation project.

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Embarked on a new pickling project this week, which I started yesterday . . .


Cherry Bomb Peppers
This is about 10 pounds, which I bought as an add-on from my CSA farmer. I'm making a large batch of lacto-fermented sambal. Hoping that after giving some as gifts, it'll last all year, as cherry bombs are quite seasonal. First step was to wash and stem the peppers, then cut them into small pieces . . .


Chopped Cherry Bombs & Gihei Blue #2 Gyuto, 210mm
A bit of a painstaking process. I considered wearing gloves but doing so really slows me down. So, I went bare-handed, which presented its own set of challenges. These are really hot. Even raw, the fumes from these bad boys were choking me out a little bit. The next step was to salt them (2% by weight) and pour off the moisture that drained out as they sat overnight. Earlier today, after draining the cherry bombs one last time, I added a few more ingredients, before putting it all in the fermentation vessel . . .


Mise En Place
Garlic paste, Botanist gin, further-processed salted cherry bombs, microplaned ginger, salt (1% of drained weight) and granulated sugar. Before mixing all this together, I ran the cherry bombs -- in 4 shifts -- through the food processor very briefly to homogenize the mixture in preparation for the fermentation stage.


Fermentation Vessel
Here it'll all sit for, well, I honestly don't know exactly how long. Probably 14-17 days. Last year it took 15 days but it was a much smaller batch. After trimming, salting, draining and adding the additional ingredients, this netted out at just over 6.5 pounds. In any case, I'll be checking it regularly and keeping the collar filled with water. If it goes like last time, it'll start bubbling out gas after a couple of days (as fermentation begins).

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Off topic but not really. Has anyone had luck pickling fish of any sort? Mainly like a nice pickled herring. It’s one of my fall/winter goto’s but always purchased.

Cheers.

RockyDennis wrote:Off topic but not really. Has anyone had luck pickling fish of any sort? Mainly like a nice pickled herring. It’s one of my fall/winter goto’s but always purchased.

Cheers.

You ask and you shall receive.

I started a couple of pickling-type projects today. The first, with over 5 pounds of Persian cucumbers, is for a gathering this weekend . . .


Sliced Cucumbers & Shigeki Tanaka SG2 Damascus Habakiri Gyuto, 210mm
Added 1% salt after they were sliced and trimmed. Will let them steep and drain for the next day or so and then construct a spicy-sweet cucumber salad with them. The salad is best on Day 3, which is the date of the event.

Next up, one more crack at fermented garlic dill pickles. I think I've finally dialed in a recipe that I'm happy with . . . and I've been getting some very favorable feedback on it, too . . .


Garlic Dill Pickle Mise En Place & Shigeki Tanaka SG2 Damascus Habakiri Gyuto, 210mm
Spices (black mustard seed, yellow mustard seed, gochugaru, black peppercorns and fennel seed), smashed homegrown garlic cloves, slitted red jalapenos, pickling salt (for a 3% brine) pickling cucumbers (trimmed of their blossom ends) and dill fronds.

Ironically, I'm not a big fan of fennel in any form and I often avoid it. But after doing some digging around on the internet and in a couple of books, it occurred to me that fennel seed *might* be a missing note in my pickles. So, a few batches back, I added a scant half teaspoon to a 3-pound batch. Low and behold, it seems to add something more than a fennel note to the finished product. You can't really taste the fennel directly but it's something that feels noticeably absent when it's not there.

I made a 'tea' with the spices and let it cool. After that, I layered all the rest of the ingredients under the weights in my pickling crock, then poured the cooled 'tea' and the 3% brine over it to cover it. Covered the crock, filled the moat and there it will sit for the next 7-12 days, depending on a number of variables.

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Finally got around to jarring up the last batch of cherry bomb sambal. With a pH of just around 3.0 (and us not having a ton of surplus fridge space), I decided it was safe -- and a good idea -- to waterbath-can it this time . . .


Cherry Bomb Sambal
I actually ended up with 12 half-pint jars but gave 1 away and tested another before I grabbed this shot. So, 10 pounds of cherry bombs ended up creating almost exactly 12 half-pint jars of sambal (there was a scant ramekin of extra). Useful information? Perhaps.

In any event, it went well. Product looks/tastes/smells great and the seals seem tight. Rings have been returned -- loosely -- to the jars as a courtesy to their eventual recipients. They're not tight enough to obscure a bad seal but since most people don't eat an entire jar of sambal in one sitting, I wanted to provide them for convenient storage.

Did I mention it went well? It went so well, in fact, that I decided to give it one more shot . . .


10 Pounds Cherry Bomb Peppers
Still very nice but not quite as pristine as the last batch. Given that we're now past the middle of September, that's not entirely surprising. I had to do a bit more culling and trimming this time around.


Chopped Cherry Bombs & Sukenari HAP40 Gyuto, 210mm
This is before the first salting stage (2% by weight). You can see that a few greenies snuck in there, too. So far, it's netting out at about 8.2 pounds. I expect it'll be down to about 6 pounds after the salting and draining phase.

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Pushing the current batch of sambal along . . .


Mise En Place & Sukenari HAP40 Gyuto, 210mm
Chopped/salted/drained cherry bombs (3100g), minced garlic (5%), Botanist gin (1.5%), minced ginger (1%), pickling salt (1%) and granulated sugar (2%).

Mixed the chopped, salted and drained peppers with the other ingredients. Once it was all combined thoroughly, I loaded the mixture into a 5-quart fermentation vessel . . .


Fermenting - Day 1
At this stage, I still needed to fill the collar with water (now done). For sake of experimentation, I left this batch much chunkier than the last one. That means that it'll require more attention (stirring, mashing, etc.) over the next 14-17 days, while it does its thing. When it's all done, before packaging, I'll hit it with the stick blender and get it to the desired consistency.


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Looks amazing! I would put that stuff on EVERYTHING I eat....

HonestMan wrote:Looks amazing! I would put that stuff on EVERYTHING I eat....

Haha, thanks. Yeah, it's a bit addictive. I really had to nurse last year's batch because I didn't make enough. This year, I may have overcompensated.

But I'm still learning, so the additional reps are helpful.

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Finished up what will probably be the last fermented dill pickles of the season. 14-day ferment and I'm very happy with the results . . .


Garlic Red Jalapeno Dill Pickles
The sort-out.


Jarred Up
3 pounds netted these 2 quarts plus a few extras that I relegated to a pint deli container.

As for what prompted me to start this thread in the first place (wondering what to do after the ferment), since these are fridge pickles, I like to strain out and reclaim the spices and garlic, then cover the finished pickles with a pour of fresh 3% brine (the same salinity with which I started). In my limited experimentation, this seems to help the pickles maintain their maximum flavor and crunchiness. If I were hot water canning these, I'd probably take a different approach.

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ronnie_suburban wrote:Finished up what will probably be the last fermented dill pickles of the season. 14-day ferment and I'm very happy with the results . . .


Garlic Red Jalapeno Dill Pickles
The sort-out.


Jarred Up
3 pounds netted these 2 quarts plus a few extras that I relegated to a pint deli container.

As for what prompted me to start this thread in the first place (wondering what to do after the ferment), since these are fridge pickles, I like to strain out and reclaim the spices and garlic, then cover the finished pickles with a pour of fresh 3% brine (the same salinity with which I started). In my limited experimentation, this seems to help the pickles maintain their maximum flavor and crunchiness. If I were hot water canning these, I'd probably take a different approach.

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A thing of beauty! And I’m sure someone in thread has asked but where did you get your fermenting jar-it’s gorgeous and I want one!!!!

boudreaulicious wrote:A thing of beauty! And I’m sure someone in thread has asked but where did you get your fermenting jar-it’s gorgeous and I want one!!!!

Thanks! After seeing it (or something similar) on Chinese Cooking Demystified's youtube channel, I found one at Amazon. Iirc, it was around $50.

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ronnie_suburban wrote: These are really hot. Even raw, the fumes from these bad boys were choking me out a little bit.
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Looks great.

Have you considered cutting them on your stove top and putting your exhaust fan on high ? That will cut down on the fumes.

lougord99 wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote: These are really hot. Even raw, the fumes from these bad boys were choking me out a little bit.
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Looks great.

Have you considered cutting them on your stove top and putting your exhaust fan on high ? That will cut down on the fumes.

Great idea. My exhaust fan -- installed by the people from whom we bought our house -- is pretty much ornamental, so I'm not sure it'd have much impact. I may give it a try next time. Thanks!

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Probably a fool's errand but I had about 350g of idle CSA habaneros and a freshly sharpened knife, so I decided to try to make something happen with them . . .


Habanero Peppers, Pickling Salt & Yu Kurosaki VG10 Fujin Gyuto, 210mm

Used 2% salt and will let these express their liquid for about 24 hours before I mash them up, add a few other ingredients (garlic, vinegar, touch of sugar, etc.) and move them to some sort of fermentation. After that, I'm not really sure. It'll be way too hot to eat without cutting it with something sweet/fruity. Orange and/or mango are obvious choices but maybe I'll come up with something else.

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Finished up what I expect will be the penultimate pickling project of the season (I still have an upcoming date with some cabbages) . . .


Cherry Bomb Sambal, Batch 2
Liked this batch even more than the last one. Ended up with 12 half-pints, 1 pint and 1 little dude. I'm not going to bother hot water canning these because I have some room in the fridge for them.

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ronnie_suburban wrote:Probably a fool's errand but I had about 350g of idle CSA habaneros and a freshly sharpened knife, so I decided to try to make something happen with them . . .

After that, I'm not really sure. It'll be way too hot to eat without cutting it with something sweet/fruity. Orange and/or mango are obvious choices but maybe I'll come up with something else.

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Go the Marie Sharp's route and add carrot. One of my favorite hot sauces.

Pretty sure this will be the final pickling project of 2022. I'm taking a stab at a really big batch of sauerkraut, which started with 20 pounds of cabbage . . .


Cabbage Quarters & Kohetsu Blue #2 Tall Gyuto, 240mm (aka The Addict)

After trimming, parting, coring, etc., I ended up with roughly 15 pounds. Next step was the slicing, which I did with the food processor. I considered using my mandoline but I decided the food processor would do a tidier job. Due to the sheer volume involved here, at no point did I consider doing it by hand. The Addict would have handled it. My arm, not so much.

Once sliced, I dropped it all in a 5-gallon pail, added 2% pickling salt, mixed it all up and gave it a good pounding with a large wooden dowel . . .


Sliced, Salted & Pounded Cabbage

I'll repeat the pounding/mixing several more times over the next ~24 hours, until the cabbage gives up enough liquid to cover itself (in its own brine). At that point, I'll move it all to pickling crock, where it will continue to ferment for several more days (probably about 14). I still haven't decided if I'm going to add any other ingredients for the fermentation. I'll have to make that decision before I get to the crocking stage.

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Right on schedule, the salt+cabbage+elbow grease combo worked its magic. Here's what was left in the 5-gallon pail this morning, after about 20 hours of intermingling, mixing and pounding . . .


Salted Pre-Kraut
It's hard to tell from here but this was full to just above the 1-gallon mark. Almost like it was barely there. Hard to believe this was 20 pounds of raw cabbage -- 5 big heads -- just a few hours ago.

On the other hand, next it went into the 'official' 5-liter pickling crock, where it nearly filled the entire vessel. From here, it will ferment for a couple of weeks . . .


Pickling Crock
The moat is full of water and I placed the lid into position right after I snapped this pic.

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Another great (and timely) video from Adam Ragusea . . .


What even is lacto-fermentation?

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After a 15-day ferment, I successfully wrapped up the sauerkraut that I started back on 10/13 . . .


Sauerkraut
In the end, 20 pounds of cabbage netted 12 pints and 3 quarts of pretty tasty sauerkraut. It's got a nice fermented tang to it and a very pleasant texture (gentle crunch). I hot water-canned the pints and will refrigerate the quarts (two of which I plan to give away this week). Most of the pints, I'll also be giving away but I'll keep a few on hand. In any case, I think there might be a reuben on my horizon.

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No foolin', because I've almost completely depleted my 2022 pickle output, I figured there was no harm in conducting a little experiment. So, for the first time I can remember, I decided to ferment a batch of pickles with cucumbers from the grocery store. On top of that, I'm using some homegrown dill that I had stashed in the freezer. I love using fresh/flowering but flowering isn't really available around here right now. That said, the frozen stuff smelled really nice when I opened the bag. Other than those variables, same basic recipe and method that I use most often . . .


Pickle Fixins' & Yu Kurosaki VG10 Fujin Gyuto, 210mm
Smashed garlic cloves, spice plate (gochugaru, fennel seed, yellow mustard seed, black mustard seed and black peppercorns), slitted red jalapenos, washed and trimmed pickling cucumbers and previously frozen dill weed.

Warmed the spices in a bit of water to create a "tea" and let it cool completely. Layered the cucumbers, jalapenos, dill and garlic in a pickling crock. Weighed them down. Poured the cooled spice tea into the crock. Topped it off with a 3% (by weight) saltwater brine, so that everything was covered by about an inch. Covered the crock and filled the moat with cold water. I'll let them ferment for 7-14 days, checking them occasionally on the way. I figure that even a fail here costs me nothing more than a bit of time and a few relatively inexpensive ingredients. Otoh, if it works out, I'll have a nice batch of preseason, homemade pickles. We shall see . . .

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After a 13-day ferment, "grocery store" pickles are up . . .


Dill Pickles with Garlic & Red Jalapeno

Nice snap and intense flavor but not quite as good as my last batch (last fall). I'm just not experienced enough to know exactly why that is. Yes, it could have been the starting stock but it also could have been a number of different user error issues. Either way, it's nice to have a fresh batch of homemade pickles on hand. We'll keep one jar and give at least one of the others away. What happens to the third jar is still tbd.

Plenty of strained brine leftover, so maybe some amped up Bloody Marys later this afternoon.

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Tonight's fermenting and pickling projects:
Fresno and red bell peppers fermenting for hot sauce, recipe adapted from Cook's Country Dec-Jan 2020
Cauliflower in brine getting ready for quick pickling
Maangchi's whole cabbage kimchi minus alliums

tjr wrote:Tonight's fermenting and pickling projects:
Fresno and red bell peppers fermenting for hot sauce, recipe adapted from Cook's Country Dec-Jan 2020
Cauliflower in brine getting ready for quick pickling
Maangchi's whole cabbage kimchi minus alliums

That's a damned nice trio!

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Thanks, Ron! Will use your dill freezing idea, and maybe a jar of your pickle recipe minus garlic. Did you process the finished jars with heat, or will you just keep them cold?

Stumbled on those Fresno peppers at Garden Fresh. I don't see them very often so figured I should take advantage. Also want to try Maangchi's pickled radish before I need to return her book to the library. Would HMart carry real Korean radish as opposed to daikon?

Supposedly all these fermented foods have lots of health benefits.

tjr wrote:Thanks, Ron! Will use your dill freezing idea, and maybe a jar of your pickle recipe minus garlic. Did you process the finished jars with heat, or will you just keep them cold?

Stumbled on those Fresno peppers at Garden Fresh. I don't see them very often so figured I should take advantage. Also want to try Maangchi's pickled radish before I need to return her book to the library. Would HMart carry real Korean radish as opposed to daikon?

Supposedly all these fermented foods have lots of health benefits.

Strictly cold-packed this time around. With only 3 jars -- and only keeping one of them -- there's no need to process them. Plus, as long as it makes practical sense, I do like to keep the cultures alive and that doesn't happen with processing. I also think cold-pack taste better and have better texture (even if you add calcium chloride to hot-pack) but even refrigerated, they don't last more than a couple of months.

FYI, I'm guessing most of Maangchi's recipes can also be found via her youtube channel. I occasionally see Fresnos at Heinen's. We don't really shop there on the regular but when it makes logistical sense, we stop in for a few of them and $0.99/gallon distilled water, which I also use for pickling. I haven't been to GF since they closed the one in Northbrook.

And yes, H-Mart and Joong Boo both carry Korean radishes. I recently bought some at the latter (Glenview) when I was making broth for soondubu. Iirc, they have them both in small bunches with the greens still attached and also in bulk, sold individually, without the greens.

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