Fermented Pickles

There is no food that divides LJ and I more than pickles.  Whenever she sees, smells, or tastes (god forbid!!) any type of pickle she makes a face that can only be described as resembling the Mr. Yuk sticker.  I on the other hand cherish the memory of my Grandma M's pickles nearly above all others from my childhood.  I have been on a mission to recreate those pickles over the last few years, and though this recipe does not use the same techniques Grandma M used, the end result is the closest I've come yet.

This recipe comes from the writer of Food in Jars, one of my go to canning blogs, but I found it through this NPR program that attempts to recreate lost family recipes (a really brilliant idea I think).  Since my first attempt with fermentation of sauerkraut did not go as well as I hoped (I thought I blogged about it but can't find a link now so maybe I didn't share the failure with the world) I was a little hesitant to try this recipe, but my love of pickles won out.

The process is actually quite simple and only takes a few minutes to set up the jars to ferment.  A word of warning though about the process.  Everything I've read about fermenting encourages you to check on your product every day but I neglected this step.  I just covered the jars with a towel and forgot about them for a week.  When I returned the surface had quite a bit of scum on it and mold growing.  This all happens from yeast and mold that are naturally floating in the air and as long as your food stays submerged during the fermenting process things will be fine.  By checking on your product every day it helps disturb theses colonies from growing and can help from grossing you out.

After clearing out the mold and scum I snagged a pickle from the jar and cut off a piece to see how sour it was.  I was surprised by how much it tasted like a pickle already, considering that there was no vinegar in the recipe.  All told I let the two jars ferment on the counter for nearly three weeks before I put them in the refrigerator for storage, though one has nearly been empty already from all my snacking.

Storage is really the only downfall of these pickles versus vinegar pickles.  The fermented pickles can't be canned when they are finished so they must be stored some place cool to slow the fermentation process.  Traditionally this would have been in a root cellar but we don't yet have one of those, so for now they take up precious refrigerator space.

One last lesson regarding fermentation that I often seem to forget.  Chlorinated tap water can inhibit the fermentation process.  If you have well water you probably are fine using that but if not it is probably better to buy spring or distilled water to ensure that your product turns out.  I believe this was part of my problem with my first attempt at sauerkraut.