Saturday, July 26, 2014

Too many cucumbers puts me in a pickle

On my day off Friday I made my first batch of refrigerator pickles. I used advice from two different recipes, one for bread/ butter pickles from Hannaford and one from chow.com.

I used my mandolin to slice 4 cucumbers. 1 small, 3 medium of different varieties. Sliced to 1/4 inch.
I used about 1 tablespoon of large granule sea salt and salted the cucumbers. Placed into the fridge for two hours.

Then I rinsed the cucumbers and placed them in Mason Jars. I found three jars with lids. The cucumbers more than filled the jars. I ate a bunch of salted ones plain, where were pretty good.

For the brine I first used 1 cup white vinegar, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon peppercorn and 1 tablespoon mustard seed. I toasted the seeds, then added the vinegar and sugar, boiled for a few minutes until sugar was dissolved. I then poured the brine over the cucumbers... and it wasn't enough! So I repeated the recipe, and poured again. Almost enough, so I settled for less than perfect.

Cooled them for about 1 hour, then put on the lids, shook them up and put them in the fridge for 24 hours. Now I just have to wait, taste, and perfect the recipe.

My mom offered to bring some pickles when she visits. No thank you!

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