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View Full Version : My pickles were a fail



kc7jty
10-08-2011, 12:35 AM
Don't know what went wrong. They smelled and tasted ok but started to dissolve away to mush. Not sour enough initially when sampled but a very sharp almost acrid hyper sour nip at the end. Maybe the wrong bugs took hold?
This is the basic recipe:

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2008/05/arthur-schwartz-1/

W3MIV
10-08-2011, 07:13 AM
Six tablespoons of salt in four quarts of water does not sound like enough salt to me.

I don't make pickles, but my late, lamented mother did just about every year. She made them in a stone crock, just as she did the sauerkraut, and not in jars. The crock was covered by a loose-fitting wood lid and kept in the cellar at the bottom of the steps, where it was always pretty cool (and within easy reach of pilfering fingers!), and she always made them in the fall. I think were I to try them, I would steam or boil the jars first, increase the salt, and after filling let them cool and put them in the fridge to pickle unless it were really quite cool in a garage, cellar or crawl-space.

NQ6U
10-08-2011, 07:20 AM
Did you sacrifice a cucumber to the pickle gods before you started? If not, there's your answer.

kc7jty
10-08-2011, 03:11 PM
Perhaps not cool enough. I did increase the salt but not by much.

W3MIV
10-08-2011, 03:30 PM
I wouldn't give up. Make smaller batches until you refine your technique.

W1GUH
10-08-2011, 06:15 PM
"I don't want a pickle"

n2ize
10-08-2011, 06:26 PM
Be careful. Pickled foods can easily engage botulism as the vegetable matter is in an anaerobic environment and the spores which are everywhere can roar to life. Add enough salt,make sure the pH is acidic enough and, refrigerate. A touch of sodium benzoate as a preservative can help. Keep em Kosher and you'll be good to go,.

NQ6U
10-08-2011, 06:50 PM
"I don't want a pickle"

"Just want to ride on my motor-sickle."

W7XF
10-09-2011, 10:40 AM
Sounds like someone is in a pickle xD

KG4CGC
10-09-2011, 11:40 AM
I was thinking, "someone has a pickle to grind."
Back in the day, in the year of our lard, nineteen hundred and seventy three, we put the jars in a boiling vat to seal them closed. I've heard tale of some people, who live out in Texas, who won't do this step.
There was also a recipe for lime, an essential ingredient, to help kick the salt into an overdrive situation. Other spices were used in the mixture, to help counter balance the sharpness that the lime added to an already sharp flavor. Whole coriander was one of them. I believe a few small strips of green bell pepper was added to each jar as well to absorb some of the sharp.

W1GUH
10-09-2011, 01:46 PM
When I was a kid one's "pickle" wasn't talked about in mixed company. The title of the thread made me think, "Oh NOoooooo!!!!!"

NQ6U
10-09-2011, 01:57 PM
Then there was the joke about the man who was fired for putting his dick in the pickle slicer at the deli where he worked.

They fired the pickle slicer too.

W1GUH
10-09-2011, 02:12 PM
"And I don't want to die."

suddenseer
10-09-2011, 02:44 PM
Just wanna ride my motorsciiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiikul.

suddenseer
10-09-2011, 02:52 PM
Actually, i feel your pain. I was given a large collection of red peppers. I like to eat them after removing the seeds, and white stuff near the seeds. My coworker made a batch of pickled peppers (I don't know if Peter Piper picked them). His pickled red peppers were awesome. I asked him how to make them, he jotted down the method. I followed it to the letter, the results were inedible. :yuck:

W1GUH
10-09-2011, 04:13 PM
Did he have a whole peck of them?

K7SGJ
10-09-2011, 04:51 PM
Don't know what went wrong. They smelled and tasted ok but started to dissolve away to mush. Not sour enough initially when sampled but a very sharp almost acrid hyper sour nip at the end. Maybe the wrong bugs took hold?
This is the basic recipe:

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2008/05/arthur-schwartz-1/

Don't throw the bad ones out, you can make pickle bread. Just grind up a few of them, add water, flour, sugar, salt and some yeast. As everyone knows, in order to make pickle bread, you need DILL-DOUGH.

n2ize
10-09-2011, 06:57 PM
I just want to ride on my Motor-psyche.

W1GUH
10-09-2011, 07:49 PM
I just want to ride on my Motor-psyche.


:clap:

kc7jty
10-09-2011, 09:39 PM
dill-dough