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/
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.
Did you sacrifice a cucumber to the pickle gods before you started? If not, there's your answer.
All the world’s a stage, but obviously the play is unrehearsed and everybody is ad-libbing his lines. Maybe that’s why it’s hard to tell if we’re living in a tragedy or a farce.
Perhaps not cool enough. I did increase the salt but not by much.
I wouldn't give up. Make smaller batches until you refine your technique.
"I don't want a pickle"
If it's a war on drugs, then free the POW's.
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,.
I keep my 2 feet on the ground, and my head in the twilight zone.
"Just want to ride on my motor-sickle."Originally Posted by W1GUH
All the world’s a stage, but obviously the play is unrehearsed and everybody is ad-libbing his lines. Maybe that’s why it’s hard to tell if we’re living in a tragedy or a farce.
Sounds like someone is in a pickle xD
Encrypt everything. Even if you have nothing to hide. It increases the noise floor.
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.
Last edited by KG4CGC; 10-09-2011 at 05:37 PM. Reason: words
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