Turning a Cucumber

The season for pickling cucumbers is upon us! Although odd and crazed, this exclamation did erupt in me, albeit mostly internally or not around many people. Since my excursion into the fine art of fermentation, I have wanted to make my greatest foodstuff addiction. Pickles. Real and sour pickles. Too long has man settled for vinegared cucumbers in America. We've only to look back at our ancestral history to see the true and truly delicious ways, back to Germany or Poland or Hungary among others. To make the distinction, they can also be called Brined Pickles. As this fermentation takes place because of the natural lactobacillus from the skin, it is filled, like sauerkraut, yogurt and kimchi, with probiotics (gut flora if you like). An acquaintance from the Ukraine told me years back that the resulting brine (pickle juice) was used for a hangover cure in Russia and Eastern Europe. Prior to this, I myself had often craved this special drink the morning after a night of too much. It seemed to work for me.

So now I have started my very own pickles. It excites me just to think about it, to see the jar of them processing above my fridge. I started one batch on July 31st, in the same jar I used to make sauerkraut. On Thursday I got some more cucumbers and so had to find another receptacle to make into a fermenter. I went to the home brew store just down the hill from my apartment to get some airlock and grommets. The airlock lets carbon dioxide, a natural byproduct, escape while keeping oxygen from getting in and creating yeasty scum on top. At the brew store I picked up a one-gallon bucket and the proprietor drilled a hole in the lid and fitted a grommet in there for me. It was perfect.

Making pickles is easy. I have linked to this site previously, because it is good and the book is better. Wild Fermentation. This has a recipe specifically for sour pickles, simply spiced. It also explains brine strength, which dictates the sourness and saltiness of the resulting pickle. I used the salinity of the linked recipe, 5.4% precisely, making for fairly salty and sour pickles. Yum. Some have used a salinity of up to 10%, where the pickle has to be rinsed off to be bearably eaten. I began my pickling by washing out my fermenter jar/bucket and adding the herbs and spices (flowering dill, two peeled bulbs of garlic, some peppercorns, mustard seed, caraway seed, chili flakes). Next comes the cukes. I put them in their in such a way as to fit them as tightly as possible. Finally the brine. Use spring water or some filtered water free of chlorine. Chlorine could kill all the bacteria you want to bolster. No tap water. I used six tablespoons, or 3/8ths cup, of kosher salt per liter of water. (OOPS! The previous sentence, although true to what I did, does not actually represent the 5.4% salinity I wanted. Rather it is closer to that 10% salinity in which eggs can float. I read wrongly and doubled the salt. Three tablespoons per liter is a 5.4% salinity. Take notice.) Kosher salt is a great salt to use as it has no iodine added and won't stain or darken the end result. When the brine covers the cucumbers and nears the top, I cap it and fill the airlock with a little water. Then wait. The airlock will bubble and brim. This is fermentation. I leave it be, let it bubble and dribble over. I know that no air connection is possible inside this way. I want to hear about it if anyone tries this. It is easy and fun. Like a science experiment you will get to eat later.

The following are pictures of their humble beginnings. I will report in a couple weeks as the fermentation becomes evident, or nears finish.