Fermented Dill Pickles and some Marinated Salad

July 22, 2013

I am doing some fermented dill pickles for the first time. I have done sauerkraut and Kimchi before and wanted to try some dill pickles. I read through a lot of recipes and used one from Melanie at pickle me too.com. Her recipe looked good; all except for putting the lids on tight during the 3 to 5 day fermentation. If she does she is lucky she never had any explode; you need to let the gases escape. I covered the jars with cheese cloth and used the canning rings to secure and will keep it wet when I check for scum on top each day.

I liked her bit about using grape leaves or oak leaves that contain tannin and it keeps the pickles crisp. I read if you couldn’t get the grape or oak leaves to use about a teaspoon of black tea. That is what I used.

I had some dill from my garden to use and used 3 heads in each batch.

I had a pickle plant in my garden; that were supposed to be for pickles but the pickles got fat; almost like a gourd. I sliced up one for on a salad and it tasted good. I had enough to do a half-gallon and found some local grown pickles to do another half-gallon.

For each half gallon I used about a Tbs. of pickling spices, about 1 Tb. dried garlic flakes, a tsp. of what I thought were mustard seeds. Oh well; they would work being a little lemony and my pickling spice had mustard seeds in it. I also used 3 fresh dill heads.

The two quarts of brine were enough to cover the pickles in both jars. I added two dried red chilies in the jar of local grown pickles I bought for a little heat. In about a week I should know if I have some good dill pickles or not.

Marinated Veggies seasoned

Ready for overnight in the fridge