What a Crock

This past weekend I logged onto Johnny’s http://www.johnnyseeds.com/ and ordered some seeds for organic Northern Pickling cukes. Johnny’s is an employee-owned seed grower and merchant here in Maine. Since plants like The Northern cuke were developed in a northern climate, they might stand a better chance of surviving my care.

Great Northerns from Johnny's

I ordered the cukes – and a packet of dill seeds for obvious reasons – because on Saturday I started a batch of fermented pickles using supermarket pickling cukes. It seems like a shame to make something with care by hand, but use old fruit of questionable origin. So this summer my little raised bed will look like an exploded Jewish deli counter – all cukes and dill, plus whatever horseradish I put in last year that may have survived the winter.

I love canning things, including pickles – it’s a combination of art and science, accompanied by an underlying feeling of danger as the big canning pressure cooker hisses and shakes ominously.

This is a Gartdorpf
Spelled Gairtdorpf on Amazon

But the joy of making fermented  - not canned - pickles is unbeatable. First of all, if you’ll excuse me, my fermented pickles are cosmic, as good if not better than Jewish deli pickles in barrels I remember from my childhood. Second, anyone can make these pickles: if you have just a little equipment, all you do is assemble the ingredients and wait a week. Unlike their canned cousins, fermented pickles need to be kept in the fridge, and only last 4-6 weeks - not that mine go uneaten that long.

Before I share my recipe, I want to mention that the price of admission for making fermented pickles is the need to ferment the them in something that won't react chemically with the fermentation and also won't let it get out of control. I have a glorious German Gartopf fermenting pot. They used to be hard to come by, but now Amazon has them. If you search for "pickle crock" on Amazon.com or elsewhere, you'll find several brands. My little crock is a fine work of craftsman-era design, and it makes the production of pickles really easy. The fermenter even eliminates the possibility of explosion, because it uses an ingenious water trap to let the gas out, just like home beer outfits. In the crocks pictured here, you can see the flared shape the lid sits on - you just pour water into it to make the trap.

If you don’t have a crock or don't like the steep price of an imported crock, you can ferment fine pickles without one. You should do this in glass or ceramic, not plastic or metal. And you need to provide for the escape of the gas. The Internet is full of instructions for fermenting without a crock. Also a mortar and pestle is a great help in making pickles, they cost a few bucks and the ceramic ones last forever.

Another Nice Crock

This recipe for half-sour dill pickles, which quite a few people have asked me for – all but two are folks who actually ate the pickles – evolved from recipes I’ve tried as well as from my own trials. Not trial and error, since variations in ingredients (within reason) produces a range of results from great to fabulous, nothing less.

My little crock is 5 liters, so the recipe is for ¾ gallon, give or take. If your home water is lousy, you may wish to consider buying some. The water needs to be salt water, the ratio is:

One tablespoon salt to two cups water

This is one measurement you ought to stick with: my 12 cups of water use 6 tablespoons of pickling salt. I think kosher salt is ok too, since after all, the pickles are Jewish.

Ingredients:

For about a gallon, use 3-4 pounds of pickling cukes (only pickling cukes). Scrub each one and cut off the blossom end.

1 ½ teaspoons of coriander seeds, crushed with your pestle. I often use 2 tsp because I love these seeds.

1 ½ teaspoons of black peppercorns, crushed.

4 cloves of garlic, chopped but not minced. I’m not a huge garlic fan, you might go with more cloves and like it.

3 or 4 bay leaves leaves, whole.

Dill heads – or as much of a dill plant as you can get; at least four, but I’m very happy if I have a few more.

2 or 3 long, mildish peppers. I often use supermarket cubanelles when I can get them, but other fairly peaceable peppers are fine. I don’t think the pickles will be subtle enough if you use peppers with Fukushima levels of hotness. Anyway cut off the ends, cut them in half and seed them, then cut them into pieces roughly the length and width of your little finger.

As mentioned above, you need pickling salt in water, at the ratio of 1 tbsp salt to two cups of water, I use 6 tbsp for 12 cups.

To make the pickles:

1. Put on appropriate music; I used the Ditty Bops this week.

The Ceramic Weights

2. Rinse out your crock or fermenting container, which I think should be about 20% larger than the total of water and pickles. Take the weights that keep the ingredients from floating (my crock came with form-fitting unglazed ceramic ones; anything heavy and impervious will do – maybe you can find a Republican), and if the weight material is porous, wrap it in cheesecloth.

3. Put the coriander seeds, peppercorns, bay leaves and garlic into the crock.

4. Now add a layer of cukes, then a layer of dill and peppers, repeat for another layer or even two if you have enough. The order isn't really that important.

5. Dissolve the salt in the water, then add the salted water to the crock.

6. Put the wrapped weights on top, then the water trap or whatever lid arrangement you’ve found to let the gasses that result from fermentation out, while not letting air in to spoil the fermentation. This step is the difference between success and failure.

7. It takes about a week with my crock to transform cukes into "half sour" pickles. Within reason, it’s ok to open things up and check, just put it all back the right way.

8. When the pickles are done, finish weeping with joy at the taste of your sample, and decant the pickles into canning jars. Fill them right up, cover, and put them in the fridge.

9. This step is the only difficult part of the recipe: let the pickles rest in the fridge for three days. Really, you have to leave them alone. Ok, two days, that’s my final offer.

10. After the resting period, start eating and giving away jars to friends you want to impress. The pickles should last about a month in the fridge.