Making your own pickles

After you guys make your pickles, fry them. I think of this as still being something of a southern secret, but I'm not sure if thats accurate. Help: http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com/20...es-recipe.html

Originally Posted by mharwitt

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hmm. how long do they take in your cellar? we have a cool basement. maybe i'll try fermenting them there. the recipe i used recommended 2-3 days left out and 4-6 in the fridge prior to eating.

Six days in my cellar. What type of pickling fluid though? I used salt, no sugar, lots of spices. If you don't have Ruhlman's book yet, you should grab it. Btw, mushrooms, not so much. Garlic was meh. The onions and bell peppers were to die for.

Originally Posted by Piobaire

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Six days in my cellar. What type of pickling fluid though? I used salt, no sugar, lots of spices. If you don't have Ruhlman's book yet, you should grab it. Btw, mushrooms, not so much. Garlic was meh. The onions and bell peppers were to die for.

I'll definitely pick it up. The brine (aside from the ingredients mentioned in the OP) was 2 cups water, 2 cups vinegar, 2tbsp salt. Really basic. I'm surprised the mushrooms didn't turn out. I'm assuming you used Crimini? I really want to do green tomatoes and maybe watermelon.

Originally Posted by mharwitt

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I'll definitely pick it up. The brine (aside from the ingredients mentioned in the OP) was 2 cups water, 2 cups vinegar, 2tbsp salt. Really basic. I'm surprised the mushrooms didn't turn out. I'm assuming you used Crimini? I really want to do green tomatoes and maybe watermelon.

They turned out too mushy. The onions and bell peppers were spectacular. Crisp, spicy, with a little salt. So good with that pork belly confit I pictured above.

Originally Posted by Quatsch

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After you guys make your pickles, fry them. I think of this as still being something of a southern secret, but I'm not sure if thats accurate.

Help:
http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com/20...es-recipe.html

delicious

finally tried one last night. wretched. too much vinegar i think.

I like tarragon and rice wine vinegar for pickles. My girlfriend uses white wine (not vinegar) and then rice wine vinegar, some pre-mixed pickling spices, extra black peppercorn, dill, and some whole peperoncino intero, for mixed jars of cauliflower, blanched cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, celery, etc.

The shishitos in foodguy's article look excellent. I will try those sometime, but the ones I get here are insanely hot, many levels spicier than real Japanese shishitos.

Originally Posted by mharwitt

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finally tried one last night. wretched. too much vinegar i think.

I'll try and post the basic pickling recipe from Ruhlman this weekend for you.

Originally Posted by Piobaire

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I'll try and post the basic pickling recipe from Ruhlman this weekend for you.
yes please.

Originally Posted by impolyt_one

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I like tarragon and rice wine vinegar for pickles. My girlfriend uses white wine (not vinegar) and then rice wine vinegar, some pre-mixed pickling spices, extra black peppercorn, dill, and some whole peperoncino intero, for mixed jars of cauliflower, blanched cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, celery, etc.
This sounds great. I will try it with tomatoes.

The lady blanches and peels the tomatoes before pickling; they're intensely sour but great because the brine is good, so they're better suited to a mix with other veggies, like 1 tomato to a few other things. I'll have to ask her for the recipe to post when she comes back from Japan in a few days, but they're essentially fridge pickles and you can eat them after a few hours, and they reach maturity after a day or two. Vegetable to vegetable, the absorption of the brine can go from mellow to intense, but every time she makes pickles from this recipe, it never fails, and she just found it with an internet search on a Japanese recipe site.

Pickling cucumber, carrots, celery (using a peeler to get rid of the ribs allows a lot more brine absorption and intense sour flavor), pearl onions and even regular white onion sections, cauliflower, broccoli, thick stems of cabbage, daikon, jalapeno and banana peppers, green pepper, paprika pepper, kohlrabi, turnip, the blanched/peeled cherry tomatoes (romas blanched, peeled, and quartered would work well here too) ... think in terms of Indian/Sri Lankan pickles or even Chinese/Korean/Japanese pickles and kimchi/tsukemono, there are tons of suitable pickling vegetables.

I love pickles I've contemplated DIY, but there's a local guy (Rick) who just makes it to easy. Here's his latest offering: Attachment 49219

http://rickspicksnyc.com/

looks good. there's a guy who does pickled beets at the atwater farmers market. they're amazing with just a dark beer, like optimator.

^ quality spam... but the wholesale jar business sounds like a dreary job.

Whenever I make pickles, I mainly use this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Quick-Pickles-...5077068&sr=8-8

FYI - Schlesinger owns and runs East Coast Grill in Cambridge and also the Back Eddy in Westport. Willoughby worked at Cooks Illustrated, Gourmet, and wrote for NYT. Recipes are awesome.

I also have this volume that deals mainly with canning and preserving and has a number of pickle recipes.

http://www.amazon.com/Ball-Complete-...4&sr=8-1-fkmr0

Recipes are pretty plain but the method of canning and preserving is explained very well.

Horrible first attempt following Ruhlman's blog post: http://ruhlman.com/2010/07/csa-pickl...sed-ratio.html 50% of the cukes disintegrated in the first brine, and what was left was too salty to taste any of the aromats. Sucked. I'll have to try to some of the suggestions in this thread. The pickles I really like are the kosher dills you see in a barrel at the deli and Who's got some suggestions for me, or should i stick with the $3 jar of what I like. Not Mehttp://www.westport-news.com/news/ar...27.php#photo-3