Over the past year I have been experimenting with different lacto-fermented vegetables. I have had great success with sauerkraut, cortido (Latin American Sauerkraut) and ginger carrots. I’ve tried to make pickles many times but they never turned out right. They were always too mushy or had a off taste, until a couple days ago. I finally had success! So here I am today to share with you my twist on pickles. Pickles are a great way to use up some of those cucumbers in your garden! You are supposed to use pickling cucumbers but honestly, I have no idea what kind I used. They were a gift and I was never told what kind they were, I just knew that they were the perfect pickling size. I also didn’t have any dill growing, neither did the organic farm I go to down the road so I just did without.
Lacto-fermented Pickles with Garlic
As many small cucumbers that will fit in jar
1 TBS (or 4 TBS of whey) + 1 tsp sea salt
10 cloves of garlic
2 grape or oak leaves
1 TBS mustard seeds
1. Wash and thinly slice the small cucumbers into 1/4 inch circles
2. Add cucumbers, salt, garlic, grape/oak leaves and mustard seeds into quart size mason jar.
3. Cover with water leaving about an inch of space below the rim of the jar.
4. Tightly screw on an old canning seal and ring, don’t use a plastic lid, it will let in to much air.
5. Leave on the counter for two days, then transfer to cold storage. For those of you blessed enough that would be your root cellar. For the rest of us that’s the top shelf of your fridge, where it’s the warmest. If you don’t devourer them they will last for a couple months. 🙂 If they start to smell spoiled or taste wierd throw them out or better yet, turn them into compost.
This post is part of Pennywise Platter Thursday@ The Nourishing Gourmet, Two For Tuesday, Tuesday Twister,  Simple Lives Thursday, Seasonal Round Up,Â
Thanks Andrea, I’ll link up tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by!!
Awesome! I’d love it if you could share this one on Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways also!
http://www.frugallysustainable.com
I like your garlicky twist on pickles! If you ever want to venture even further into flavours, try nonya achar! It’s a cucumber plus other mixed veg pickle, full of spices!
http://mummyicancook.blogspot.com/2011/05/simplified-nonya-achar-peranakan-spicy.html
Mare, so true about the garlic. I’m going to have to try the jalepeno. Great idea!
Awesome! I’ve had great success and some not so great success. Glad you were able to get good results… Garlic makes a HUGE difference I think. I also like to add a little spice like jalapeno or something to give it kick ;o) Thanks for linking up at Simple Lives Thursday!!
Corri, I hope you do!! 🙂
What a great idea!! I can’t wait to try this 🙂
Butterpowerbike, I think I will go pick some grape leaves int he morning!! Thanks for the tip! Would dried raspberry leaves work?
So glad you shared your success story with Two for Tuesday. I’ve had better success keeping my lf pickles crunchy since I started adding raspberry leaves. You can also use grape leaves. Or if you don’t have either or those, I think the key thing is that the leaf you add needs to be high in tannins (I think!).
Oh, easy, healthy and delicious all in a pickle jar!! Thanks for linking this to Two for Tues!
I love the number of garlic cloves in here…I bet they were great even without the dill! Great job…so glad you shared em w/ t4t this week =)
Hi Katie and glad you could join us on the two for tuesday recipe blog hop! A lot of locals have been making half sours this year and I so dont like them! These garlicky ones are gonna rock! Thanks for sharing! Alex@amoderatelife
I used well water. I’m pretty sure that it depends on what’s in your tap water. I’ll have to re-read on it and let you know. I didn’t use whey because I don’t have any made right now. Lacto-fermented veggies don’t have to use whey, you can just add more salt like I did. If you want to use whey take out the 1 TBS of salt and replace it with 4 TBS whey. Then follow the directions to same.
I asked about jar size before–then re-read the recipe and see that it’s a QUART jar. Now…a question about the ‘water.’ Is this regular tap water? or since this is lacto fermentation..is it whey??
Janine
Question: what size jar? I’m new at this lacto-fermenting 🙂 but looks like a great recipe!