Who doesn’t like a great pickle? And who doesn’t want one that doesn’t just taste great, but is also really good for you? I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t want that. Did you know that naturally fermented foods, like naturally fermented pickles are full of great stuff like B vitamins and good, healthy bacteria? Did you also know that making pickles is actually really easy?
To make a good pickle all you need are some pickling cucumbers, water, salt, a crock and a plate? Sounds easy right? Well it is. (For some reason I’m full of questions today!) The overall process is simple, wash the cucumbers, place them in your crock, mix up the salt water brine and cover the cucumbers with it, place a clean plate on top to keep the cukes under the brine, cover with a cloth and wait. So that is just what I did this past week. Take a look.
Naturally Fermented Pickle Recipe Print
Recipe type: Snack Author: Matthew’s Puzzle Prep time: 15 mins Total time: 15 mins This recipe is inspired by Sandor Katz’s Wild Fermentation book. Ingredients- pickling cucumbers
- distilled water
- sea salt
- head of garlic, cloves peeled
- crock
- plate or small bowl
- weighted container
- Wash cucumbers
- Wash crock
- Wash weighted container – I use a mason jar filled with water
- Place the heads of garlic in the bottom of the crock
- Add cucumbers
- Mix 16 cups of water with 1/4 cup sea salt to make the brine
- Fill container with enough brine to cover the cucumbers, make more brine if necessary
- Place plate or small bowl over cucumbers to keep them below the brine surface
- Place the weighted container on the plate/bowl to keep in down
- Cover the top of the container with a cloth and place it on a counter
- Check your container daily and remove any mold that may be growing, try to get it all but do not worry if you can’t
- Check your pickles in a few days for taste
- Anywhere from a week to 4 weeks the pickles will reach their sour state, move them to the refrigerator and enjoy!
I highly recommend reading more about fermenting from Sandor Katz and found him to be a fountain of information on the subject when I saw him lecture at AutismOne in Chicago in May 2012.
