The Most Amazing Pickles…… Are Fermented!

All I can say is if you’ve never tried them before, you have to!

Incredibly easy, and they put any canned/cooked pickles to shame when it comes to natural tang and flavor. Something totally different all together.

The health benefits of them are great as well. They are a natural probiotic to aid with a healthy gut flora.

The only downfalls are they take some time to brew, and they need to be refrigerated afterwards. A couple recipes I found said you can ‘can’ them afterwards, but the heat softens them and eliminates the probiotics.

There are several ways to process them, but they all involve a simple brine with spices and use the natural bacteria and yeasts of the cucumbers to form a lactic acid (the natural acid takes the place of vinegar).

I used my wine fermenter, which is simply a 5 gallon food grade bucket with an air tight lid and a clear hose going into a water trap. I used sterilized dinner plates to keep the cucumbers submerged.

They take 2-4 weeks to ferment, the longer you go the tangier they get (the natural acid level increases with time).

There’s a ton of recipes out there and this was my first batch. I honestly don’t know if I would change much at all on the next round lol

The most important ingredient (from what I read) is to use non-chlorinated water (no city water). You don’t want the chlorine to kill/retard the natural pickling process.

Think of it like sauerkraut, but with cucumbers.

Give it a shot, I promise you won’t be disappointed

I’ll post the recipe I used and some pics next

If you have cucumbers in the garden or have a farmer’s market nearby, you seriously need to try a batch

What size of cukes are you using? I’ve got the fermenter and locks and a cool garage area to ferment them AND tons of cukes. Get that recipe up here!

Man this takes a long time to get the recipe posted.

I’ve got 1 bushel of pickles I’ll be doing tomorrow. I would definitely try the recipe. Thanks.

Sorry guy’s, had dinner and a shower

Here’s the exact recipe I used. I added some fresh dill for the last few days (didn’t have any when I started)

Some recipes call for a little bit of vinegar, some don’t. I used a little.

You need some sort of tannin in the recipe. Bay leaves work, but you can also use fresh wild grape leaves or even oak leaves (I believe I read at one time)???

For size, I used everything from thumb sized cukes to larger ones (5-6″). The large’s took the brine great. 4″ is the ideal size (keep your mind out of the gutter ), but cukes don’t all grow at an identical rate, so I used a mix of sizes.

You will seriously love the end product

On my next batch I’ll probably try 21-28 days for even more natural tang. Might toss in some mustard seed too, it’s a great spice with refrigerator pickles.

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So how long did you let yours ferment?

Coletrain27 wrote:

So how long did you let yours ferment?

I went 18 days on the first batch, but I’ll go even longer on the second.

I suggest everyone looks up the actual process.

The biggest things are to keep the cukes submerged and not to use chlorine.

An airtight, but vented container prevents foam/mold. But they even say foam/mold is fine, just scrape it off??

Some recipes say to just put the cukes in jars with a coffee filter rubber banded around the top. Or even used standard lids slightly loose to let gasses escape.

Cloudy brine is normal. Mine didn’t turn out too cloudy, but a little. Maybe because it was in a sealed anaerobic environment?? IDK?

How many quarts did it make

Craig Sery wrote:

How many quarts did it make

8 quarts of finished product in quart jars (basically the same as what I started with)

You could double the recipe (double the cukes, the brine, the spices) and still get them all into a 5 gallon pail.

One gallon jars would be awesome for the fridge once processed, especially if your using larger pickles (4″+), but the quart jars work

I did an on-line check and found a recipe that hasn’t got any vinegar or allspice. Garlic is optional so for the first go round I’ll omit it. Going to do a half gallon batch. I’ll punch a hole in a wide mouth lid to fit a fermentation lock in and seal with silicone, top and bottom. Mine will get the full 4 weeks. Starting them tomorrow. Stay tuned.

And B-man…..thanks for the idea!

I’m not a giant Allspice fan, but I really liked putting it in. If nothing else giv’er a pinch. It gives them a little heat without real heat. More like a bite.

Seems like alot of red pepper flakes? Does it make it a hot pickle? I do hot pickles but use a half of habanero in the quart.

How did you dissolve the salt? No heat? Did you heat everything then let it cool and pour it on after it cooled? Thanks

riverruns wrote:

Seems like alot of red pepper flakes? Does it make it a hot pickle? I do hot pickles but use a half of habanero in the quart.

Not hot at all. The pepper flakes are pretty wimpy unless you boil them to bring out the oils.

riverruns wrote:

How did you dissolve the salt? No heat? Did you heat everything then let it cool and pour it on after it cooled? Thanks

The recipe I used called for a straight cold brine. Just stir it up and dump it over the cukes.

When I do refrigerator pickles, I boil the brine and let it cool though.

There’s a thousand fermented pickle recipes out there, just sharing what I chose for my first batch. I didn’t have fresh garlic or fresh dill, but the end product was still awesome

Wish I could try them all

So many pickles….so little time

I love Bubbies Pickles, they’re expensive, but one of the few true fermented pickles available at a handful of grocery stores.

One day I’d like to make a perfect replica of them. Maybe by round seven or 77 I’ll have something just like them

Thanks. I’ll be trying a glass gallon jar tomorrow.

I agree – fermented cukes are the way to go! Have not done a hot bath or vinegar recipe in years. Fresh pepper slices (Serrano) with a mountain of dill is my go-to. I would also suggest trying a sample early in the fermentation. You might like it. Say about 5 days at a 71 degree room. They are just starting to get tangy and acidic – when you snap them in half they fizz harder than a shaken can of 7-UP. I usually have to burp my lids 1-2 times a day until the fermentation settles down.

I forgot to mention DILLY CARROTS! Ferment carrot slices as you would in making dill fermented pickles. Look it up! If you closed your eyes and ate one you would have swore you just ate a crunchy dill pickle and not a carrot. No lie.

I have been fermenting pickles for a few years. you need water, cukes, canning salt, Pickling spices, bay leaves or oak/grape leaves and dill optional garlic

Make a 3.5% to 5% brine with salt. Wash cukes cut off blossom end or they will be soft. I cut off both ends as they absorb brine better. I put 1 tbl spoon of pickling spice, 6 to 8 cloves of garlic 3 oak leaves ,Dill put cukes in till 1/2 gallon jar is half full put dill on top and 1/2 tbl spoon pickling spice. put more cukes leaving space for more dill and 2 oak leaves. Cover with brine I use a ziplock snack bag filled with water to keep cukes submerged. if using a big crock a clean saucer or plate would work. I put lids on but do not tighten. I keep on kitchen counter with towel over for darkness. The fermenting will start sometime the 2nd day. Keep burping the jar I ferment till bubbles slow down to just a few usually the 5 to 7th day. Then refrigerate and enjoy.

Mwal

I’m going the vinegar-less route. I have a 1/2 gallon jug stuffed with small to medium cukes, a few chunks and some sliced length-wise to see if any one type does better. Grape leaves and mega-dill are mixed thru out the jug. Doing the water filled zip lock trick to keep the pickles down and a simple wide mouth screw down lid. It’ll go in the shop closet for 2 weeks, then sampled. If it needs more time they can go for another couple weeks.

Just waiting on the brine to cool…..1 1/2 quarts of water and 4 1/2 tablespoons of canning salt heated to dissolve the salt.

Well I’m trying it. Came out with just over a half gallon of brine used. Went pretty close to b-mans recipe with adjusting for the size. But didn’t use any vinegar. I also threw in a garden cuke cut into spears and threw a few banana peppers in from the garden.

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Well, with how short on time I was with moving off the river to the country, my plan to try this didn’t work out.

I took the easy way out. Did 22 quarts of dill and garlic pickles and 5 one gallon jars of refrigerator pickles today.

I’ll mess with a gallon of fermented pickles later. Thanks B-man for the post. I love trying new pickling recipes.

Well I checked on my pickles again today. They have been in the closet for one week. I noticed today some of them on the top had a white film on them…. not sure if that is bad or not? They were all covered with liquid so I know they didn’t get exposed to air.

I threw the ones away that had the film on them and put the jar in the fridge. I tried a small one and it didn’t seem sour to me at all… I added about a cup of vinegar to the jar and will test one again tomorrow and see if they are a little more sour.

The white stuff is the dead bacteria. It settles out and fluid will clear when fermentation stops

Anybody make these, Tom How did yours turn out?? A month must be up.

trytoofish wrote:

Anybody make these, Tom How did yours turn out?? A month must be up.

I didn’t care for mine… I prefer refrigerator pickles where I just slice them up and put them in vinegar/water and add some hot peppers

Just jarred mine up yesterday. They turned out great, a bit hotter and more sour than the first batch I did.

The second batch I battled Kahm yeast, I think I had more pickles in this batch with the same amount of brine. I had to skim off the yeast every few days. Definitely more probiotics in the second batch

(Pics below comparing the two batches of fermented)

My brine was really cloudy like Bubbies pickles from the store

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trytoofish wrote:

Anybody make these, Tom How did yours turn out?? A month must be up.

This is my first year making fermented pickles. Compared to my refrigerator pickles, using the same spices and such, I like them way better. By quite a bit.

Next on the list is fermented hot sauce.

After I read this thread I decided to try fermenting pickles. They were awful, very bland, and the look was not very appetizing. I guess that’s why most pickles are vinegar pickle.

Cooperman wrote:

After I read this thread I decided to try fermenting pickles. They were awful, very bland, and the look was not very appetizing. I guess that’s why most pickles are vinegar pickle.

Sorry to hear that

You probably(?) didn’t use my recipe then

The fermented pickles from both batches I did are the antonym of bland. They’re tangy, sour and spicy. With a flavor all of their own. Not just the normal vinegar/salt/dill taste of canned pickles.

Out of my 110 quarts of pickles, using 6 different recipes (some refrigerator pickles, some canned pickles, and some fermented pickles), they are my favorite. Everyone that’s tried one asked for a second…..or third….or a whole jar lol

Don’t give up on them just yet

B-man, I’m not going to give up. I was really hoping they would turn out good. I didn’t use your recipe, I used a recipe that I could make a smaller batch with. I might have to pick up some of the Bubbies to get a feel for what I’m shooting for. If anyone has a good small batch recipe, I’d be willing to give it a try.