Pickling Adventures, Part 2

The Making of Half-Sour Pickle Spears

(See how the great Pickling Adventures end in Part 3!)

We’re fortunate in that everyone in the family loves pickles. From Zizi and I down to the 2-year-old, we’ll demolish a jar of pickles in about an hour. Unfortunately, unless you’re willing to shell out for the giant jar of pickles at the grocery store, or a restaurant-sized can at Sam’s Club, then you end up having to get the smaller jars that don’t last terribly long.

So when we found out that a coworker of mine grows his own cucumbers, and that he has a huge surplus that he’s giving away, bells began ringing and angel voices sang from the clouds! We’d been wanting to make pickles for ages, and now we get the chance to try. We already had a giant Ball canning jar and a container of salt, we just needed the spices. Last week we acquired the spices, so this week we’re going to use them.

Basically we used just four spices: celery seed, fennel, dill weed, and ground mustard seed. We also used a few cloves of fresh garlic as well, crushed in a garlic press.

But first came the liquid, which was I believe a 3.5% brine solution. That meant approximately 2 pints of water and 2 tablespoons of salt. Pic included in case you have no idea what a brine solution looks like. Basically just cloudy water. With some floaty bits later on as we added the spices.

The spices were added to taste, so I did not measure, i just eyeballed. The mustard seed smelled amazing, so I put in a little more of that. Also, celery seed has a lovely sort of bitey tang to it that worked well. Once all the spices and garlic had been put into the brine, it began to smell remarkably like the classic dill pickles you buy at the store. We did not use vinegar this time, since they’re only half-sour pickles. Maybe for the next batch.

Next, I cut the green cucumbers into long spears and crammed them into the jar. 2 pints of brine only filled the jar halfway; I realized that the cucumbers were going to take up a lot of volume so I only made half the brine that the “recipe” called for. It worked perfectly. We fit about 4 big cucumbers into the jar as spears, and ate the remaining piece raw. The end result looks amazing!

Now the jar just has to sit in the refrigerator for about 10 days while the cucumbers soak up all that spice goodness. Every day or so we will turn the jar over so that all the settled stuff can mix better. Next Saturday we will have pickles! Stay tuned for the Grand Jar Opening!