Pickle Your Fancy
3August 7, 2013 by drandmrso
I made pickles, and you can too. This is especially helpful if you have a gigantic cucumber plant overtaking your garden. The steps are simple enough.
1. Gather up some cukes. These are a combination of CSA and home garden varieties:
2. Peel. Preferably with a really cute veggie peeler that looks like a gnome.
3. Chop, chop, chop (thinly). If your knife skills are better than mine this will not take you 20 minutes.
4. Put cucumber slices in a bowl. My bowl has measurements (holla!) so the rest of the ingredients are based on the fact that I ended up with about 6 cups of chopped cucumber. Add 1 teaspoon of salt and mix it all up in there. Let stand for an hour.
5. After that hour, leave the brine that has started to form. Add 1/2 cup of white sugar (more if you prefer sweet pickles…but really, ew) and 1 cup of cider vinegar, plus a dash of pickling spices.
6. Stir it all up, cover, and put in the fridge. Start chomping away! Pickles will keep in the fridge for about 2 weeks.
I know what you’re thinking: how on earth am I going to eat 6 cups of pickles in 2 weeks? First, you are very likely underestimating my love of all things pickled. Second, I plan to stealthily distribute little jars to more-or-less unsuspecting recipients (family, my CSA partner, anyone that invites me over in the next two weeks, etc.). So tell me: what kind of delicious concoctions are you mixing up these days and, potentially more important, how do you pawn them off?
Update: I realized after pickling and even after writing this post that this completed #74 on my list of 101 Things. Sweet!
I am all about pickling! I started out of necessity and am totally hooked now. Our CSA kept giving us kohlrabi and I had absolutely no idea what to do with it. I eventually found a pickling recipe and absolutely loved the end result! I also started pickling jalapenos this year – they are perfect for tacos and nachos.
I’ve never done this. Do you think peeling is essential? I just traveled to Germany where pickles were served at breakfast and we loved it.
Good question, Tammy! Peeled and unpeeled are both totally acceptable and shouldn’t create a major difference in pickle quality.