raw pickles!!!

[NoniPixie]

i'm addicted! this is so easy and delicious! all of my friends can't get enough. and i cna't believe i haven't been doing this my entire life!!

Ingredients:
you need

apple cider vinegar
water
cucumbers
pickling spice of your choices ( optional ) i used hot pepper, dill, and peppercorns

Preparation:
1. place spices in bottom of mason jar

2. slice cucumbers how you choose and SHOVE into mason jar. no need to be polite about it, it less air in there the better. it's okay if they snap or bruise a little. leave an inch from top of jar.

3. create a brine of 1/2 acv and 1/2 water and pour into jar. i like to take a knife and go around the sides of the jar to release any air bubbles that might be hiding. this is probably not needed tho.

4. this is the only somewhat sorta hard step. now for the next 24-48 the mixture is going to be sitting on your counter at room temperature fermenting. i just put a cheesecloth on top so it can breathe. the only thing you have to do is keep the pickles from rising above the water. if that happens that's when a serious problem could occur now this is so easily treatable. i take a cabbage leaf and place it as a layer on top of the cucumbers, i then place marbles on top to use as a weight to make sure to water is always above the marbles. now some people use bags of water, or cabbage and rocks. you can get creative. jsut make sure the pickles stay submerged. now you want to check on it twice a day for the next 24-48 hours. the water has a tendency to leak out and lower the level. i simply add water and a splash of acv to the top just to make sure.

5. with cucumbers i usually wait a day and a half. i then put a lid on them and put them in my fridge. i'm pretty sure they'll last a few months to a year in there. but they taste so amazing that i don't think any of them have lasted for more than a few days. ENJOY!!!

[Aleesha Sattva]

i was going to make some this year... but i'm going to wait till i'm done fasting. i love pickles too much... i don't think i could fast with a fridge full!

[TaupeRawMan]

My body doesn't do well with ACV and I like the natural fermentation process. I like the recipe found at http://www.wildfermentation.com/resources.php?page=pickles


Making Sour Pickles
Excerpted from Wild Fermentation...

Growing up in New York City, experiencing my Jewish heritage largely through food, I developed a taste for sour pickles. Most of what is sold in stores as pickles, and even what home canners pickle, are preserved in vinegar. My idea of a pickle is one fermented in a brine solution. Pickle-making requires close attention. My first attempt at brine pickle-making resulted in soft, unappealing pickles that fell apart, because I abandoned it for a few days, and perhaps because the brine was not salty enough, and because of the heat of the Tennessee summer. And and and. “Our perfection lies in our imperfection.” There are, inevitably, fermentation failures. We are dealing with fickle life forces, after all.

I persevered though, compelled by a craving deep inside of me for the yummy garlic-dill sour pickles of Guss’s pickle stall on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and Zabar’s on the Upper West Side and Bubbie’s in upscale health food stores elsewhere. As it turns out, brine pickles are easy. You just need to give them regular attention in the summer heat, when cucumbers are most abundant.

One quality prized in a good pickle is crunchiness. Fresh tannin-rich grape leaves placed in the crock are effective at keeping pickles crunchy. I recommend using them if you have access to grape vines. I’ve also seen references in various brine pickle recipes to using sour cherry leaves, oak leaves, and horseradish leaves to keep pickles crunchy.

The biggest variables in pickle-making are brine strength, temperature, and cucumber size. I prefer pickles from small and medium cucumbers; pickles from really big ones can be tough and sometimes hollow in the middle. I don’t worry about uniformity of size; I just eat the smaller ones first, figuring the larger ones will take longer to ferment.

The strength of brine varies widely in different traditions and recipe books. Brine strength is most often expressed as weight of salt as a percentage of weight of solution, though sometimes as weight of salt as a percentage of volume of solution. Since in most home kitchens we are generally dealing with volumes rather than weights, the following guideline can help readers gauge brine strength: Added to 1 quart of water, each tablespoon of sea salt (weighing about .6 ounce) adds 1.8% brine. So 2 tablespoons of salt in 1 quart of water yields a 3.6% brine, 3 tablespoons yields 5.4%, and so on. In the metric system, each 15 milliliters of salt (weighing 17 grams) added to 1 liter of water yields 1.8% brine.

Some old-time recipes call for brines with enough salt to float an egg. This translates to about a 10% salt solution. This is enough salt to preserve pickles for quite some time, but they are too salty to consume without a long desalinating soak in fresh water first. Low-salt pickles, around 3.5% brine, are “half-sours” in delicatessen lingo. This recipe is for sour, fairly salty pickles, using around 5.4% brine. Experiment with brine strength. A general rule of thumb to consider in salting your ferments: more salt to slow microorganism action in summer heat; less salt in winter when microbial action slows.

Timeframe: 1-4 weeks

Special Equipment:

Ceramic crock or food-grade plastic bucket
Plate that fits inside crock or bucket
1-gallon/4-liter jug filled with water, or other weight
Cloth cover
Ingredients (for 1 gallon/4 liters):

3 to 4 pounds/1.5 to 2 kilograms unwaxed
cucumbers (small to medium size)
3⁄8 cup (6 tablespoons)/90 milliliters sea salt
3 to 4 heads fresh flowering dill, or 3 to 4
tablespoons/45 to 60 milliliters of any form of
dill (fresh or dried leaf or seeds)
2 to 3 heads garlic, peeled
1 handful fresh grape, cherry, oak, and/or
horseradish leaves (if available)
1 pinch black peppercorns
Process:

Rinse cucumbers, taking care to not bruise them, and making sure their blossoms are removed. Scrape off any remains at the blossom end. If you’re using cucumbers that aren’t fresh off the vine that day, soak them for a couple of hours in very cold water to freshen them.
Dissolve sea salt in ½gallon (2 liters) of water to create brine solution. Stir until salt is thoroughly dissolved.
3. Clean the crock, then place at the bottom of it dill, garlic, fresh grape leaves, and a pinch of black peppercorns.
Place cucumbers in the crock.
Pour brine over the cucumbers,place the (clean) plate over them, then weigh it down with a jug filled with water or a boiled rock. If the brine doesn’t cover the weighed-down plate, add more brine mixed at the same ratio of just under 1 tablespoon of salt to each cup of water.
Cover the crock with a cloth to keep out dust and flies and store it in a cool place.
Check the crock every day. Skim any mold from the surface, but don’t worry if you can’t get it all. If there’s mold, be sure to rinse the plate and weight. Taste the pickles after a few days.
Enjoy the pickles as they continue to ferment. Continue to check the crock every day.
Eventually, after one to four weeks (depending on the temperature), the pickles will be fully sour. Continue to enjoy them, moving them to the fridge to slow down fermentation.

[ArcturusXIV]

Hrm, this sounds interesting. Since you can basically use any spices, I am going to try variations on this with English cucumbers until it's done.

I was thinking of a variation of the second recipe, removing garlic (probiotics + antibiotics?), peppercorns, and grape leaves, and instead using horseradish leaves and a pinch of cayenne. I imagine you could do this a couple hundred different ways. I have heard mixed signals about fermented foods, so I think in moderation this should/could be okay.

Oh yes, since I'm growing basil, might as well throw some in as well. :) I use it in my kim-chi, and it is fantastic! I am really getting the hang of this raw diet! Now, for the other 10%, and I'm done.

[ArcturusXIV]

Does anyone have a sweet pickle recipe? I am thinking raw relish.

[Basenjimamma]

omd..this sounds soo good..I love pickles as well and wil try these out..could I do this with Okra as well you think?.

[imaquillen]

I love pickles, too, and found this perfect pickler. I love it and it is in continuous use at my house. So far, I've only made dill pickles and green beens, but they are so yummy and a nice addition to the raw lifestyle.

http://perfectpickler.com

[imaquillen]

Here's a sweet pickle relish I found.



http://goneraw.com/recipe/raw-fermented-sweet-pickle-relish

[freespirit]

I now have cukes pickling on my counter!! cant wait!! I never buy them because they are processed to death but if i can make them this easily at home, well, i can become the pickle eater i always want to be. :p

[RawKnitster]

I've had okra at a potluck. The family that brought it does a lot of preserving. Don't know if it can be called pickling because they don't add vinegar. They call it fermenting. The brine is 2 Tablespoons sea salt for each quart of water. Put whatever you want in it, weight the food down with a plate so it stays underwater, cover top with a tea towel or cheesecloth, put the crock in a bowl to catch any liquid that may come up over the top during the fermenting process, put in a dark corner or cover with towels to provide darkness.

I tried their method with small whole "pickling" cucumbers. To each quart of water I added 2 Tablespoons of sea salt, 1/4 cup of vinegar, and 2 cloves of peeled garlic. I also added one Tablespoon of dried dill and one teaspoon of mustard seed. I set it on the counter for 2 days, but the herbs would not stay submerged, so I put it in the fridge for 2 weeks to finish pickling. Best pickles I've ever eaten! Next time I'm putting the spices in a cheesecloth bag so everything can be kept submerged.

[NoniPixie]

i agree my body has alwasy been sensitive to acv. SO .... the first time i tried pickling i made it with a brine of just salt and water. like a lot of the recipes called for. you have to ferment them almost a week on your counter. which is not a big deal, i LOVE fermenting, i make tons of kefir and kombuchas... ANYWAY, i checked on my pickled, cucs, beets, okra, and radishes all week... and they ALL went bad, they smelled bad, molded. i followed the recipes exactly and was so upset i wasted all that food. so i said screw it. i made a brine of half water / half acv and tried it. it worked amazingly! and the end result doesn't taste a thing like acv. it's incredible! sooo much easier and worked so quick.

[BlackKat]

I have a batch of Alissa's Bread and Butter pickles from RFFE brewin' in the fridge right now. Can't wait to taste! I've had a craving for pickles for some time now and finally convinced myself to try some. :eat

This spring/summer I plan to grow my own cucumers so this may be something I do a lot of.

[CINDY A]

Did you get to see the 2 recipes from Wild Fermentation... that I just posted today

Basic Kimchi and fruit Kimchi ---check it out

[iwuvmydoggy]

Making raw pickles is easy. xD

I like to use 1/2 water 1/2 ACV, some sliced white/red/yellow onion (whatever you want) and some fresh cucumbers, sliced into rounds, add one or two cloves of garlic (or to your taste) and add a bit of salt & pepper- fresh ground or peppercorns- to taste, then I add a few dried whole chilis (usually Korean type, but it's optional) & put it in a glasslock container & store in the fridge for up to a week.. I think it tastes the best when it soaks in the juices for about 2 or 3 days. :) It's quite tasty fresh, too. I also like to use more ACV than water sometimes, because I like the pungent flavor of it.

There's lots of great tsukemono/kimchi/pickle recipes from Korea & Japan. :) tsukemono is Japanese for "pickle" and kimchi is Korean for "pickle"... You can make "pickles" from pretty much every vegetable you can think of- carrots, radishes, cabbage, onion, green onion, garlic, eggplant, ginger, cucumber, squash, peppers, etc.. As well as some kinds of fruits- Persimmons, plums, peaches, melons, etc.

Some pickles take months & some only take a few days. Some require you to boil the liquid to kill bacteria (but not boil the fruit/vegatable), others don't.

There's various kinds of "pickles" as well.. The one the Original Poster made and the one that I made are examples of "Water Pickles" or "water kimchi" "mool kimchi" "mizu tsukemono"...

Here's some books:

Quick & Easy Tsukemono: Japanese Pickling Recipes (http://books.google.com/books?id=uhmWD6NAvGIC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false)

Easy Japanese Pickling in Five Minutes to One Day (http://books.google.com/books?id=Ny2HLxaaKEsC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false)

Here's the Wild Fermentation (http://books.google.com/books?id=qCMmXAp237cC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false) book that TaupeRawMan referenced.

There's also some books on Amazon with great recipes:

Kimchi: A Natural Health Food (http://www.amazon.com/Kimchi-Florence-C-Lee-Helen/dp/0930878590/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1300155930&sr=1-1)

Good Morning Kimchi! Forty Different Kinds of Traditional and Fusion Kimchi Recipes (http://www.amazon.com/Good-Morning-Kimchi-Different-Traditional/dp/B003Q52P3G/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1300155967&sr=1-3)


After a while, you will probably come to the conclusion that it's a mix/match of whatever you like within the recipe. You like onions? Add more onions... You want it more spicy? Add some more peppers or pepper flakes.. etc. :)

[BeingK8]

I was thinking of a variation of the second recipe, removing garlic (probiotics + antibiotics?), peppercorns, and grape leaves, and instead using horseradish leaves and a pinch of cayenne. I imagine you could do this a couple hundred different ways. I have heard mixed signals about fermented foods, so I think in moderation this should/could be okay.

Oh yes, since I'm growing basil, might as well throw some in as well. :) I use it in my kim-chi, and it is fantastic! I am really getting the hang of this raw diet! Now, for the other 10%, and I'm done.

Is the garlic relative to the probiotics? I'm new to all of this and learning. Your wording makes me think it could be and that you're asking, although I don't actually understand how it would be because there are recipes for fermented foods that don't have any garlic or garlic substitutes, just veggie and salt. ???

And would you share the recipe for the basil kim chee? That sounds very cool and I have an abundance of basil in my garden right now. Thanks! :-D