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| So handsome! |
Peter is always trying to learn new things but typically our interests don't cross paths. A few weeks ago when he agreed to go with me to pick dandelions for my infused oil the afternoon was wrought with an array of complaints and when I wanted to go to Portland at 10 pm one night to pick up beeswax for my lip balm his head nearly exploded. That being said, he is usually willing to help me out, but it was cool that he was really into the idea of pickling. I digress...
Anyway, we went to Bizi Farms and picked up some of what we needed. I got the cucs, some gherkin size and most 3-4", the garlic and the dill.
I loosely interpreted Dawn's recipe and added jalapenos so the recipe ended up as:
25lbs pickling cucumbers
4 heads of garlic
2 bunches of dill
roughly 3 1/2 tbsp crushed red peppers
4-5 jalapenos sliced and seeded
20 wide mouth quart jars (for the larger cucs)
6 pint jars (for the gherkins)
For the brine (this recipe is good for like 8 quarts so I ended up making three batches of the brine):
8 cups apple cider vinegar
8 cups water
3/4 cup pickling spice
2 tsp alum
The recipe calls to put the cucs on ice for anywhere from 5-24 hours so as soon as I got them home, I put them in a cooler and covered with ice.
It was super hot on Saturday so my plan was to do the project on Sunday, but at around 6 pm I decided that we should just go ahead and plow forward so plow we did. The first thing I did was to prepare all of my ingredients so they would be easy to grab when packing the jars.
Once everything was prepared, the recipe called for scrubbing the cucs. I didn't really think that this was necessary until pulling some cucs out of the ice to find flowers, stems and mud all attached so they really did need to be scrubbed. In hindsight, it definitely would have been easier to scrub the pickles before putting ice on them.
After they were scrubbed, they went back into the ice until I was ready for the next step which was to submerge them in almost boiling hot water for about 10-15 minutes right before packing them into the jars. I sanitized my sink then used it to hold the pickles which made it easy to grab them for the jars.
The things that I found challenging with this technique were:
-I wasn't sure exactly how many cucs should go into the water bath so I ended up with too many, or too few for the batch.
-It was difficult to have the near boiling water ready so I couldn't do a seamless transition between batches.
While the pickles were resting in the hot water I got the brine ready. I am sure that there's a better way than how I did it. Like a WAY better way. My problems with the brine were:
-Not having a large enough vessel to keep the brine in which resulted in having to make brine in the middle of processing.
-Not being able to keep all of the brine hot.
I made the brine in the largest pot that I have then kept it in my coffee pot on the warming plate so it would stay hot. This was an OK idea as it did keep the brine hot; however, my carafe only holds 12 cups which fills like 4 jars so I had to contend with that which meant a lot of time spent reheating the brine on the stove. I think maybe next time I will use a large coffee pot, like one of the 50 gallon ones.
While I was dealing with the brine situation and the pickles were soaking, I had my jars boiling in a large pot. I don't own a canning pot which has not been a huge problem for me because all of the canning I've done has been half-pints and my stock pot can accommodate lots of these jars. Canning quarts, though, my pot only held 4 jars so it took forevvvver to can everything. I will definitely be investing in a canner very soon. Also, though, Dawn said that she puts her jars in the oven to heat them which I will do next time as well. Doing it that way will likely result in less burns from the boiling water. HA!
I started working fast to pack the cucs as soon as I removed the jar from the water. I put about 3" of hot brine in the bottom to keep the jar warm, threw 5-6 cloves of garlic, 2 heads of dill in, 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes and a slice of jalapeno, then I started packing the cucs in. This part took some practice for sure. I was trying to pack them all in upright, but quickly found that the top cucs were poking out above the brine so then I started packing the bottom ones all upright then the top layer on their sides. It seemed to work pretty well that way. After all the cucs were packed in SUPER TIGHTLY I added more brine to fill the jar leaving 1/2" head space.
Then they went into the pot. Once the water came to a boil again, I processed them for 15 minutes then took them out and set them on dry, cotton fabric. The whole process repeated itself like a million times (six times) and then I was done. The time that it took for the cucs to process gave me ample time to clean up which was nice. Dawn says that it takes about three months for the cucs to completely cure into pickles. I hope they turn out!!!!
All in all, it was a good experience, but I will definitely make some adjustments next time around.
2 bunches of dill
roughly 3 1/2 tbsp crushed red peppers
4-5 jalapenos sliced and seeded
20 wide mouth quart jars (for the larger cucs)
6 pint jars (for the gherkins)
For the brine (this recipe is good for like 8 quarts so I ended up making three batches of the brine):
8 cups apple cider vinegar
8 cups water
3/4 cup pickling spice
2 tsp alum
The recipe calls to put the cucs on ice for anywhere from 5-24 hours so as soon as I got them home, I put them in a cooler and covered with ice.
It was super hot on Saturday so my plan was to do the project on Sunday, but at around 6 pm I decided that we should just go ahead and plow forward so plow we did. The first thing I did was to prepare all of my ingredients so they would be easy to grab when packing the jars.
Once everything was prepared, the recipe called for scrubbing the cucs. I didn't really think that this was necessary until pulling some cucs out of the ice to find flowers, stems and mud all attached so they really did need to be scrubbed. In hindsight, it definitely would have been easier to scrub the pickles before putting ice on them.
 |
| Not the muddiest, but still dirty! |
The things that I found challenging with this technique were:
-I wasn't sure exactly how many cucs should go into the water bath so I ended up with too many, or too few for the batch.
-It was difficult to have the near boiling water ready so I couldn't do a seamless transition between batches.
While the pickles were resting in the hot water I got the brine ready. I am sure that there's a better way than how I did it. Like a WAY better way. My problems with the brine were:
-Not having a large enough vessel to keep the brine in which resulted in having to make brine in the middle of processing.
-Not being able to keep all of the brine hot.
I made the brine in the largest pot that I have then kept it in my coffee pot on the warming plate so it would stay hot. This was an OK idea as it did keep the brine hot; however, my carafe only holds 12 cups which fills like 4 jars so I had to contend with that which meant a lot of time spent reheating the brine on the stove. I think maybe next time I will use a large coffee pot, like one of the 50 gallon ones.
While I was dealing with the brine situation and the pickles were soaking, I had my jars boiling in a large pot. I don't own a canning pot which has not been a huge problem for me because all of the canning I've done has been half-pints and my stock pot can accommodate lots of these jars. Canning quarts, though, my pot only held 4 jars so it took forevvvver to can everything. I will definitely be investing in a canner very soon. Also, though, Dawn said that she puts her jars in the oven to heat them which I will do next time as well. Doing it that way will likely result in less burns from the boiling water. HA!
I started working fast to pack the cucs as soon as I removed the jar from the water. I put about 3" of hot brine in the bottom to keep the jar warm, threw 5-6 cloves of garlic, 2 heads of dill in, 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes and a slice of jalapeno, then I started packing the cucs in. This part took some practice for sure. I was trying to pack them all in upright, but quickly found that the top cucs were poking out above the brine so then I started packing the bottom ones all upright then the top layer on their sides. It seemed to work pretty well that way. After all the cucs were packed in SUPER TIGHTLY I added more brine to fill the jar leaving 1/2" head space.
Then they went into the pot. Once the water came to a boil again, I processed them for 15 minutes then took them out and set them on dry, cotton fabric. The whole process repeated itself like a million times (six times) and then I was done. The time that it took for the cucs to process gave me ample time to clean up which was nice. Dawn says that it takes about three months for the cucs to completely cure into pickles. I hope they turn out!!!!
All in all, it was a good experience, but I will definitely make some adjustments next time around.
