Easy Fermented Pickles

Author: Debbie Wolfe

Ingredients

5 Tbsp. sea salt or pickling salt* (quality sea salt like this is great)
2 quarts room temperature water
4-6 cloves garlic, peeled
2 Tablespoons dill seed (certified organic dill seed)
1 teaspoon of loose leaf green tea or any loose leaf tea (this increases the tannins, which help keep the cukes crunchy) -this is a nice organic jasmine green tea
1 tablespoon of black peppercorns and red pepper flakes (optional)
Enough pickling cucumbers to fill a ½-gallon glass jar (make sure they are pickling cucumbers, like Kirby's. Regular salad cucumbers do not pickle well and will become mushy)

Instructions

Preparing the Cukes

All cucumbers have a stem end and a blossom end. Removing the blossom end will help keep the cucumbers crunchy. The blossom end contains enzymes that can cause softening. Confused about which end is which? The stem end will be greenish and rough, and in most cases still have the stem attached.
The blossom end is yellowish or whitish. It’s typically smooth.
Remove at least 1/16th inch from the blossom end. Repeat for all the cucumbers.

Prepare the Brine

Add the salt to the room temperature water.
Mix in the salt until completely dissolved. The water will be clear again.
Add the spices to the bottom of a sterilized jar and pack in the cucumbers tightly. I like to just fill it up to the “shoulders” of the jar. Fill the jar with the brine until the cucumber are completely covered, but don’t forget to leave a one inch headspace.
The cucumbers need to stay submerged. I learned this trick from Alton Brown. Use a sandwich size zip baggie and fill it with about an inch of water. Press as much air out as you can and zip it shut. Press the baggie into the jar until the cucumbers are completely submerged. Some brine may spill out—that’s fine. Wipe the rim and put on the lid. Place the jar on a saucer in a cool, dry place.

Fermentation

Depending on how warm it is in your home, fermentation will take up to four weeks. After a couple of days you will see little bubbles forming in the jar. This is the fermentation process. The warmer the temperature in your home is, the faster the fermentation process.
As the fermentation process gets going, you will need to check it daily. The gas produced during the fermentation process will cause the lid to bulge and some of the brine will leak out. You can alleviate this by “burping” the jar. Simply remove the lid to let the excess gas out. Replace the lid and check again the next day.
The pickles are done when the bubbling stops and the cucumbers have turned an olive green color inside and out. At this point, refrigerate the pickles. The fermentation process will continue, but a slower rate in the fridge. Enjoy your pickles on sandwiches, burgers or straight up! Fermented pickles are a great way to get a daily dose of probiotics in your diet.

Notes

*A note on salt. You may use any type of PURE sodium chloride for this recipe. Pickling salt is 100% sodium chloride. Some sea salts will have anti-caking agents added to them, so be sure to read the label. The anti-caking agents won’t necessarily impact the taste, but it will cause the brine to cloud.

Recipe by Scratch Mommy at https://scratchmommy.com/easy-fermented-pickles/