How to make sour pickles

A deliciously sour treat that can be enjoyed at any time of the day.

Course: Fermented Food, Side Dish

Cuisine: Fermented Foods

Keyword: Fermentation, Fermented, Pickles

Prep Time: 10

Fermentation time: 7

Total Time: 7 10

Servings: people

Calories: 39kcal

Author: Gabby Campbell

Equipment

2 Litre jar + lid
OR Fancy airlock lid

Ingredients

3 Tbsp Celtic sea salt
2 litres water
500 g small, unwaxed cucumbers. You may actually need up to 1kg. Size of the cucumbers is the reason the weight can vary so much. It's better to have too many than not enough when trying to fill your jar though.
2 sprigs fresh dill
4 cloves garlic, peeled. You can add more if you like. I'll often add up to one full head.
2 fresh chillies
2 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp black peppercorns
2 vine leaves

Instructions

Wash cucumbers well and scrape the blossom end to remove the white residue (see pic below). If your cucumbers weren't freshly picked, soak them for a couple of hours in ice cold water so they recover a little of that freshness
In a jug, create a brine by dissolving the sea salt in 2 litres of water. Stir until salt is thoroughly dissolved
Clean your jar well in hot soapy water (and rinse!), then place in a couple of fresh vine leaves, dill, garlic, mustard seeds, fresh chillies and black peppercorns
Now place the cucumbers in your jar. Make sure you stuff in as many as possible (without bruising them) so they will stay submerged under the water as they start to shrink a little in the brine
Pour your brine over the cucumbers and ensure they are completely covered by it
Close the jar with the lid or your fancy airlock lid. Store in a cool place so they don't ferment too quickly
Check your jar daily and skim off any white mould you see growing on the top if it appears. If, however, you're seeing pink, green or blue mould - the batch has been contaminated and needs to be discarded. This can happen if your jar, utensils or hands were not super clean before starting
Once you start to see the liquid become bubbly or effervescent (usually a few days) the pickles are beginning their fermentation process. If not using a jar with an airlock - I 'burp' the jar each day, just by unscrewing the lid and doing it up again. You're likely to hear a fizz when you do this
Your pickles are ready for eating to your taste really, so give them a little try every few days. When the flavour suits you move them to the fridge. This might be anywhere from 1 - 4 weeks, although I tend to put mine in the fridge after about one to two weeks. They will keep fermenting in there... just much more slowly.

Notes

As per the first point - you can see the cucumber on the top here has a little white staining where the flower was before it fell off. I've scraped that off in the bottom cucumber. This helps to reduce the pectin consuming enzymes that can cause the cucumbers to become mushy.

Nutrition