Making Pickles

[Greybeard]

I took over the kitchen.  Wife left.   And I wonder why?

Waiting for the water to boil for another batch of bottles.  Electric stoves really aren't good for boiling big pots of water.

Have 6 jars of dill spears and one of dill sandwich slices.  Gonna see if I can get 4 more jars of medallions.

 

Hearing the seals popping on the first batch already.

PS... only had enough cukes from the garden to do 3 more jars, 10 total.  The cucumber plants still have a lot of growing to do.

[Rusty]

Looks good Greybeard.  

[Greybeard]

Thanks, rusty.  I added more seed flavorings to mrs wages mix.  Last year the flavor was a little weak.  Hoping they come out better this time.

[DV1]

Looks good. I put up about 24 quart jars of spears and slices, and 18 pint jars of slices and whole, baby pickles, all with Mrs Wages packet. Yesterday I tried something new. I put up a few quart jars and pint jars or spicy pickles. I just put the slices in the jars with a homemade brine, added mustard seed, garlic, dill and jalapeno pepper rings. So I will have pickled jalapeno peppers and spicy pickle slices, hopefully. I made a bunch of the  brine so I also put up a few jars of garlic and ginger pickled carrot and zucchini sticks. The jars have several slices of ginger in them so I get some pickled ginger out of it too. 

The family eats a lot of pickles.

[Greybeard]

That sounds good, DV1.  I'd like to pickle more stuff too, and can tomatoes.  I have 3 boxes of quart jars but can't use a pot big enough for them on my stove.  Has to be a flat bottom pot for one, and it has a hard time boiling the water in the smaller pot I have for the pint jars because the stove regulates the heat on and off so the glass top doesn't get too hot.   I need to get an open double burner gas stove for outside, the type that is just a ring to set the pot on.

[DBuck]

Looks good, care to share your recipe?

 

[hammer4reel]

My dad used to make a lot of dill pickles and bread and butter pickles.

He always bought baskets of pickling cukes to do it. one of the few things he didn't use cukes from his own garden for.

He said he wanted to do bigger batches than the garden supplied during a week.

 

[Bill from NJ]

14 minutes ago, hammer4reel said:

He always bought baskets of pickling cukes to do it. one of the few things he didn't use cukes from his own garden for.

He said he wanted to do bigger batches than the garden supplied during a week.

 

I agree.

Same here with us too.

Small garden.

I go to the Vietnamese Market and buy a bushel and then make some with salt/vinegar mix.

Other batches we make using fermentation in a ceramic croc pot.

Just have fun and enjoy yourself.

[Greybeard]

37 minutes ago, DBuck said:

Looks good, care to share your recipe?

 

Just mrs wages packet from walmart.  Mix with 7 1/3 cup water and 3 1/3 cups white vinegar.   And I'm trying adding a tsp of balls dill pickling spices to each jar, because wages was on the bland side when I used it last year.   That's sold next to the mix packets.   Mrs wages bread and butter mix came out really good, but it takes something like 7 cups of sugar.  I'm trying to cut down on sugar.One packet will be enough to make 12-15 pint jars, depending on how tight you can pack the cucumbers in the jar.

Edited July 17, 2018 by Greybeard

[Buck154]

Nice Greybeard. I wanted to make more from my garden but mine didn't fair that well,,,,(as did the ground hog that caused it too)  

[Bowhunter444]

I have a batch of garlic dill half sours fermenting on the kitchen table right now.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[ESetter]

Looks great! Do you have to boil the jars once they are packed? 

[Greybeard]

17 hours ago, ESetter said:

Looks great! Do you have to boil the jars once they are packed? 

 Wash everything first.  Water should be about an inch above the jars.  Boil the jars to sterilize them(bring to boil then remove pot from heat), then pack them, fill with hot(brought to a boil) liquid seasonings, leaving 1/2" space on top, and put lids on(I also sterilize lids in a little sauce pan).  Wipe the rims of the jars off with a paper towel before putting on the lid to make sure you get a tight seal.  Then put them back in water and bring to a slow boil for 10 minutes(15 for qts), then remove pot from heat and let the bottles sit in the water for another 5 minutes before removing them.

Edited July 18, 2018 by Greybeard

[not on the rug]

Nice.  

I was also going to ask if anyone here did any veggie fermentation. I eat fermented veggies every day and sick of having to pay for them.  I've been eyeballing some crocks and jars on amazon to get me started with it

[BenedictGomez]

Wow, my pickling cucumbers are just starting to come in.   I planted late or you planted early.