Friday, January 29, 2016

Dills

I keep inching up my efforts and experimentation with fermentation. Addictive, and fun.

I'd expected that I'd have to wait until summer to get some of these little pickling cukes, but was surprised to find them at the big market a few days ago. I didn't buy a lot of them -- not prepared to do a lot of them right now -- but wanted to give it a try. There is enough to fill up one quart jar and part of another, which is why they ended up in the crock rather than a glass jar.

Floating in the brine isn't ideal, but I quickly found that the weights I use for kraut and kimchi do not work on roly-poly floating cukes! So, until I'm able to work something else out, I'll just stir these around often enough that everything stays clean and mold-free. They will be just fine.

They began smelling like dill pickles within a couple of hours, which was cool. Now I wait for a couple of weeks and see what I end up with. Better to experiment small the first time anyway, I've found, then use the techniques I learn for larger batches. And if they are available in the market year-round, I can make small batches year-round once I get the process down.

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