Making pickles

Cafe Society
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So I did eventually try pickling via fermenting. I got four wide mouth mason jars and a kit on Amazon with glass weights and airlock jar tops. I’ve fermented cabbage and gotten pretty good sauerkraut. I’m fermenting some jalapenos now, jury is out.

Fermenting cucumbers was a bit of a bust: I used Persian cucumbers, quartered, with dill and garlic, and… the pickles were soft and mushy. Refrigerator pickles were hands-down better. Further reading seems to show that crisping cucumbers is quite the art. I’ve got some Ball Pickle Crisp in my Amazon cart, and I may try better Persians from a farmer’s market, plus Pickle Crisp, plus maybe dowsing the cucumbers in ice water before pickling. Anyone have tips?

62

Pickle crisp is the same stuff they put in cans of diced tomatoes to keep them from turning to mush (calcium chloride) - works pretty good.

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OK, I let the jalapenos ferment for 10 or 11 days. They finally grew milder, and I stuck them in the fridge. But they have a weird metallic flavor on top of the “mmm, pickled peppers” flavor that I’m not enjoying. Possibly they’ve gone bad, but I cautiously ate half of one little slice, waited a day and didn’t get ill. I think I’m going to call this one a failure though.