I stopped at a farmer’s market today, and they had bushel baskets of pickling cucumbers on sale. I guess the season is ending. I like pickles, and I like to cook and make things in the kitchen, so I came home and read up about it. I have just purchased a 22 quart canner with rack, some canning tools, quart jars, and tomorrow I go back to get ten pounds of cukes and the pickling salt, etc.
So, does anyone have recipes for me? I am going to start with Polish dills, but am interested in other things like sauerkraut, pickled peppers, etc.
I am a complete novice who just decided to go for it today.
Pick up a copy of “Joy of Cooking” while you’re out–it has a great section on the fundamentals of pickling which can give you the basic understanding of the underlying principles of what you’re doing. Specific recipes from the book are also good, although I tend to double or triple up on the spices because I like spicy pickles.
For the first attempt at pickling I’ve ever done, I tried this recipe from Joy of Pickling. They came out really great, but you have to eat them in a timely fashion since they are half sours.
The second time I made them, they came out kind of mediocre. It seems that the timing of the fermentation is fairly critical and I think I let them go for too long. I’m going to try it again in a week or two.