OK, sauerruben, attempt #1: total failure.
The frustrating thing about salt brine pickling is that it is so straight forward, and yet, I screwed it up. There are really only two things that need to happen to get successful salt-brined pickles: The brine needs to be strong enough; and the solids need to be kept below the surface of the brine during fermentation. Various recipes provide various techniques for submerging the vegetables--place a plate on top and weight it down with a rock; place a brine-filled plastic bag on top; wedge the vegetables down by packing them tightly in the jar, etc. So far I have only had success with the plate and the weight. This time I tried the plastic bag and failed. The advantage of the palstic bag, when done correctly, is that it fills the entire space of the crock and prevents any scum from forming (basically unwanted mold growth.) With the weighted-plate technique you have to skim the scum every day to keep it from contaminating your pickles. However, I think I overfilled the jar, so the bags did not create a complete air barrier, so scum grew, and I didn't skim it. Also, most of my grated turnips stayed down, but a few strands floated up, creating a pathway between the air and the veggies below. This allowed some nastiness to contaminate the entire batch. Anyway the end result is that they taste like hell.
The nice thing about pickling is that you really wouldn't want to eat anything that you shouldn't eat. When they go bad, you **always** know it.
So I am going to try again and use the good old plate technique with the new turnips I bought at the farmer's market today. Turnips are a great vegetable to start with because they are cheap.
In other news, my vinegar pickling is going very well. In the past two weeks, I have made kohlrabi pickles and baby turnip pickles with the same basic quick pickling recipe. They both came out really well. The recipe goes like this:
Slice the veggies however you like (I did matchsticks for the kohlrabi and thin discs with the turnips.)
Sprinkle them with salt (maybe a tablespoon per pound.) Leave them to drain for at least an hour.
Rinse them well in a few rounds of cold water.
In a bowl mix some vinegar (Rice vinegar, white vinegar, apple cider vinegar, whatever you like...) with a couple crushed cloves of garlic, a few slices of fresh ginger, a few strips of lemon peel, some black pepper corns and a little sugar. Make sure you have enough liquid to cover the vegetables once you put them together.
Then add the veggies.
Put them in the fridge for at least 6 hours, preferably overnight.
The result is sort of a cousin to a slaw. They come out with a great, vibrant taste. I especially like the lemoniness. You could easily do this recipe with carrots, radishes, broccoli stems, cucumbers, just about any vegetable that starts out crunchy. I am tempted to try it with apples or hard pears too.
You can also mess with the spicing. Obviously a little hot pepper would do well with carrots. And some mint would enliven cucumbers. Delightful.
I also cleared out the remainder of my pickles from last season to get ready for the new ones. I found a few jars of Southern-style limed cucumber pickles and 3 jars of limed watermelon rind pickles. The cucumber pickles I made last year were a little disappointing, too vinegary, not spicy enough--room for improvement. But the watermelon pickles are great. Because they were limed, they are crunchy, and because they are awesome, they are awesome! Spicy, a little bit sweet (not crazy, candy-like) totally refreshing--just a great pickle. Got to do more of those; glad I planted so many watermelons.
