Dill102: Finding Your Ferment

Pickles, part of a complete meal. Excuse me while I go make this for lunch again.

So, you found your way here by googling “probiotic foods” or “fermented pickles” — or you’re related to me. Either way, you’ve taken a step toward turning plain veggies into something briny and delicious. In this post, I’m hoping to give you the tools you need to start fermenting vegetables in salt-water brine.

If you need a little more context, check out my first post: Dill101: Intro to Pickling.

But first, a little science

An image of Lactobacillus paracasei, one of many lactic acid-producing bacteria. Photo Credit: Dr. Horst Neve, Max Rubner-Institut via Wikimedia Commons.

The goal of fermenting vegetables is to promote the growth and reproduction of lactic acid-producing bacteria (all bacteria in the order Lactobacillales, also known as LABs)[1]. These bacteria can be found naturally in any environment rich in carbohydrate, including plants and the gastrointestinal and genitourinary tracts of humans and animals. There are over 100 species of lactic acid-producing bacteria out there, including L. acidophilus — and for the designers out there — L. helveticus [2].

LABs eat some of the carbohydrate in our vegetables 🌶 (or milk 🥛, or meat 🍖 , as the case may be) and produce lactic acid. This is why yogurt is tangy, sauerkraut tart and salami … well, salami flavored.

Unlike yogurt, kombucha, beer, etc., no additional bacteria need to be added to your veggie ferments. With a little care, you can encourage the proliferation of LABs that are already on the surface of your crop.

Oh, get on with it already.

Pickled cucumbers have a tendency toward mushy. The first step in preventing the dreaded mushy pickle is selecting cucumbers that are ripe, but not overripe. Some varieties are better than others for pickling. Usually, you’re looking for a small, dimply cucumber — not the typical store-bought variety, which is coated in wax. Kirbys are good.

Preparation steps include: washing them in un-chlorinated water and trimming stem ends to remove the enzyme that causes cucumbers to start their decomposition process. I like to slice cucumbers in half before fermenting. Anecdotally, I’ve found they ferment a bit more evenly and in a shorter period of time.

After trimming up your cucumbers and any thing else you’d like to pack in for flavoring (hot peppers, garlic, mustard seed, coriander seed, dill seed), pack the jars. I find that stacking just one layer in a quart jar is easier to handle than trying to fill a half-gallon jar. Add spices, including a bay leaf or some tea leaves (tannins help keep pickles crunchy), salt water brine (details below) and top with a fermentation weight and airlock.

By submerging your veggies in saltwater, you’re creating an anaerobic environment that is toxic to “bad” bacteria and great for LABs. Keeping your veggies below the water line with a fermentation weight and using an airlock helps prevent spoilage at the surface. These special lids let the gas that will build up from the LABs escape while keeping fresh oxygen and other contaminants out. I like the Simply Sauer fermentation kit and have linked to it here. Other fermenters have great success with other, cheaper types of lids.

This recipe below can be used with cucumbers and other veggies with a few tweaks. Start here, we’ll talk more about applying these principles to other veggies in a later post.

Ingredients

• Unchlorinated (note below) water for washing
• 2 cups unchlorinated (note below) water for brine
• 19g or ~1 TB Kosher Salt* (note below) for brine (4% salinity)
• 1 quart wide-mouth Mason jar*
• 4–6 pickling cucumbers
• 1 head garlic, peeled
• Fresh dill weed
• 1 TB pickling spice*
• 1 bay leaf* or a pinch of black tea
• Fermentation weight and airlock lid*

Directions

1. Mix 2 cups unchlorinated water and salt in a sauce pan. Heat until salt is dissolved. Leave to cool.
2. Wash cucumbers in unchlorinated water just to knock the dirt off. Trim both ends and slice lengthwise.
3. Pack clean (doesn’t have to be sterilized, soap and water is fine) quart jar with cucumbers, dill, garlic, pickling spice and optional ingredients like mustard /coriander / dill seed, peppercorns and hot peppers. Stop at the shoulder of the jar so there’s enough room for your fermentation weight.
4. Once your saltwater brine has cooled down a bit (trying not to kill the microbes, remember), pour into the jar up to the shoulder. Drop in your fermentation weight. It should sit flat on the top of your cucumbers. There should be brine splashing up the sides or even covering the top of your fermentation weight. If not, add a bit more brine so it is. The goal is to fully submerge the veggies and spices, but not block the airlock.
5. If you’re using the Simply Sauer kit*, screw on the lid and use the included pump to remove a bit of the air. This is not strictly necessary and is not an option for other types of lids. The brine level should not be so high that you’re sucking water out with the pump.
6. Label your jar with today’s date. If your house is around 70º, ferment for about 11 days. If it’s cooler, ferment for longer. Warmer, ferment for less time. Smell your veggies before eating. If they smell good and are crisp and crunchy, eat them! If they’re mushy or smell off, toss ’em. See below for additional questions.
7. Refrigerate pickles that have reached your desired sour / fermented funk.

Sliced cucumbers come up to the shoulder of the jar and create a nice platform for the fermentation weight.

Pro Tips:

• Also label your jar with the date you’re supposed to eat the pickles. Makes the countdown much easier.
• You’re looking for bubbling, cloudy brine. That means the microbes are thriving.
• Your jars may bubble over. As long as the brine level in the jar is still covering your food, you’re good. If not, open it up and add some more brine per the instructions above. Don’t add plain water as it will dilute the salt, which is keeping other microbes at bay.
• If you want to free up your jars and airlocks, you can move “finished” pickles to another container. Keep in mind that the now-acidic brine can react with metals and some plastics.

Notes

Unchlorinated Water: City water is often treated with chlorine and other fun chemicals. That can be bad for your microbes. If you don’t have a Brita or other filter, set your water out for a few hours and the chlorine will volatilize.

Kosher Salt: Some folks are particular about their salt. Table salt contains an anti-caking agent that some have said will effect the ferment, but you can probably use table salt if you don’t have anything else. If you’re curious about salt and salinity ratios, learn more from The Fermentation Podcast.

Sources

[1] http://textbookofbacteriology.net/lactics.html

[2] https://www.intechopen.com/books/lactic-acid-bacteria-r-d-for-food-health-and-livestock-purposes/lactic-acid-bacteria-as-source-of-functional-ingredients

Disclaimers

You are the arbiter of the safety of your food. Even under the best conditions, things can go wrong with your pickles or ferments. The best advice I ever received was that the “nose knows.” Fermentation is an acquired taste, but if it doesn’t smell like something you want to put in your face, don’t eat it.

I recommend visiting the resources at Cultures for Health or check out the scum appendix in Fermented Vegetables by Chris and Kirsten Shockey* for more information on ferments gone rogue.

*This site is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Though I earn a commission for any sale generated here, I will only recommend books I’ve read or products I’ve used in my kitchen.