This recipe is one of my all time favourites and a staple in the Fermented Foody fridge.
In the meantime, here’s how you make the most delicious cucumber pickles, wallies, gherkins (or whatever you call them) without using vinegar. This way, you’ll also be eating a probiotic snack every time you open that jar and reach for a bite. Good, huh? 😉
Pickled Cucumbers
Gather Your Goodies
Vegetable Culture Starter (You will need to search for one on the internet. You will need one for this recipe, because cucumbers have high water content and go to mush easily in ferments. I use 1/3 packet for this ferment. Check the instructions on the brand you choose, for how much powder to use for a particular size jar.)
550 g Cucumbers
1 1/2 Tablespoons Sea Salt (I use more salt in this recipe than any other, again because of the high water content of cucumbers. They don’t taste very salty though, so don’t worry. Much of the salt remains in the water.)
2 Teaspoons Coriander Seeds
1 Teaspoon Dried Dill
1/2 Teaspoon Juniper Berries
1/2 Teaspoon Mixed or Black Peppercorns
1/2 Garlic Clove (Small – Unless you like strong garlic!)
It’s Action Time!
Chop your cucumber into several longish chunks. Chop each chunk lengthways into quarters.
Place all the cucumber sticks into a jar.
Prepare your culture starter by pouring it into a jar with a little filtered/mineral water. (Water filtered in a jug isn’t sufficient – it needs to be a filtered system if you’re using that type of water.)
Stir the two together and leave for a few minutes, to allow the culture to wake up.
Mix the rest of your ingredients together in a dry bowl.
Use any of the following:
Grape, oak, raspberry, blackberry, black tea, mesquite or horseradish leaves. Don’t use cherry leaves. They have poisonous qualities that are not fit for human consumption. You’re basically looking for a leaf containing tannin, that’s safe to eat. You don’t want to use much because it creates a bitter flavour. I use enough to comfortably cover the ferment and that works perfectly.
If you use blackberry leaves you will need to remove every thorn, including those along the stem. It’s a prickly job and I wear gloves for it! I’ve recently used vine leaves and they are much simpler, although not always easy to source.
I find if I make several jars of pickles at the end of the blackberry season, those leaves will transfer okay across to new ferments throughout the winter and will still help the cucumber pickles to stay crunchy. You’ll need to experiment with this one, if you’re using different leaves and don’t have access to them throughout the year.
Pour both your wet and then dry ingredients on top of the pickles, top with the leaves and shut the lid. Leave for around 3 days. Keep testing. You will know when they have changed texture and are crunchy pickles. They’re delicious!!
Like to see this video when I post it on The Fermented Foody YouTube channel? 🙂
You can sign up for ‘new video post’ notifications here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqsOK2SJRwc9k7vBl8OB_gQ
Enjoy!
