Pickle It Yourself

I think I killed my taste for cucumbers this summer. Its hard to believe that I could harvest so many cucumbers in one season. Actually, I brought this upon myself.  On a road trip to the Fiestaware factory outlet in WV with my adorable friend Marie, we stopped at Janoski's local farm stand and I found a whole bunch of very nice looking plants. The problem was that they came in four-packs priced at only $2 each. How could I resist? I bought a four pack of cucumber plants and put all of them in the ground, thinking only two would thrive and produce. Boy was I wrong.  We returned from a week-long trip right after July 4th and found about a dozen enormous cucumbers hanging from the plants and probably 20 more small ones that would be ready to harvest just a few weeks later. I have been harvesting cucumbers for two solid months and they are beginning to get on my nerves. I brought a bunch of them to work, but it barely made a dent in my harvest. I mean, seriously, how many cukes can two people eat? There's only one thing to do with too many cucumbers. Make pickles, of course!

To some folks, the idea of making pickles is daunting.  Questions abound. How does a brine work? Do I have to ferment them for a long time? How do I keep them crisp? How do I keep them from going bad in the pantry? What kind of vinegar should I use? I was talking to my 93 year old dad about how his mother made pickles. He described a crock that sat on the kitchen counter for months and the time-intensive process she went through to ferment her own pickles the old fashioned way. Not all pickles are created equally - there are hundreds of types of pickles and they are enjoyed by many cultures around the world.  Pickling was a main form of food preservation long before the invention of modern refrigeration. Sauerkraut is really just pickled and fermented cabbage. In Japanese cuisine, pickled ginger is quite popular. On the Indian table, you will find mango pickle. There are pickled eggs, pickled beets, pickled pigs feet and even pickled herring. You can pickle just about anything.

Picklesburgh features a giant inflatable pickle.

Of course, the technique, preparation and ingredients for a great pickle are different depending on your tastes. Pittsburgh is the hometown of H.J. Heinz and people here are proud of the important role pickles have played in the city's history. In July, we have wonderful festival called Picklesburgh that takes place on one of our stunning bridges and all things pickled are celebrated and on display. I go every year, but given the annoying abundance of cukes in my kitchen, I was there for inspiration this year.  For my first batch of the season, I decided to go with one of my favorites, the sharp sweetness of the bread & butter pickle.

***IMPORTANT NOTE****
After making a few batches of pickles, you get a feel for the proportions of the ingredients. I started by following a recipe for the brine, but I had a lot of cucumbers to deal with and I didn't want to have any left over.  You need enough brine so that each jar is filled to the rim, so you might need to adjust the amount of vinegar and sugar to ensure that you have enough brine. Too much is better than not enough.

BREAD & BUTTER PICKLES

15 cups of sliced cucumbers (12-15 medium large cukes)
1 thinly sliced yellow onion
1/4 cup kosher salt
2 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar
2 cups sugar
1 tsp tumeric
1 tsp mustard seed
1/2 tsp celery seed
1 tbsp pickling spice (optional)
1 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)

My husband makes a pickle recipe that was handed down from his grandmother. They are affectionately known as "MomMom pickles" and they almost treated as currency in his family. This recipe is made with sliced zucchini and the brine is more sweet than tart. MomMom's secret to keeping her pickles crunchy is to salt them and let them sit for a long time so the excess moisture is drawn out of the zucchini, which firms them up so they don't go soft in the brine. MomMom is a farm cook and everything she learned about food and cooking was passed down to her by generations of farm cooks. In my opinion, that is the kind of kitchen wisdom you can't get from a book. So, if it works for MomMom, its gotta work for me. I used a crinkle cutter and sliced my cucumbers into thick, crinkled slices and I also sliced the onion very thinly. I put it all in a colander and tossed it with the kosher salt, then covered the top with ice and set the colander in the sink. Its important to keep the cucumbers cold while the salt does its work. Three hours later, there was a generous pool of light green liquid in the sink and the cucumbers had a slightly firmer texture.  They were ready to rock.

In order to dissolve the sugar and allow the spices to release their flavor, the brine needs to be simmered. I put all the brine ingredients into a big pot and brought it to a simmer over medium heat. Once the brine was simmering, I rinsed my cukes and put them in the pot with the brine to cook for just a moment. This step is omitted from some recipes, but I find that the brine penetrates a little better if the pickles are simmered in it for just a few minutes.  If you are using something more firm, like green beans or cauliflower, its a good idea to simmer them in the brine so they soften slightly before they are jarred.

The pickles should be packed tightly into jars and the best way to do this is with tongs. Lift the pickles out of the hot brine and put them in the jars making sure to press them down so you can get as many in there as possible. Once your jars are filled with pickles, ladle the brine over them so it covers the cucumbers. You can keep the jars in the fridge or you can seal them using the traditional canning method and they'll be good in your pantry for about six months, although mine don't make it that long. I made seven jars of bread & butter pickles and for my second batch, I made sour pickles with dill seed from my garden. I'm hoping they'll make it to Thanksgiving, but they are in high demand. Pickling is really not difficult and once you learn the technique, you can pickle whatever you have on hand. Don't be shy, give it a try!

Homemade Pickles

My husband's grandmother has been making pickles for her entire life. Her pickles have become known as "MomMom Pickles" and they are prized among the family. Her recipe is made with sliced zucchini and has a similar sweet and tart flavor of bread and butter pickles. She is now 94 years old and she stopped making pickles several years ago. Last summer, my husband took up the mantle and replicated MomMom's pickle recipe with tremendous success. This year I thought I'd try my hand at making my own pickles.

Our garden didn't do well this year.  My heirloom tomato plants suffered from late blight and I had to pull them up before they bore any fruit. The rabbits and groundhogs have treated my radishes and parsley as if its their own personal salad bar. The only real success I've had so far is with a single cucumber plant that has taken over a corner of the garden. There were about 10 cucumbers that were all ready to be harvested all at once. I like to think of that as "pickle time".

Given how popular MomMom's pickles are, I decided to try making my own bread and butter pickles. I did a little research and cobbled the recipe together based on the common themes I saw. Some recipes called for pickling spice, cloves or bay leaves, but that didn't seem to be a universal thing. Tumeric, however, was in every recipe I found and it gives the pickles that classic golden color. I stuck with the spices that were in every recipe. I did find a couple of tips that were helpful to keep the pickles crisp and I took some guidance from Jason's grandmother's zucchini recipe. First, the fresher the ingredients, the better the final product. All the recipes I found called for buying the cucumbers at a farmers market the same day you plan to make pickles. No problem there, I just walked out my back door and procured said cukes from my garden. Second, variety does matter. Certain types of cucumbers have less water and seeds in them and therefore make a better pickle. Kirby cucumbers are the most common variety for pickling, but you can really pickle anything. Its best to avoid the really fat cucumbers because they'll have more seeds. Finally, most recipes insist that the sliced cucumbers be kept as cold as possible to maintain their crispness. Some recipes call for letting them sit overnight to dry out, but that seemed excessive to me. Here's how I did it.   

BREAD & BUTTER PICKLES

3 lbs fresh sliced cucumbers 

1/2 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced

1/4 cup Kosher or pickling salt

2 cups white vinegar

1/2 cup water

1 cup sugar

2 tbsp mustard seeds

1 tsp celery seeds

1 tsp tumeric

First, slice the cucumbers and the onion. You can do this by hand for a thicker slice. You can even use a crinkle cutter if you want. You can make these pickles any shape your heart desires, its a matter of personal preference. I took the easy route by using the food processor and the slices are pretty thin. Once you have everything sliced, put it all in a big colander and sprinkle it liberally with kosher salt. Toss everything together and make sure the salt is mixed in. The salt will draw moisture from the cucumbers, making for a crunchier pickle. Finally, put a handful of ice cubes on top. The ice will melt slowly and keep everything really cold as it drains. Put the colander in the sink and let it sit for 2 hours. The cucumbers will release a lot of liquid during this time. 

After two hours, rinse the cucumbers and onions well under cold water. Get the biggest sheet pan you have, line it with a couple layers of paper towels and spread the rinsed vegetables out in a single layer on the sheet pan. Place another layer of paper towels over the top and press down to make sure the pickles release as much liquid as possible. I actually put another sheet pan on top and weighted it with cans and jars from my pantry, just to draw any remaining liquid out. Some recipes called for letting the cucumbers sit overnight to dry. Mine sat for two hours, which gave me time to get all my canning supplies ready to go. I have a system I use for making jam, which I have done multiple times. I have a double porcelain sink and I use the smaller side for this process. I scrub the sink well and use just a tiny bit of bleach to make sure it is completely sterilized. I wash my glass jars, lids and rings in hot soapy water, rinse them well, then place them in the clean sink and submerge them in boiling water. I also throw in the wide-mouth funnel and the spoon I use for filling and jars so they are also sterile. This way my jars are ready when I am ready and I don't have to use a special pot or take up another burner on my stove. 

After two hours of drying the cucumbers, it was time to make the brine. I combined the vinegar, salt, water, sugar and spices in a large, deep pot and brought it to a simmer over medium heat. Some recipes call for placing the cucumbers into sterilized jars and pouring the brine over the top. Jason's grandmother cooks her vegetables in the simmering brine for two minutes before canning, so that's what I did. It only takes a minute or two. If you boil your pickles for too long they'll fall apart. I moved the whole pot of pickles next to the sink and with a pair of rubber tongs, I lifted my sterile jars out of the water and using the wide-mouth funnel, I filled each jar with pickles, then poured in enough of the brine to fill the jars to the rim. Once they were full, I wiped the rims with a clean paper towel and sealed them up with lids and rings. Now the pickle jars needed to take a hot bath to make sure they were airtight for storage. 

This is where a canning pot would normally come into play. A canning pot is a big contraption with a wire rack in the bottom to keep the jars from coming into direct contact with the heat source. The jars are placed on the rack, the rack goes in the pot, it gets filled with water and the water is brought slowly up to a boil over low to medium heat. The boiling water creates an airtight seal and you know the jars are done when you hear the lids make a popping sound. I have an old canning pot, but it doesn't fit in any of my kitchen cabinets or on my stove, so I do the same thing with my finished jars that I do with the empty ones.  I put a clean towel in the bottom of the porcelain sink, put the jars on the towel and pour boiling water over them until the tops of the jars are submerged. I pour more boiling water over the jars after about 20 minutes. If the lids have not sealed after about 45 minutes, I'll pour more boiling water over them, but in most cases they are sealed after the second round of boiling water. 

The last jar I filled was only half full and I put it in the fridge as a test batch. Two hours later, I popped the lid and tasted a pickle and it was delicious, even though it wasn't ready for prime time. It was sweet and tart, just like a bread & butter pickle should be and it still had a fabulous crunch. I also tried a little a trick - I put a slice of ginger and two small slices of garlic in the bottom of each jar. I can't wait to see if those flavors end up making a difference. These pickles taste best after sitting in the brine for a few weeks. Your pickles should stay crunchy for at least six months or longer in the jar, but I doubt they'll last that long. Next time, I will probably cut my cucumbers a little thicker and I may try using a little more onion. If my cucumber plant continues to produce, this won't be the last batch of pickles I make this summer.