Pickle Issues

[sparkles2307]

Hey,

So, last year was my first attempt at making dill pickles at home. My mom canned and jellied EVERYTHING, but she never made pickles, so I just avoided them out of "tradition", and because my cucumbers never grew.

Last year I decided to go overbaord with my planting, in the hopes of getting "some" cukes. And I had way too many.

I pickled and pickled, using a recipe I found in one of those 100 year old church lady cookbooks.

Those are good, right?

No.

The pickles are soft, and they taste like salt. You can't taste the garlic or vinegar at ALL, its just incredibly strong salt water mush.

What happened?


Anyone have a good never fail recipe I can try this year?

 

[The Mama Chicken]

I haven't tried pickling yet, but I know that many of those old recipes aren't safe. This year I hope to have enough veggies to pickle and, from my research, the Bell Blue Book is the best for newbies. It's what I'll be using.

 

[chris09]

By the pickles being soft and salty I would say that the amount of salt was off. Was the recipe for presser canning, freeing, hot packing, or steam canning, what type of canning method did you use and what type of Salt did you use?

If you are going to start canning I would recommend two books the first book is the Blue Ball Book of Preserving and the second is Putting Food By.
Both are very good books but the book Putting Food By go's a little more in depth and describes how to store your canned foods, how to use a root cellar and lots more.

Chris

 

[hoodat]

Pickles should be water bath canned. The strong vinegar solution will not let botulism form. If they are pressure canned thay can get mushy. There are several ways to make them. One is the crock method, where they are first held in a strong salt brine solutuon for several days and then canned in a vinegar solution.
The simplest method I know of, and the way I do it, is to cut a bit off both ends of the cukes to let the vinegar in and pack the raw cukes into jars with dill weed or dill seeds and garlic. You then bring your bath of vingar mixed half and half with water and salt (I use half a cup of salt to a gallon of water/vinegar solution) to a rolling boil and pour the boiling hot liquid over the raw cukes, dill and garlic in the jars. Be sure to put the jars in somethink like a deep baking pan so if the jar breaks the liquid is caught by the pan, otherwise you could be burned. Put the lids on loosely, just to keep fruit flies from being attracted. Let them sit in a cool place for a week or so to cure. The refrigerator is a great place to cure them if you have the room, otherwise a cool dark place will do. When they are cured, bring your liquid to the proper level in the jar with boiling brine (you may have to add a bit more hot brine to replace what the cukes soaked up or you may have to take out a bit if your head space is too small. You then tighten down the caps and water bath can them. You will not get as tight a pack this way as you can't get as many raw cukes in a jar as brined cukes but it's simple and easy. This method allows for a minimum of cooking which makes for more crispness. Ball makes a product called pickle crisp which comes in granules and if added to your cukes before you pour in the hot vinegar/salt solution helps to keep you pickles crisp. It is nothing but calcium chloride which shouldn't have any harmful effects on the consumer of the pickles. Letting the pickles sit for a month or more after sealing the jars lets the vinegar soak in better and improves the flavor by allowing the dill and garlic flavors to penetrate the cukes but you can eat them sooner if you like.

 

[ducks4you]

Look in stores for a product called, "Pickle Crisp." That should prevent the mushy.

 

[Ridgerunner]

There are two different types of cucumbers I'm aware of, slicers and picklers. You can make pickles fom slicers and you can eat picklers like you would slicers but they are named these for a reason. If you plan on using them for pickling, plant pickling type cucumbers. I got a lot better at making crisp pickles when I switched to Boston Picklers.

Use young cucumbers. Don't let them get too ripe.

Use fresh cucumbers for pickles. Don't let them set around in the fridge for a few days before you use them. I'm not talking about thse recipes that call for letting them soak in brine for a while. Do whatever the recipe calls for, but start with fresh cucumbers.

I think someone else mentioned this, but make sure you trim the end off the cucumbers. If you leave it in, the blossom end can cause softening.

Grape leaves contain an enzyme that help keep pickles firm. Just drop in a fresh grape leaf.

 

[sparkles2307]

The recipe I used was like 1 cup mortons canning and pickling salt to 1 gallon of water/vinegar. Packed raw cuckes into jars with dill and garlic, poured boiling brine over them, and water bathed.

 

[curly_kate]

I had problems with mushy cukes until I started growing & pickling pickler cukes. Makes a ton of difference!

 

[sparkles2307]

Look in stores for a product called, "Pickle Crisp." That should prevent the mushy.

I don't like to add "things" to make them crispy. And the main issue is the saltiness. Used to be that you were supposed to add alum to keep them crisp, but that is aluminum and really, I don't want to give myself alzheimers from pickles.

 

[so lucky]

As Ridgerunner said, a grape leaf is supposed to help them stay crisp. And it's natural.........