How to Make Pickles

Welcome to the delicious world of PICKLE SEASON! Today, we are unwrapping all the secrets and simple ways to make pickles, ensuring your pantry is ever-ready with homemade, tangy delights. Navigate through the charming lanes of pickling and preserving with tips that promise a jar full of crunchy goodness every time! But what about those pesky uncertainties – like mold and proper preserving techniques? Worry not! We’ve packed this episode with FAQs about pickles, ensuring your pickling adventure is smooth and utterly delicious. Let’s get pickling!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CcsI-ouWE8

To make pickles you only need a sterilized (boiled and bacteria-free) jar with lid, a brine with the right proportion, any raw fruits, and vegetables. The brine is the most important part of pickling. There are many different brine recipes but today we’ll give you a working and delicious Turkish recipe which we always use for our pickles.

Ingredients:

• 1 L soft drinking water, 4 cups (don’t use tap water)
• 80 ml vinegar, 1/3 cup, prefer white wine vinegar, but you can also choose different vinegars such as apple, grape or red wine
• 2,5 tablespoons coarse orock or sea salt
• Half lemon juice, optional

Directions:

1. Mix the water, vinegar and salt in a beaker and stir for 4-5 minutes until the salt dissolves.
Wash and dry the vegetables which you pickle. Discard the rotten or soft parts, they can spoil all pickle.
2. Cut in half or score bigger pieces to equalize the fermentation of the vegetables.
Fill the clean jars with vegetables and press to use maximum capacity of the jar.
Pour the brine into the jars.
3. To give a deeper taste and fasten the fermentation, you can put 2 chickpeas or a piece of sourdough bread. This is the basic recipe, but depending on your flavour preference you may add some lemon juice, garlic, dill, coriander seed, celeriac etc.
4. The tannin in vine and bay leaves can prevent pickle to soften. Therefore, before closing the jars, you can place a vine leaf on the rim or 2-3 bay leaves in the pickle.
5. Add more brine and to prevent air contact.
6. Store in a dark and cool place or in a cupboard. Pickle will be ready around 3 weeks. You can store up to a year. After opening the jar store in refrigerator.