Scenes from the Great Pickle Experiment, 2012: Ever since I came across The Accidental Southerner’s blog post last summer, I’ve been dying to try my hand at making pickles. Well, refrigerator pickles, that is: I’m not so sure that I want to try canning yet. I’m not that much of a domestic goddess. So, yesterday, we picked up a few cucumbers from the local farm market and I went in search of pickling gear. I’m still not sure if I have enough mason jars — the ones I found were hidden in the back of a Target — so we might have to eat some of these faster than others.
Pickles, Stage 1
Two brines — one from Bobby Flay, the other a tart and spicy one.
Pickles, Stage 2
Seton Harvest cucumbers in the tart and hot brine
Vinegar, sugar, salt, pickling spice, lots of garlic, dill, and red pepper flake
Pickles, Stage 2.1
Mayse Farm Market cucumber in the Bobby Flay brine
Covered in plastic wrap and ready for the fridge
Vinegar, salt, sugar, mustard seed, celery seed, dill seed, fresh dill, garlic
Pickles, Stage 3
I didn’t have plates to weigh down the cucumbers | tomatoes, so I stacked the bowls
I’ll leave them for a couple of days, then move them to mason jars stuffed with dill
Notes: All pictures taken with the iPad’s crappy camera. Both brines contained water. More pictures to come after I move the pickles to their final resting place.
Tags: Local Foods, Pickles
well pickle me pink! I hope the outcome tastes as good as it looks so far.
The “Perfect Bite” recipe made some amazing pickles. The other one was adequate — but not amazing. I suspect the adequate ones will be used on hamburgers and in Fried Pickles (for The Coach, of course). Next time, I’m only going to make the one recipe.