Dill pickles are a mainstay in our medical office around 3pm as a tasty snack along with a slice of Applegate Farms salami or their nitrite-free turkey. Or, we enjoy them with a few nuts to take the edge off of our hunger before dinner. These pickles are naturally fermented through an ancient, time tested process that produces the beneficial bacteria that help your GI tract to thrive! Pickles made by adding vinegar lack the beneficial bacteria (probiotics) found in traditional, sour pickles.
Ingredients
- 8 small (3-4 inches long) un-waxed cucumbers. Look for pickling cucumbers which are small in size or cut in half the Persian cukes- although they don’t stay as crispy
- 1.5 cups water
- 2 tablespoons sea salt
- 8 sprigs of fresh dill
- 1 cloves of garlic, peeled and cut in half and smashed with a knife
- 1 teaspoon peppercorns –(optional)
- A few fresh grape, oak leaves or a leaves from the horseradish plant* ( optional)
- 1 wide-mouth 16-ounce glass canning jar
- Optional seasonings: red pepper flakes, hot chiles, mustard seeds, coriander seeds, fennel seeds, celery leaves, bay leaves, fresh herbs,
Directions
1. Combine salt and water and let sit until salt dissolves
2. After washing cucumbers, leave the cucumbers whole or cut them in half or into spears. It’s your choice. Experiment to see what you like best.
- In the jar put 8 sprigs of dill, garlic cloves and peppercorns. Set the lid loosely on top of the jar, don’t seal it. Make sure that the vegetables are completely submerged beneath the salt water. Then, add a few oak leaves on top and a small weigt on top of the leaves until it weights them down sufficiently. This will prevent air from getting into the pickles and allow them to develop their flavors and crispness.
4. Let the jar sit at room temperature. You’ll know fermentation has begun when you see bubbles rising to the top of the jar and the water becomes cloudy. A thin layer of white scum might also form on the surface of the water. This is harmless and can be scooped away with a clean spoon. However, trust your nose. If the pickles smell bad while fermenting, throw them out.
5. It will probably take 3-7 days before the pickles are done. Taste the pickles during this timeframe to see if the texture and flavor are to your liking. This is the only sure sign that your pickles are done. Once you’ve decided they’re done, tighten the lid and store the pickles in the refrigerator.
6. Because there is no vinegar to preserve the pickles, they will only keep about 1-2 weeks. If the flavor of the pickles is not vinegary enough for you, try drizzling a little vinegar on the spears right before eating.
Note*- One of the keys to helping this process is adding a few leaves from an oak tree, grapevine or horseradish plant. These leaves contain fresh yeast that quicken the fermentation process. Don’t fret if you can’t find any such leaves in your neighborhood. Yeast are in the air. So, it will ferment..it just may take a few more days.