Canning Etc. Season 2018

@galinas No offense but that is WAY to complicated to make a pickle. I wouldn’t even know where to get that stuff.

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What stuff? Cucumbers, black currant, sour cherry, horseradish, garlic and dill grow in my garden(Some as weeds, actually). Salt and Pickle Crisp granules sold in Stop & Shop. :grin: Only problem would be to find Vodka :grin:.

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Thanks for the recipe, I assume this is for making fermented pickles? Unfortunately we don’t have any black currants, no fresh dill, no horseradish and very few tart cherry leaves! And, we only have bourbon, no vodka. You know, living in Kentucky, you gotta have some bourbon whiskey! But, I’m sure the brown color wouldn’t look good in the pickles. Curious, why put in vodka? 40g of salt doesn’t sound like a lot, that’s only about 3Tbsp per 1/2gal jar. Maybe my wife used more? I’m not sure.

I’d sure like to see a picture of a batch when you make some up, if you don’t mind.

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Vodka is to prevent mold on the top of the jar while it is fermenting. When the room temperature is above 75F mold grows faster then fermenting process goes. For spices you can add what you add - I just had that recipe written for somebody, so cut and pasted it. What important in the recipe is how tight you put the cucumbers in the jar. If you put them loose, it will be more brine, so more salt per cucumber. This amount of salt is for tight fill. But after they done you need to sterilize or keep them refrigerated(not for very long though!). If you water is hard, you do not need Pickle Crisp granules, it is only to make water harder to have your cucumbers crunchy.

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I agree with Galinas. It’s not the most basic recipe, but nothing hard to find. 3 TBs of salt per 1/2 gallon jar would work out to be about the same as my cucumber brine. Currant, cherry, oak, horseradish, and grape leaves show up in a lot of traditional recipes to add crispness and flavor. I’ve used pickle crisp (calcium chloride) in canned pickles but not fermented, but I don’t see why it would cause any problems, just not absolutely necessary. Goodness knows a lack of water hardness is not a problem around here. The vodka is a new idea to me, but again, I don’t think it’s either a problem or necessary. I use an airlock jar, so mold isn’t a problem.
So to sum up: not the bare bones basics, but not unreasonably complicated either.

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BTW, I use Fermented Vegetables, by Kristen and Christopher Shockey as my main source. I glean for ideas from other places, and use airlocks which they don’t, but use them as a solid reference.

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My fermenting knowledge came from a different country, this is why I am doing things differently. Also, I absolutely can’t eat anything with white vinegar, so only solution for me is either fermenting, or use of sour berries like red currants or citric acid for canning. Last two years I also found a way to make raspberry vinegar from raspberry, sugar and water, it doesn’t come out as strong as store bought, probably 5% acid. But is very nice to use in salads, and I also use it to can fried peppers and green tomatoes.

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I think I have pictures from last year somewhere here, let me find it.
Here you are: Two more days for first pickles of the year
It is different jar, and cucumbers are not small, but process is the same.

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Forgive the horrible lighting; old house and almost dark outside. This batch just has dill seed and pickling spice added, no garlic.

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I use Fido jars for my ferments. They create an airlock that allows gas to escape. I believe the co2 generated by the ferment quickly displaces oxygen - I never have problems with mold or spoilage. The jars become pressurized, which infuses the pickle with a nice effervescence. It gives a prickly sensation on the tongue like drinking the original vernors ginger ale. They do spray brine when they vent, so I put a ziplock bag over each jar and place the jars in a baking dish.

This is a picture of some mustard dills I did a while back, along with my favorite pickling book.

I love fermenting!

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Fig jam day… fresh from the canner…

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Nice. Just now went to the Ball PectIn Calculator site to see how you would have made that. They did not have a selection for figs. My guess is that the strawberry selection could be substituted. Of course you may have not even used pectin.Those look like wide mouth pint jars.

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I did use pectin. (Sometimes I just don’t feel like working hard at it). Used Sure Jell and the recipe is in the box. And they are just 1/2 pint jelly jars. :grin:

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That’s cheating. That is like me using a mix in my salsa. Cheating.:wink:

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Yep… it is… :flushed::flushed::flushed::confounded::confounded::confounded::upside_down_face::upside_down_face::upside_down_face:

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And the thing is…figs are one of the easiest to cook down!!
:laughing::laughing::laughing:

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Well, I must confess, I have no idea how to go about cooking it up without pectin. I have enough trouble with getting a good set with pectin. Probably cause of the high humidity that is always here. Last year I think it was or maybe the year before I was doing the saucer trick where I was putting it in the frig and then testing my set before jarring. But I quit doing that because I have found that if it sits in the pantry long enough it will always eventually take a set.

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Lol. Pretty much and if it doesn’t call it syrup and pour it on your biscuit! :+1::grin:

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Another busy canning day in the Dood household. Today we processed 8qt of half-runners, and 4qt of Rattlesnake pole beans. Looks like a couple jars didn’t seal, so we’ll have to eat those right away.

We did about 12qt of sweet pickle spears yesterday, so we’ve been busy with the cukes this year.

Our corn looks like it’ll be ready in about a week, so we’ll be doing some freezing and more canning then.

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As mentioned above, we canned 12qt of beans yesterday. I was bothered by the fact that two jars didn’t seal last night, and while the wife was taking the rest to the cellar this morning, another one had popped it’s seal as well. So, we’ll have to eat those 3qt now, before they go bad; they’re in the frig now.

These were brand new Ball regular mouth lids, so they should’ve sealed. Have any of you guys had issues with your lids like this?

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