Fermented Pickle Recipe

By gbvampy1

Ingredients

• Small Small pickling cucumbers*
• 1-2 1-2 1-2 cloves garlic
• 1 1 1 tablespoon mustard seed
• 10 10 10 peppercorns
• 1 1 1 bay leaf
• 1-2 1-2 1 heads of fresh dill (or 1 tablespoon dill seed, if you prefer)
• to 2% and water to make 2% brine solution (instructions below)

Preparation

Step 1

How to Make 2% Brine:
Dissolve 1 tablespoon fine sea salt in 4 cups non-chlorinated water. If you don’t use all of the brine for this recipe, it will keep indefinitely in the fridge.
I always use sea salt for my brines, but kosher salt or canning salt will work too. Just avoid iodized salts.
The finer the salt, the less stirring you must to do to dissolve, which is niiiiiiice. I particularly like the ultra-fine salt from Fermentools.com, as it dissolves almost immediately (and comes with a super-handy chart on the front of the bag.)
The Pickle Recipe:
Start with very clean jars.
Add the garlic, mustard seed, peppercorns, bay leaf, and dill to each jar.
Wash your cucumbers thoroughly and discard any that are mushy or soft. Remove the blossom end from each cucumber, and pack them into the jars. I prefer to leave my cucumbers whole, as it seems to give a crunchier end result.
Cover the cucumbers completely with the 2% brine solution.
Add a weight to the jar to keep the cukes from floating to the top. (I use the handy glass weights from Fermentools, but you can get creative with whatever you have on hand.)
Add the air lock assembly (or regular lid if that’s what you’re using), and set aside to ferment at room temperature for 5-7 days. Keep in mind, the warmer your kitchen, the faster the fermenting process.
After the initial fermenting process is over, remove the airlock, cover with a regular lid, and store at 32-50 degrees for up to six months. (I’m keeping mine in my fridge.) The pickles will continue to slowly ferment and improve in flavor during the storage process. After about six months, they will start to slowly degrade, but will absolutely still be edible. However, I’m betting they’ll be long-gone before then.