Half Sour pIckles
One of my earliest memories is sitting by the duck pond with my mom and splitting a corned beef on rye sandwich with coleslaw and Russian dressing. My mom would magick two slices of extra rye bread into existence, take some of the meat and coleslaw from the overflowing deli sandwich, and create two amazing sandwiches where only one had been moments earlier. As she was doing this, I would peek into the paper holding 2 pickles, quietly hoping that at both were the crunchy half-sour kind.
Moving from Long Island to very rural Central NY brought with it many changes, but missing the tastes of home -- good pizza and bagels within easy walking distance, corned beef on rye and pickles, Italian ices, and fancy Chinese food -- was most difficult to acclimate to. And, so, I slowly learned how to replace my favorite foods with recipes I could make myself.
With the powers of Google, you can find purist recipes to help you make true fermented pickles, but since I don't love doing hard science in my kitchen, this recipe will get you close enough. I can almost hear the ducks when I bite into these pickles.
Gather your ingredients
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8 cups of water
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1/4 cup of salt
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1 jar of pickling spice
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Firm Cucumbers (enough to fill at least 2 quart jars -- about 12-15)
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Garlic, Fresh Dill, and/or Ginger if you'd like to add extra flavor
Get Your Ingredients Ready
Mix the salt into the water until fully dissolved. Theoretically, you are suppose to heat the water, add the salt, and then cool the water, but vigorously mixing cold water and salt with a whisk will get you most of the way there
Prep your garlic, dill, and/or ginger. In our house, we just use garlic
Mash your pickling mix just a little bit to help it release its essence, and place it in the jar along with the garlic/ginger
Make your Pickles!
Pack as many cucumbers as you can into your jars on top of the spices. If you're adding fresh dill, you will want to alternate dill fronds with cucumbers. You want the cucumbers to be really tight together. Slowly pour your saltwater over the cucumbers until they are fully covered.
Now, here is where I go rouge. True Half-Sour Pickles should be fermented on the kitchen counter with special weights to hold the cucumbers below the brine. I typically just take a canning jar lid, lightly tighten it, and stick the jar in the back of the fridge for about a week.
