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.09.02.10. - You can bump my pancakes any day.

Pickles!
by Steve

Mmmmmmmm! This was my very first batch of pickles. It was much easier than I'd expected. These were "half sour" pickles. It took 6 days to age. Here are the instructions, in case you want some.

For supplies, you will need:

A 1-gallon jug
A stock pot
3-4 smaller, heat-resistant containers for storage. Make sure they're good for more than 220 degrees (as we'll be pouring boiling water into them.) Old pickle jars are great. Tupperware's usually great too. PET bottles -- say, a former peanut butter jar -- is no good, it can't take the heat.
Sharp knife

Your ingredients:

20 pickling cucumbers
6 cloves of garlic
1 cup kosher salt or pickling salt
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp pickling spice
10 or so sprigs of fresh dill
A couple whole allspice

Instructions:

Dissolve salt in 1 gallon tap water.
Cut about 6 cloves of garlic in half.
Fully wash and dry all the pickling cucumbers.
Slice up the cukes. I like slices about a half inch thick. Discard the ends. (I also made some spears this round. Wholes take longer for the brine to penetrate fully.)
In a clean 1gal jug, put half the garlic and dill, then all the picking spice, allspice, and the bay leaf.
Put all the pickles in the jug.
On top, put the rest of the garlic, then several more sprigs of fresh dill to cover.
Pour the salt water over the entire thing and cover.

Let stand at room temperature for 5-7 days. Swish it around every day, and crack it to let off any pressure that develops. After 4 days, taste a pickle every day. After tasting the pickles and proclaiming them "right":

Strain the brine, and separate the pickles from the spices. Discard the spices (but I like to throw the garlic in with the pickles!)
Put the brine on high heat and bring it to a boil. Let it boil about 10 minutes.
Put the pickles into the the smaller containers.
Remove the brine from heat and let it cool a minute or two. Pour the hot brine over the pickles and cover loosely.
When the containers cool to room temperature, cover tightly and refrigerate.

There you have it. Two sessions of about 30 minutes work, plus a week of letting nature do the work, and you've got a gallon of the finest pickles.

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Steve
full city roast
17.07 13.43

Nope! I got them from the magic of Archer Daniels Midland!

Chandra
once more with feeling
17.07 11.04

i've pickled quite a bit in the past - we once made 20 jars of sweet pickles, but forgot the sugar-- oops! did you grow your own cukes?

Taddimusprime
wees knows sciences precious!
17.07 10.53

Ooh even better.

All in one!

Taddimusprime
wees knows sciences precious!
17.07 10.50

Bird!

Neck!

Steve
full city roast
16.07 17.38

Like a precious little infant of pure sarcasm.

Brian Anderson
gentleman and scholar
16.07 17.22

Yeah, okay. I'd just imagine more neck curvature, more brown, and more beak for a pelican. You don't have to hang it around my neck, guys.

Taddimusprime
wees knows sciences precious!
16.07 17.07

Pelican:

Stork:

... yea.

Brian Anderson
gentleman and scholar
16.07 16.58

Oh, I knew what you meant. Although I don't know what storks normally look like. Pelicans I can recognize, and on my own I wouldn't have attached the name to the Vlasic mascot (which according to Wikipedia is named "Jovny").

Patrick Clapp
the insane
16.07 16.31

The pelican stork monster:

Brian Anderson
gentleman and scholar
16.07 16.06

Ah, the pelicanstork. One of the less celebrated of the medieval chimeras.

Steve, this looks good...How well did the garlic and dill come through in the final process with your recipe?

Patrick Clapp
the insane
16.07 15.47

Wow. How do you make the really sweet delicious ones I get from that pelican stork monster?

Brian Anderson
gentleman and scholar
16.07 15.38

Mmmm... brine.

Yes?

Taddimusprime
wees knows sciences precious!
16.07 15.31

Mmmm... brine.

erik lars myers
i truck in hyperbole
16.07 14.29

No shit. That's easy!

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