Fermented Dill Pickles for Beginners

Fermented dill pickles for beginners!

How to make Fermented Pickles for beginners. An easy guide to making the most flavorful, crunchy, tangy pickles full of healthy probiotics, with only 20 minutes of hands-on time or less!

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We have a kiddo that has a deep love for dill pickles. Only dill pickles.

When that sweet girl was just three years old, we went to a restaurant with some extended family and she was given some bread and butter pickles to eat. She promptly took the one she had started to eat out of her mouth and said that it was “broken”. We all got a good laugh out of that. This girl knows what she likes and she likes tangy crisp pickles, in a big way.

One of her favorite brands of pickles is a well known refrigerator pickle. Sadly it has a couple of ingredients that I’d rather we not consume, but the flavor is amazing. Our other favorite brand is Bubbies Brand. We love them, but they are just a tad expensive for large family with a serious pickle obsession. Ha!

Back to the kitchen

To avoid spending $30-$40 a month on pickles, we started to make our own. The search was on to find a pickle recipe we all loved that was easy enough for a beginner to make. Since we grew a couple different varieties of cucumbers in our garden last year, we spent the summer adding cucumbers to many of our recipes. We were eating them straight from the garden, putting them on every salad, and testing easy recipes for pickling them.

We tried Vinegar based recipes, brine based recipes, refrigerator recipes, and even a few fermented ones. I searched all over for recipes I could teach my kids and make with them. Two of my children added some heat to their jars of pickles with spices like red pepper flakes or siracha sauce or jalapenos. At any given point I would have up to a dozen jars of pickles in my fridge, all with different flavors. This year I decided I wanted to perfect fermented pickles and the search for a good copy-cat fermented recipe was on.

Spring Fermentation Challenge

This year I’ve already started playing with fermentation and finding the pickle recipe my girl loves. I have also been following Danielle from Jones Roots on Instagram and just adore her. She has a monthly challenge with a new skill to focus on every month. This month fits right in line with my personal journey. The timing of her fermentation challenge worked out perfectly. I can practice fermenting foods now and preserve more of my summer garden harvest later this summer. Plus, we will really know what my family loves by harvest time. One of the goal I have with food preservation is to focus on foods that my family enjoys. I don’t really see the point of growing and canning 100 jars of green beans if nobody in my family likes them. you know what I mean?

If you have never fermented anything before, it’s actually fairly easy. There is just a little bit of a learning curve. Be patient with yourself. I would recommend getting a good book to read about fermentation like this one.

Why fermentation?

Traditionally fermented pickles and other foods like sauerkraut and yogurt are full of probiotics for a healthy gut. Most of us have had issues with our gut health at some point and this is an easy way to get some yummy support for our bodies. If you have ever had antibiotics, if you ever have any tummy troubles like belching or gas, fermented foods can probably help get things back on track.

Did you know that fermenting foods is actually the only methods of preservation that actually increases the nutrition of the food instead of decreasing it? Isn’t that amazing?

There are different types of fermentation. Pickles and sauerkraut are made with a process using lacto-fermentation which uses lactic-acid-producing bacteria to preserve foods. It’s the one I am focusing on right now.

What about supplies?

Mason jars. Wide mouth jars are most often used when you are using fermenting weights. They are also easier to use with large or crunchy foods. Look for them in your local discount stores, thrift stores, facebook marketplace, or online. I try not to pay too much over $1/jar. As long as there are no chips or cracks in the jars they should be fine. I just double check mine before I sanitize them.

Fermentation weights: These will keep your veggies under the brine and keep them from molding. Food you are trying to ferment that is not completely covered with the brine now has the possibility that it can get mold. Yuck! Getting mold means you have to toss the whole thing which means losing your precious veggies and the time you’ve invested in the ferment.

Fermention Lids: There are many different kinds of lids available. These are a couple of my favorites. These help you “burb” your jar to keep the pressure from building up too much. As a busy mom I love a good “hack” and handy tools in the kitchen. Fermentation lids mean you not have to check the jars manually during the day. In addition to making things easier, they also help your fermentation from attracting fruit flies.

Measuring spoons: Whatever you have on hand is great but I am asked often about these heart-shaped ones I use, so I included them here.

Picking your cucumbers

Now you have to decide on what kind of cucumber to get. Or grow. Not just any random cucumber can make a good quality pickle. You need a pickling cucumber. Good choices are Kirby, National Pickling, Boston Pickling and many others. Pickling cucumbers grow well in most places and can even grow well in containers on patios! If you can’t grow your own cucumbers, look for a farmers market with a local grower to support. Some local grocery stores may have them as well. Pickling cucumbers will be labeled differently. They will be smaller in size, and usually have thinner, bumpy skin.

The typical slicing/salad cucumber found at the grocery store isn’t a great choice for fermenting as it gets soft and mushy quickly. Most of these cucumbers are irradiated as well therefore they won’t have the natural bacteria on the skin that you want. This sets you up for a good possibility of getting mushy pickles.

Ask me how I know. Or maybe don’t. It’s wasn’t my best time in the kitchen. Ha!

Ingredients for fermenting pickles

• 8-10 pickling cucumbers
• 1- half gallon mason jar or 2 quart size mason jars
• 5 cups filtered water (*non-chlorinated. Regular tap water may have chlorine which can inhibit fermentation)
• 2 tablespoons pickling salt or a good quality mineral salt. I like celtic salt or Redmond’s Real salt (7 grams) per one cup of water, for a 3% brine (see notes)
• 6-8 cloves garlic
• 8-10 sprigs of dill (bases removed) or 1 tablespoon dill weed
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
• 1-2 tsp whole mustard seeds

Optional:

• 1 tsp of crushed red pepper flakes or slices of jalepeno pepper or more to taste.
• 1 tsp of black tea leaves or grape leaves. This helps mantain a crisper pickle.
• 1/4 tsp Turmeric

Instructions

First, sanitize your jars and wash the cucumbers well to remove any dirt or debris. Discard any that are soft or mushy.

Cut the blossom end off and pack the cucumbers into your jars. You don’t need to cut your cucumbers. They will actually stay more crunchy if they are left whole. I cut them in slices for my daughter as a preference. This can speed up the softening process. Leaving them whole is actually a preferred method to start fermenting pickles.

Follow up:

After the fermentation process is over, remove the fermentation lid/air lock, cover with regular canning or other lid and store in your refrigerator for up to 6 months. The pickles will continue to slowly ferment and improve in flavor. After about 6 months in the refrigerator, they will start to get softer. They are still edible, just not our favorite. In fact, they don’t usually last long enough for that to happen here.

The pickle brine is like a “tonic” -you can drink a shot of it daily to help build immunity! This pickle brine is packed full of probiotics and minerals from the great salt we used.

Notes on Brine

Brine for beginners: This recipe calls for a 3% salt water brine, which is considered “safe” for fermenting. It equals 7 grams of salt per one cup of water. I’ve had really good luck with this ratio – and this ratio allows me to drink the brine (like a shot). Be sure NOT to use regular table salt. Regular table salt usually has additives that can cause cloudiness and inhibit fermentation. You can use a good quality salt without additives. A good mineral salt works well here and you will get the added benefits of the minerals we seem to all be deficient in. This creates a really healthy brine – full of good gut-supporting bacteria and minerals!

If you want a stronger, saltier brine, feel free to go up to 4.5%. For a  full sour pickle (14-21 days) use a 4.5% brine. 

• 3% ratio = 7 grams salt per 1 cup of water.  (1 1/4 teaspoon fine salt, per 1 cup water)
• 3.5% Ratio= 9 grams of salt per 1 cup of water. (1 1/2 teaspoon fine salt, per 1 cup water)
• 4.5% ratio 10.8 grams of salt per cup of water. (2 teaspoons per cup of water)

Cutting the Cucumbers: I recommend leaving the cucumbers whole for your first batch. After your first successful batch, feel free to experiment with slicing and cutting.

 

Tips on fermenting for beginners:

1. The longer you ferment the pickles (unrefrigerated), the tangier they will get. They will also get softer.  I like them crisp, but you may want them on the tangier and softer side. You can taste them at any point after you see cloudiness and bubbles and make adjustments.
2. I like to refrigerate the pickles before tasting them. After refrigerating, if you decide you want more tang, you can always pull them out again and ferment for a few days longer.
3. If you want to create a “fizzy” brine for drinking, tighten the lid, and burp daily if leaving out. You can also tighten the lid in the fridge and just burp the jar weekly. This will create a little pressure and give it some effervescence. (Like a kombucha)
4. Yes, you can cut the cucumbers into spears or slices like I did. Find your preference.

Quotes on fermentation:

“To ferment your own food is to lodge a small but eloquent protest – on behalf of the senses and the microbes – against the homogenization of flavors and food experiences now rolling like a great, undifferentiated lawn across the globe. It is also a declaration of independence from an economy that would much prefer we remain passive consumers of its standardized commodities, rather than creators of idiosyncratic products expressive of ourselves and of the places where we live, because your pale ale or sourdough bread or kimchi is going to taste nothing like mine or anyone else’s.”
― Michael Pollan, Cooked: A Natural History of Transformatiion