These aren’t your grandma’s pickles, there’s a whole new generation of picklers. It stems from this wave of people moving towards a more sustainable lifestyle, preserving their foods and reducing their food waste. There’s also a health benefit to pickles that are fermented, which just means there’s a lot of good bacteria that are growing in your pickled foods. When you add fermented foods to your diet, you get the benefits of probiotics, so things like kombucha, kimchi, and traditionally pickled vegetables.
Now, our grandmother’s pickles were typically fermented pickles. The recipe for fermented pickles usually includes salt, sugar and water, which is what helps promote good bacteria. You have to let this ferment for a while, so typically you make this style of pickles in the fall and have them in the winter.
You really can pickle anything, carrots, onion, turnips. But today Julia showed us how to make her very own garlic dill pickles.
Now for these DIYS, you’re going to need a few jars—mason jars, old jars around the house. A great tip for jars that have a sticky label is to create a paste with baking soda and olive oil and rub-down the label and wash it off.
Quick Pickles
What you’ll need:
- Cucumbers
- Fresh dill
- Fresh garlic
- Pickling liquid (equal parts vinegar and water)
- Kosher salt
- Pickling spice
Method:
- For our basic pickling liquid, we need equal parts of vinegar and water
- Add 1 tablespoon of good kosher salt to every cup of pickling liquid, for example, Julia had 4 cups in total, so she added in 4 tablespoons of salt
Pro tip: You can’t use table salt for pickles, you need a good kosher salt or else they won’t turn out well - To flavour our pickles, add some herbs and spices to the brine, you can use anything that you like, bay leaves, garlic, peppercorns, oregano, or simply use pickling spice, you can buy it bulk or at the supermarket
- Add 4 teaspoons of pickling spice into the brine.
- Bring it all to a boil and then turn it down
- Take your cucumbers and slice them a quarter-inch thick, then place them in the jar along with your fresh garlic (around 5-6 cloves)
- Pour the liquid in on top of the cucumbers, making sure everything is covered up
- Pop them into the fridge, and in 24 hours, you’ve got pickles.
Flavouring options:
- Fresh herbs: dill, thyme, oregano, and rosemary hold up well
- Dried herbs: thyme, dill, rosemary, oregano, or marjoram
- Garlic cloves: smashed for mild garlic flavour, or sliced for stronger garlic flavour
- Fresh ginger: peeled and thinly sliced
- Whole spices: mustard seed, coriander, peppercorns, red pepper flakes
- Ground spices: turmeric or smoked paprika are great for both colour and flavour
Pickled Watermelon
What you’ll need:
- 1 lb of watermelon rind
- 1 ½ cups cider vinegar
- 1 ½ cups of sugar
- 2 tablespoons of pickling spice
- 6 cups of water
Method:
- Take a potato peeler and peel all of that green part off and slice your rinds as thick or thin as you’d like them
- Bring a pot of about 4-5 cups of water with the 3 tablespoons of salt to boil and add the rinds.
- Let this simmer on medium-high heat for about 5 minutes—you want the rinds to be tender but crisp
- Strain your rinds, and transfer them into the jars carefully
- In another pot, bring combine the cider vinegar, our lazy girl pickling spice, 1 teaspoon of salt, and 1 cup of water and bring to a boil
- Pour this into the jars, making sure to cover and submerge the rinds.
- Once it has cooled to room temperate, you can refrigerate for at least two hours and up to 2 weeks