Pickle Help

[Nasscarr1720]

HI I am looking for help
I made some kosher dills and followed the recipe out of the Ball Blue book. I used the freshest stuff I could get.. The pickles, garlic and dill all came from my garden picked and used within an hour of harvest but my pickles still came out soft and wrinkled.. I measured all the ingredient carefully used canning salt. But I don't know what happened.

The second batch I used the same stuff and also put in the Ball pickle crisp and the same things happened..

I processed in a water bath. After putting in the jars the bath came up to a boil in about 6 minutes and I processed for 10.

Thanks for any help you can give..

Bill

 

[Gretchen]

You need to cut off the blossom end for one thing. And they may crisp up. It is too soon to eat them--if you have just made them.

 

[Michael in FtW]

One problem, as Gretchen noted, could be the failure to cut off the blossom end (that's the end away from the stem). Another problem could be the type, age or size of cucumber you used. And - then again as Gretchen mentioned - these are not ready to eat in a couple of days ... they need to cure for 4-6 WEEKS! if you are talking about the Kosher style dills in the Ball Blue Book (page 46). Oh, yeah - if you HAD followed the recipe - you would have processed your pickles for 15-minutes, not 10. If you don't want to wait - there are some other "quick pickle" recipes you might try ... you still have to wait, but not as long.

Of course ... you really should read the entire section on pickles ... for example ... on page 42 - in the first part of "Getting Started" it tells you that "to reduce the loss of cripsness" ... you bring your water canner to a full boil before adding the pickles ... well, I'll let your read the rest of the instructions yourself since you have "The Book".

The National Center for Home Food Preservation has a good Pickle site

 

[karadekoolaid]

Just to share a few hilarious (and disastrous) moments about pickle-making...
I decided about a year or so ago that I wanted some of those delicious, slightly sweet, mostly sour pickles available, it would seem, ONLY in the USA.
So I investigated methodically. I went to all the Supermarkets that have imported produce, bought loads of different pickles, ate them all ( that was the easy bit) and then narrowed it down to something vaguely "Polish". I already make Dill Pickles, so I wanted something a little different.

I looked up 30 different recipes for "Polish", "Sweet & Sour", "Sweet", "Sour", "Czech", "Byelorussian", etc. pickles. I settled on six different options, which I spent a week preparing.

So then comes the "testing" stage YUM! YUM!

( I'm looking at my test notes as I write this - the notes are edited to avoid
censorship!!!!)

No. 1: Tasteless. No salt, no sugar,no taste, nothing.
No. 2: Yuk! Disgustingly wrinkled texture, taste like a mouthful of sea water with seaweed.
No. 3: Could be. Far too much spice, however, and toooo sweet.
No. 4: Wrinkled. Very salty. Too soft.
No. 5: Crispy, at last. A little more salt would help, as would a little more acid. Over spiced with allspice and cloves.
No. 6: These were truly appalling. Whoever posted this recipe in the internet must have been drunk.



so I finally decided on No. 3; modified the spice ( far too much allspice and cloves, again) added more vinegar and less sugar and more salt. And dill, for luck.


Which just goes to show, I suppose, that everyone has their own taste in pickles, and if you're going to make the effort to prepare your own, then it's worthwhile investing a few days to do it!!

 

[XeniA]

Clive?! Once again you're the man: would you share your best recipe and tips?

Thank you!

Ayrton

 

[XeniA]

Michael, Gretchen (and Clive) -- can you advise regarding what I call a "bread & butter" pickle, i.e. with a pretty large-ish cuke (3-cm diameter), sliced, maybe with one of those cute ruffly cutters, sweetish, softly crisp, mustard seeds floating about ...?

New to pickle making, only having just made those watermelon rind ones I've blathered on about elsewhere (lord, they're good tho!)

Feeling hopeful ... thanks in advance.

A.

 

[bevkile]

I found that if I used pickling lime, I could get a nice crisp pickle.

 

[DinaFine]

Dill pickles do take a while to cure but bread a butters can be made in a day. You just bring a sweet brine to a boil and scald the pickle slices. If you want them frilly, you can slice them with one of those wavy french fry cutters. I wouldnt use cucks that are very big though, you dont want a lot of seed. Thats it, then you can.

 

[DinaFine]

I found that if I used pickling lime, I could get a nice crisp pickle.

[what is pickling lime? I almost used alum, but decided to take my chances and see what would happen if I eliminated it. I am waiting to see how they turn out. My recipe says to use a grape leaf if you can find them. ]

 

[XeniA]

Hi DinaFine --

Have you made B&B's yourself? Do you have a favorite recipe you'd be willing to share?

Thanks!

 

[bevkile]

http://mrswages.stores.yahoo.net/mrswagpiclim.html

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=pickling+lime

I found it in the canning section at WalMart.

 

[bevkile]

Pickling Lime
Pickling Lime is Calcium Hydroxide. It's also called "food-grade Lime", because in making the Calcium Hydroxide the processors make sure that the process remains pure and doesn't introduce anything untoward (e.g. it's not done in rusty old bins).

Pickling Lime helps to improve the firmness of pickles by introducing calcium that reinforces the pectin in the vegetable being pickled. In using it, a vegetable such as cucumber is soaked first in water mixed with the pickling Lime, for up to a day, then rinsed thoroughly -- at least 3 times -- before the actual pickling process begins.

Because the Lime is alkaline, you have to get rid of it all, or it would neutralize the acidity that you are going to use to preserve the pickles with. People haven't always rinsed it thoroughly, though, leaving some alkalinity and lowering the pH of the pickling batch by neutralizing the acidity. On account of this, cases of botulism have been recorded, and for that reason it's not generally recommended to use this anymore. Some swear by using grape leaves instead to help with crunchiness instead of using Lime.

Don't substitute any industrial Lime, whether agricultural or lumberyard Lime, as that may contain contaminants.

 

[DinaFine]

Hi Ayrton,

I do have a very good recipe for bread and butter pickles.

Slice the pickling cucumbers thinly and place in a non reactive gallon jar. the recipe I have calls for a gallon of cukes. I am never sure exactly how much that is, but if I slice enough cukes to fill the gallon along with 2 onions and 2 red peppers, I use 1/4 cup course salt to sweat in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours. I have let it go for a day with no ill effect even though my recipe says 3. after draining and rinsing, the proportions for the brine are 5 cups vinegar, 5 cups sugar, 2 tblsp mustard seed, 1 1/2 tsp celery seed, 1 1/2 tsp turmeric, and 1/2 tsp clove. You bring the brine just to a boil, add the sliced vegetable without stirring and bring again just to a boil. Turn off the heat. I always can and process them. These proportions make about 6 pints.

Let me know if you try it.

Dina

 

[DinaFine]

Pickling Lime
Pickling Lime is Calcium Hydroxide. It's also called "food-grade Lime", because in making the Calcium Hydroxide the processors make sure that the process remains pure and doesn't introduce anything untoward (e.g. it's not done in rusty old bins).

Pickling Lime helps to improve the firmness of pickles by introducing calcium that reinforces the pectin in the vegetable being pickled. In using it, a vegetable such as cucumber is soaked first in water mixed with the pickling Lime, for up to a day, then rinsed thoroughly -- at least 3 times -- before the actual pickling process begins.

Because the Lime is alkaline, you have to get rid of it all, or it would neutralize the acidity that you are going to use to preserve the pickles with. People haven't always rinsed it thoroughly, though, leaving some alkalinity and lowering the pH of the pickling batch by neutralizing the acidity. On account of this, cases of botulism have been recorded, and for that reason it's not generally recommended to use this anymore. Some swear by using grape leaves instead to help with crunchiness instead of using Lime.

Don't substitute any industrial Lime, whether agricultural or lumberyard Lime, as that may contain contaminants.

[/Thank you for the info. I think I'll look for grape leaves]

 

[bandonjan]

Ayrton -- I made these and they turned out well...

Bread and Butter Pickles
6 cups cucumbers, sliced
2 med. onions, sliced
1/4 cup salt (see notes)
2 cups vinegar (i used white)
2 cups boiling water
1 tsp mustard seed
1 tsp celery seed
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 1/2 cups sugar (see notes)
Mix cucumbers, onions and salt; let stand 2 hours. Meanwhile
combine vinegar, water, spices and sugar. Bring to a boil. Drain
and rinse cucumbers and onions and add to the boiling vinegar
mixture. Cook for 2 to 5 minutes depending on the crispness
you like. Put in jars and seal. Yield 3 1/2 pints

Notes: Orig recipe called for 1/2 cup salt but I found that to be
too salty. Orig recipe also doesn't rinse the salt off - again it
was too salty so I cut the salt in half and rinsed the cucumbers
to remove the surface salt and just let what penetrated be the
amount. Orig recipe called for 1 1/2 cups sugar and that didn't
seem to be enough against the salt so I added another cup. I
also found the cooking time of 5 mins too long. Chips were soft
and I like them a little crisper so I only cooked about 2 mins.