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olivelady

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Cucmber relative cucumis anguria (anguria = watermelon) as opposed to cucumis sativa.

Fresh pickle with white wine vinegar, water, salt, black pepper, mustard seed, coriander, dill flowers, contact lense, chili, garlic.

Ahah! At last, the secret to great pickles is revealed!

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Does anyone have recommendations on where to find delicious dill pickles?

I'd love to find some at a farmer's market. Any ideas on markets where they are available? If you have a favorite, let me know.

Thank you.

North Mt. Pastures and Mt. View both sell pickles. Both are at some of marketfan's markets (U St. & 14th on Saturdays, for example) and the former at FRESHFARM Market's market at Silver Spring, also on Saturday, and the latter on Thursdays at the Penn Quarter market. Shawna (Mt. V) just started the line and I tasted a fabulous spicy cucumber pickle today. I love NMtP's red/pink sauerkraut. Both do kim chee, too.

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According to the Post and from what I've seen around town, DC is having a pickle purveyor boom. Per the Post article, most of the picklers make quick pickles with vinegar, which can be great, but are different from traditional fermented pickles that rely on natural bacteria to turn the veggies into pickles.

Recently, I ran across Number 1 Sons at the White House farmer's market and sampled a bunch of their stuff - which they'll happily tell you they are the only fermented pickler in the area . Overall I was very impressed. I liked the super sour whole sour pickles (bought a quart), the tailgate mambos were very different but good - strong aromatic like cloves (good for a few or maybe a pickle sampler, so I only got a few spears). They also sauerkraut, kimchi, kimchi cuke combo, half sours, but they were out of the Kicky Kosher (dill pickles with heat that I've tasted before and like if you want a really good traditional pickle with the added hot pepper burn). I'm not a fan of half-sour pickles - they are generally just cucumbers with lots of salt flavor. However, I found the Number 1 Sonds half-sours to taste actually like a mild pickle - not bad.

Back at home, someone had brought a quart of full sours from Oh Pickles at Union Market. So what to do but have a pickle taste test. Number 1 Sons won hands down. Their pickles are not only sour and a bit salty but have garlic and other spice flavor notes. Whereas Oh Pickles were good pickles, but only tasted of sour and salt. I'd still get eat them happily, but Number 1 Sons really takes the flavor to the next level.

So what are some other good local pickles to try?

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Number One Sons is also at the Courthouse Market in Arlington on Saturdays.

And Bloomingdale on Sundays. I sampled several of their offerings this week and last, and overall they are far and above Oh, Pickles! as mentioned above. With the pricing they would only be an occasional splurge (I took home a teeny, tiny container of the kimchee cukes: $5!).

North Mountain Pastures had some really interesting riffs on kimchee last year. I'm hoping that when more varieties of summer produce comes in season they will do that again.

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I am watching my pickled turnips become pinker every day, and the target day for serving is Sunday (I pickled them Monday). I boiled water, white vinegar, sugar and salt to dissolve everything. In the jars with the turnips, cut like french fries, I put a slice of beet for color, dried cayene peppers and whole garlic cloves. Trying to recreate turnips served at a local Middle Eastern restaurant. They won't keep past a few weeks, so I am going to get creative after serving them in Sunday's appetizer tray.

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I am watching my pickled turnips become pinker every day, and the target day for serving is Sunday (I pickled them Monday). I boiled water, white vinegar, sugar and salt to dissolve everything. In the jars with the turnips, cut like french fries, I put a slice of beet for color, dried cayene peppers and whole garlic cloves. Trying to recreate turnips served at a local Middle Eastern restaurant. They won't keep past a few weeks, so I am going to get creative after serving them in Sunday's appetizer tray.

Sounds delicious!

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I am watching my pickled turnips become pinker every day, and the target day for serving is Sunday (I pickled them Monday). I boiled water, white vinegar, sugar and salt to dissolve everything. In the jars with the turnips, cut like french fries, I put a slice of beet for color, dried cayene peppers and whole garlic cloves. Trying to recreate turnips served at a local Middle Eastern restaurant. They won't keep past a few weeks, so I am going to get creative after serving them in Sunday's appetizer tray.

Pickled turnips were successful. I would have liked more heat, though. Next time I will use more chilis. Partner's very picky mother scarfed them down, proclaiming them delicious. Does anyone know if I could do the quick method (no boiling water processing) for beets? I have the equipment for proper canning, but am waiting for lessons from a friend when out schedules mesh. So, until then, it's just quick method pickling.

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I need some info/advice. I have been reading on web sites of state extension services to learn about canning salsa (water bath). I feel informed about the basic process, the special cautions of dealing with low acid foods, etc. I understand that a certain amount of acid must be used based on the quantity of other ingredients. So, two questions still unanswered. 1. Corn: Corn is so good now. Can I add corn to canned salsa? Would I substitute corn for some quantity of tomatoes? Or for some quantity of peppers (I want it to be fairly spicy). 2: Timing of prep: Can I make the salsa on one day, and reheat to boiling to can the next day? is there any reason the canning has to take place immediately after the initial cooking of the mixture?

Thanks for any help you can provide. I don't want to kill anyone with my creativity.

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I need some info/advice. I have been reading on web sites of state extension services to learn about canning salsa (water bath). I feel informed about the basic process, the special cautions of dealing with low acid foods, etc. I understand that a certain amount of acid must be used based on the quantity of other ingredients. So, two questions still unanswered. 1. Corn: Corn is so good now. Can I add corn to canned salsa? Would I substitute corn for some quantity of tomatoes? Or for some quantity of peppers (I want it to be fairly spicy). 2: Timing of prep: Can I make the salsa on one day, and reheat to boiling to can the next day? is there any reason the canning has to take place immediately after the initial cooking of the mixture?

Thanks for any help you can provide. I don't want to kill anyone with my creativity.

Corn is much better frozen than canned, for both flavor and texture. Flash blanch corn cobs, cut kernels off the cob, freeze on a parchment lined tray, then bag the frozen kernels in zip-lock or vacuum bags. Unless your salsa has a very high percentage of vinegar in it, it should be pressure canned, not water bath canned. Tomatoes are the only vegetable safe to water bath can. Follow a certified recipe for the salsa to the letter, and then add some corn when you open the jar down the line and serve it. It's too risky to monkey around with preserving food in jars.
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Corn is much better frozen than canned, for both flavor and texture. Flash blanch corn cobs, cut kernels off the cob, freeze on a parchment lined tray, then bag the frozen kernels in zip-lock or vacuum bags. Unless your salsa has a very high percentage of vinegar in it, it should be pressure canned, not water bath canned. Tomatoes are the only vegetable safe to water bath can. Follow a certified recipe for the salsa to the letter, and then add some corn when you open the jar down the line and serve it. It's too risky to monkey around with preserving food in jars.

Thanks. I made salsa yesterday, but froze it instead of canning it. I am going to freeze the corn, too. I think I will reserve my canning for pickles and jam.

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I need some info/advice. I have been reading on web sites of state extension services to learn about canning salsa (water bath). I feel informed about the basic process, the special cautions of dealing with low acid foods, etc. I understand that a certain amount of acid must be used based on the quantity of other ingredients. So, two questions still unanswered. 1. Corn: Corn is so good now. Can I add corn to canned salsa? Would I substitute corn for some quantity of tomatoes? Or for some quantity of peppers (I want it to be fairly spicy). 2: Timing of prep: Can I make the salsa on one day, and reheat to boiling to can the next day? is there any reason the canning has to take place immediately after the initial cooking of the mixture?

Thanks for any help you can provide. I don't want to kill anyone with my creativity.

Too late for now, but for next time...

1.  You can probably find a recipe online that will have corn in it, or pick up the USDA or Ball canning books from the library.  They have various recipes for salsas and chutneys that can be canned with a water bath.  Here's a quick link to the UGA site.  As you can see, the trick is to add something acidic like vinegar to the mix.  If you still want to do something with corn this season, I can look through my books later when I'm at home.

2.  You can reheat it for hot pack, but there will be some degradation of the materials from two heating cycles, and you will have to boil it for a full ten minutes to make certain botulism gets killed.

You must have more freezer space than I do. :)

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You must have more freezer space than I do. :)

Fortunately, I was convinced to get a full sized upright freezer for the basement. My partner then bought me (us) a vacuum food sealer, a food processor and a set of canning equipment and supplies. So I am taking advantage of summer's bounty this year, like never before.
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My summer of pickle tasting continues. I've now become a huge Number 1 Sons pickle fan. I was out doing non-food shopping and when I saw their booth across U street at the farmer's market, I literally ran over. There booths are great because they put out samples of everything they currently have so you can try anything or in my case everything before you buy. They had a new pickle - more yellowish that was pickled with horseradish for a different type of tasty zing. The dill spears and baby gherkins were great and came home. My new favorite were the pickled beets - while retaining that sugary sweetness, the pickling mellows and rounds out the flavor. I keep offering some I bought to friends and so many people says I don't like beets, but they all ask for more after I convince them to try these ones. So good!

I also sucessfully made my own vietnamese style pickled daikon and carrots. Usually you get this shredded/juillened as a garnish for various vietnamese dishes including banh mi and I always devour it, so I realized I should make my own mega batch to add to anything or just for snacking. It was super easy and delicious - crunchy, pickly and sweet.  Although I will warn those that after a while of being in the fridge, it has a pretty funky odor when you pop the lid, but the taste is great. I'm still eating my original batch from several weeks ago. I used this recipe with modified proportions - http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/vietnamese_daikon_and_carrot_pickles/.

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I recently posted under Zucchini about a new recipe I tried/modified for Italian-spiced zucchini pickles - I've also been making somewhat traditional cucumber pickles with white vinegar or by fermentation with common pickling spice recipes (mustard seeds, coriander, peppercorns, garlic, dill and sometimes add jalapeno slices).  So far these dill or garlic pickles have been ok, but after the zucchini ones I'm seeking more unusual spice combos to maximize the fun of doing custom homemade pickles instead of merely recreating pickles you buy elsewhere.  Anyone have any good, unusual pickle recipes?  (I'm thinking different spices and/or vinegar combos).

Preferably good for cucumbers or zuchini since i have lots of those in the garden this summer.

Also, when you make spicy pickles how do you like to add the heat - fresh, dried chilis (if so, what kind?) or dried red pepper flakes?

Thanks.

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I only discovered Number 1 Sons a few weeks ago when they joined the Greenbelt Farmers Market. Count me in as a huge fan. I sit and eat their acapulco kraut by the bowlful and now I'm doing the same with my just acquired kimchi cukes. I love everything they make and I love that its good for me since it's all fermented. So happy to have this gem at my market. 

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While I love Number 1 Sons and other pre-made pickles they are too expensive so this summer I grew my own veggies and went pickling mad.  Here is a link to my post in the Canning topic on the lessons I learned from the Summer of the Pickle (my poor wife - she doesn't even like them):

http://www.donrockwell.com/index.php?/topic/379-canning-and-preserving/page-6#entry274957

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Since my last post in this forum 6 years ago, I have made ALOT of pickles. Currently, I am fermenting 4 different flavors of cucumbers and working on 2 batches of sauerkraut. I still like my base spice blend for cukes of 2-3 smashed cloves of garlic, eyeball about a tablespoon or so of mustard seeds and same of coriander seeds, and a good pinch of black peppercorns. That is pretty good on its own but I also add fresh dill and dill seeds or sometimes fennel seeds are nice too. If I want them spicy I had 1-2 dried chili de arbol. I've also had success with adding fresh thyme and rosemary. I usually ferment these using basic salt water fermentation in wide mouth, quart ball jars with cheap but great fermenting airlocks that regulate the airflow so you don't have to worry ($20 or less for several on amazon). I then leave them out on my counter for about 2 weeks to get a nice full sour and then they keep in the fridge for a year or so. Easiest and most delicious way to have cucumber pickles.

For the sauerkraut, this is my first time as I got a huge cabbage in my CSA so figured I'd take the plunge. Both are fermenting nicely after about 2 1/2 weeks - I think they are almost done as the shredded cabbage is becoming more translucent. I made one batch with a bunch of using a traditional German recipe where I added a caraway seeds since I didn't have juniper berries at the time. (Now I do - thank you Spice House). The other batch is kind of like Kimchi - I found this spicy turkish pickle recipe in my pickling bible - the Joy of Pickling by Linda Ziedrich - HIGHLY RECOMMEND for its many great tips, troubleshooting, and many many recipes for all kinds of pickles (fresh, vinegar, fermented, soy, miso, etc,) with lots of different types of food.  This turkish sauerkraut had a pretty cooked brine and lots of chili flakes added. So far it tastes great. My one quibble with the Joy of Pickling is that you need to adjust the scale a bunch for the recipe as the author designs some of them for large gallon crocks. I haven't done crocks yet because instead of having 1 huge batch of the same pickle, I like a bunch of varieties - hence my use of quart jars or pint jars.

Other of my favorite pickles are David Lebovitz's quick vinegar pickled radishes. These are so easy and so delicious. If you seek any small radishes at the farmer's market or even regular store buy a pint and make these today. They are ready the next day and everyone loves them. I've used the same brine on shredded purple cabbage too which is also good.

I also like most, but not all the recipes from this preserving book - Put 'Em Up by Sherri Brooks Vinton. If I remember correctly this is where i got a great recipe for pickled beets in vinegar with cloves. I also pickled some rhubarb.  Can you tell I joined a CSA this year? 😉

It gets rather stinky but who doesn't love Vietnamese pickled daikon radish and carrots - there a lot of online recipes and super easy to make. Great for adding to salads or making homemade bahn mi. Since you need to slice the veggies thin, it takes a bit longer in prep but worth the effort. 

I have also tried and failed at making miso pickles and never really like my soy pickles but I think that is just personal taste. I also tried making cukes with prepared horseradish but the results weren't great.

Anyone else have good recipes to share?

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Still making lots of pickles pretty regularly. Over the summer we grew persian cucumbers which were very bountiful. Led to lots of my usual fermented cukes with peppercorns, garlic, coriander seed and yellow mustard seed - sometimes with dill if I have it or even dill seed and also sometimes with a few chile de arbol for spicy pickles. Also made a bunch of vinegar cukes when I didn't have time to ferment - spiced them with all types of combos. Best was probably the italian mix with fresh oregano, basil, and thyme plus peppercorns. For a few others, I added cumin or fennel seeds. You really can't go wrong with whatever flavor combo you like. Homemade pickles are much tastier than mass-produced store bought.  I also have continued to make lots of the pickled radishes mentioned above - sometimes with chile and sometimes without - they are always a big hit. Something new was making more pickled chili recipes as I've gotten big bunches in my CSA. Simple pickled jalapenos are easy and delicious. Also made a few fresno chiles recipes from the Joy of Pickling - chile garlic relish which is super simple you mixed brine add to food processor along with stemmed chiles and you are done. No cooking involved. You can take it a next step further and use some of the chile garlic relish along with cooking a sugar blend to make your own sweet chile garlic sauce. 

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On 8/4/2020 at 11:05 AM, KeithA said:

Anyone else have good recipes to share?

You're way ahead of this basic recipe, but I've been making pickles based on this video:

I don't use pickling spice and I stopped adding crushed red pepper flakes and just use slivers of fresh hot peppers instead.  They add great color and are easy to insert between the pickles.  The upside (or downside) is each jar ends up with a slightly different amount of heat.  But I get raves about this simple recipe.

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My wife has started to regret that when we remodeled our kitchen a few years ago and added a separate wine fridge that we didn't also add a pickle fridge. My backyard cukes have been prolific this year. I am now claiming a good 6th of the fridge space with my 16+ quarts of pickles. I'll have to have some pickle parties soon to share with reduce shelf-space. This year, I mostly fermented all of the jar and almost all are cucumbers. I got a bit casual with recipes and kind of threw in a little of this or that to have some different flavors - about half have garlic, 2/3 have mustard seed and coriander seed, some have dill seed or fresh dill (or both), many have peppercorns, a few have bay leaf or allspice, I tried adding cardamon and ginger to a few, a few have dried chili de arbol peppers for the spicy pickle lovers, and one has a layer of olive oil on top per a recipe I saw in Joy of Pickling (you get a oil coated pickle when you pull in out of the jar). My only real innovation this year was the use of pickle weights, which I think made things easier. In the past I mostly tried to jam as many pieces of veg as possible real tight in the jar as the way to avoid floaters who get above the brine and potentially ruin the batch. That way in the past worked 80-90% of the time, but I found these pretty cheap glass weights that fit perfectly into the wide mouth quart jars I use and then no longer the need to worry - but I still recommend using the tried and true cram them in tight method for extra insurance.

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On 8/21/2022 at 11:30 AM, KeithA said:

 My backyard cukes have been prolific this year. I am now claiming a good 6th of the fridge space with my 16+ quarts of pickles. 

Have you tried canning them?  It's super easy and I'm eating two year old pickles that taste as good as ever.  (Probably famous last words, but so far, so good)

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3 hours ago, Bart said:

Have you tried canning them?  It's super easy and I'm eating two year old pickles that taste as good as ever.  (Probably famous last words, but so far, so good)

I have canned other things, but never pickles. Usually we end up eating half or more within a few months and then eat the rest over the course of the next year. Fermented pickles last a long time in the fridge. But if I did can them you are right, I could free up fridge space. Maybe I'll try that next summer if my harvest is as abundant as this year. 

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