Comments on: How To Make Fermented Pickles

By: Julie

Julie — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 05:05:00 +0000

Just wanted to say that I just made my third round of pickled green beans today using this recipe and they are SO GOOD!!! I have also made the recipe using cucumbers and they are awesome too but green beans…totally my favorite.

By: Sayward Rebhal

Sayward Rebhal — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 20:53:00 +0000

It was probably originally scuzz, and then the scuzz was exposed to air so it got moldy.

Pros say to skim it off the top and you’re good to go. Honestly, Damian is too squeemish for that (he has a phobia of throwing up, so he’s real paranoid about food safety) so I haven’t done it myself.

BUT, theoretically as long as the pickles are submerged then they’re safe, right? So what if you kept them in the same jar, in the fridge, and then whenever you pulled a pickle out you could rinse it off JUST IN CASE there were any spores remaining on the surface. Yes?

By: Meghan

Meghan — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 16:29:00 +0000

Also, the mold doesn’t look like your mold… it is a kind of scuzz that covers the top of the brine. At first it was just a scuzz that looked scuzzy, but now it is is a scuzz that looks moldy.

By: Meghan

Meghan — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 16:28:00 +0000

So, I finally got around to making a jar of pickles (I did spears!). The cukes themselves seem totally fine, but there is a layer of mold on top of the brine (probably from the dill seeds poking their little heads above it?) I know that the Wild Fermentation website says to just scrape the mold off. I am sort of inclined to do so, then put the pickles in a new bottle with new brine for “storage,” but I’m kind of unclear as to how to sufficiently remove the mold so that when I pull the pickles out they don’t pick up creepy spores on their way? Does that make any sense? I’m hesitant to throw the whole thing out, ’cause, like I said, there doesn’t seem to be any mold on the actual pickles. But mold is mold and mold is gross. I’m conflicted. :-) Any thoughts?

By: Sayward

Sayward — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 19:49:59 +0000

@ Meghan – I did grow my own dill! That’s a good point, securing dill flowers may be a bit tough. Farmer’s Market is a great idea, maybe you could ask a farmer one week to bring you some flowers the next week? I’ve done stuff like that and they’re usually super friendly about it. Otherwise, it’s not *totally* necessary especially if you have the dried dill seeds.

The sliced pickles were a different batch, and I did pickle them in slices. I prefer the whole pickles because you can always slice them afterwards, but either way works.

Let me know how it goes! I can’t wait to make pickles again this year. =)

By: Meghan

Meghan — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 02:23:20 +0000

Also! In the first picture your pickles are slices! Do you slice them after pickling, or do you do the same thing with slices rather than whole cukes?

By: Meghan

Meghan — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 20:40:10 +0000

Do you grow your own dill? Or get it at the farmers market? I was way excited because I have some pickling cucumbers about ready to be picked, but my dill was eaten by squirrels or rabbits or moles or something. :-(

By: Eva Rawposa

Eva Rawposa — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 13:55:33 +0000

Love love love this! Totally going to try it soon! Thank you!

By: “Eat Your Beasties!” – The Importance Of Cultured And Fermented Foods | Bonzai Aphrodite

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 06:18:08 +0000

[...] I’ll add to this list as I post each new tutorial. Kombucha Non-Dairy Yogurt Sauerkraut Sour Pickles Water [...]

By: Sayward

Sayward — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 04:31:17 +0000

@ sarah – Great tips! Also veg*ns can use whey from homemade yogurt – I’ve done that with other veggie ferments and it works great!

@ Sarah – Yups, that’s mold. Very sad.