- Hey there, I'm Wardee, from
Traditional Cooking School
and I'm the author of The Complete
Idiot's Guide to Fermenting Foods.
One of my favorite ferments are pickles.
These are beautiful, garlic, dill pickles
and they are so easy to make at home.
These are not your regular vinegar pickles
you'll find in the grocery store.
These are fermented with salt
and once pickled there's an explosion
of vitamins, enzymes,
probiotics, beneficial acids,
but most importantly
(crunching)
a delicious crunch.
These are so good, they're
really easy to make.
So let's get in the kitchen
and I'll show you how to do it.
Cucumbers, they should
be pickling cucumbers
ideally, but otherwise, thin skinned
cucumbers like Mediterranean cucumbers.
Put them in cold water for ten
to thirty minutes to crisp them up.
I need enough to fill the Ohio Stoneware
gallon size fermenting crock.
Make your brine.
Combine half gallon of good filtered water
with six tablespoons
of unrefined sea salt.
Stir well to dissolve the salt.
Then cut the ends off each cucumber
and put them in a bowl.
Also, have ready 12 cloves peeled garlic,
four teaspoons dill seed,
and one teaspoon black tea leaves.
The tannins in the black tea
help the pickles stay crisp.
You can also use oak leaves.
Start packing the crock with cucumbers.
Every so often, sprinkle
in some dill seeds,
a few cloves of garlic and some black tea.
Keep packing the cucumbers,
stopping to sprinkle more
of the other ingredients along the way.
When the crock is full to within three
to four inches of the top,
stop adding ingredients.
Pour the brine over all of it
so the cucumbers are submerged.
Place the stone weights on top,
they will make sure the cucumbers
stay below the surface of the brine,
which is really important
so your pickles turn out.
Add the lid of the crock,
and now you'll leave
the cucumbers to ferment
at room temperature for
three to seven days.
Because my cucumbers were larger
and the house is cooler right now,
I let mine ferment for four
to five days on this batch.
When they are done,
remove the lid and plates.
It is completely normal
to see bubbles at the top
and also for the brine to get cloudy.
Try out your pickles.
Taste them, they should
be crunchy and salty.
They may not be fully pickled through
the entire cucumber but that's okay.
Transfer to a gallon sized glass jar
and store in the fridge.
You can eat them right away
or let them age longer in the fridge.
So now you can see why this one
gallon crock from Ohio Stoneware
is one of my favorite kitchen tools.
Pickles, sauerkraut, kimchi,
all kinds of fermented
goodies come out of this.
So I highly recommend
it, you gotta get one.
If you like this then be sure to grab my
Free Fermenting Formulas Cheat
Sheet, it's a gift for you.
It's where I share formulas for all
kinds of ferments, beverages and salsa
and kraut and pickles and relish, oh yes.
So you can create your own safe to eat,
delicious, yummy,
healthy, fermented foods.
Go to tradcookschool.com/pickles
to grab it.
Thanks for joining me everyone.
Happy fermenting.
