refrigerator pickling question

fishlessman · June 2011

if your storing in the refrigerator does the canning liquid need to be hot when it goes into the jars. been doing eggs with a cold liquid because they seem to get rubbery if added hot. first attempt last night with cauliflour with hot liquid and you can see how much they shrunk up in the jar

found something with peeling eggs, fresh eggs no good, wait a couple weeks and they peel much better, someone had a link to boiling eggs...LittleChef maybe?

stike · June 2011

you are canning. it just so happens to be a pickle.

canning for long term storage is a safety issue.

but i know pickling can be done at room temp. so the question is, what do you want? pickles, or pickles you can store at room temp in the basement?

if you want sterile canning, then yeah, you need the hot water bath and all. but that heat will change the texture i'm sure.

fishlessman · June 2011

i followed the directions on mrs wages refrigerator bread and butter pickles on the cauliflour with hot liquid, no canning bath for refrigerator storage, i think it was a mistake, will know in a couple days. next batch will be cold all the way to see, want them pickled and crunchy and keeping them in the fridge is no problem

stike · June 2011

gotcha
crunchy usually involves alum, doesn't it?

fishlessman · June 2011

i think someone here uses lime on jalapenos, ones i did last year with jalepinos ands fiddleheads i just followed the wages directions pouring in the hot liquid and refrigerating, they were fine. the cauliflour though wilted down and it looks like the jars were just half packed. will know better soon, maybe they needed to be blanched then packed but the recipes on the net are all over the place for directions

stike · June 2011

i do simple dill pickles, and they turn out crunchy too, no alum.

gdenby · June 2011

I used to can quite a bit, but that was 35 years ago. Some of my recollections are still pretty clear.

When we made gardiniera, we did pour hot liquid over the veg, and then refrigerate.

We had a couple of different methods of pickling cukes. One was very simple. Pour cooled brining fluid over pickles, and store on cold porch. Those usually turned out pretty mushy. We pressure canned some. Don't recall using alum, which is probably why all most of the product was pretty mushy. I do recall that the gherkins turned out nice and crisp, but I suppose that that was because they were so tiny and spiny to begin.

As far as fresh eggs go, they can be left at room temperature for a few days before boiling. I get most of my eggs from a farm lady, and have always supposed they were good and fresh. One proof of that was that those eggs, three weeks old in the fridge, and then left on the table for a day are still almost unpeelable. I came across a note that said adding vinegar to the water would help loosen the shells. Didn't know how much to add, so tried a cup in a pot with 4 eggs. Had a 50% improvement.

Here's something that can come out pretty nice. After the eggs are boiled, tap the shells to make a lot of cracks. Then place them in some beet juice, or other bright colorant. After a few days, the whites are nicely marked with the shatter patterns.

Little Steven · June 2011

I had to do a bunch of eggs for something a couple of weeks ago and I boiled them, put them in an ice bath till cold and then put them back in the hot water for a couple of minutes. My thinking was shrink the meat and then expand the shell. Worked like a champ.

fishlessman · June 2011

thats how mine were, farm fresh from a friend, got about 5 dozen so using them up. last week the vinegar trick didnt work well, still too tight, a few i poked a small hole in the bigger end before boiling, seemed to help. this week did nothing and the slid right out of the shell, dont know what i did right. i did leave the eggs out a day last week and back in the fridge. dont know what kind of chickens he has but check out the green ones

fishlessman · June 2011

never thought to put them back in the pot, might work

i just ran cold water on them.

Richard Fl · June 2011

When I get farm fresh eggs and they have never seen a frig they last on the kitchen counter 30-45 days. once chilled they need to be kept chilled. Older eggs 2-3 weeks in frig seem to peel better after hard boiled.

crghc98 · June 2011

do you have a recipe you like...growing some pickling cukes and my 5 1/2 year old loves dill pickles...swear she'd eat a jar in a sitting if I let her...promised her we'd make some this year....

CaptainSpaulding · June 2011

Simple Naturally Fermented Dill Pickles

3% Sea Salt Brine

Use a scale. 1 Liter of Water with 30 grams of sea salt.

Dill

Garlic

Peppercorns and/or any other spices you feel like.

Cucumbers

Make the brine, smash the garlic. Break up the dill.

Put garlic and dill in the bottom of biggest jars you can find and pack with cukes.

Pour brine in jar(s) to cover. Weigh the cukes down to make sure they stay submerged.

Leave at cellar temperature for 2 to 3 weeks. When the brine goes cloudy, you've got fermentation.

Make a fresh brine, more dill and garlic. Take the pickles put of the brine and repack, as before. Put in the fridge and enjoy. You can play with the timing until you get them as sour as you like them. I've let them sit at cellar temp in the fresh brine until fermentation begins again. Wait a day and then into the fridge. The chill will stop the fermentation.

Enjoy,

Joe

Michael Ruhlman blog post on pickles:

http://ruhlman.com/2010/07/csa-pickles-revised-ratio/

Metalhead · June 2011

I picked 5 dozen medium eggs about 6 wks ago. It usually takes 3 wks to cure fully. I boil a vinegar, water, dill, salt, dry mustard and pour over the eggs, sliced jalapenos, and garlic. Love love love them. Good luck

crghc98 · June 2011

thanks!

thirdeye · June 2011

I use Mrs. Wages Refrigerator Mixes on many things... and you do simmer the liquid which wakes up the spices and helps to melt the sugar (in the bread and butter mix). You do have to really fill the jars because stuff will shrink a little with that hot liquid.

As far as crunchy goes, refrigerator pickled veggies will be very crunchy. That's why I like them over processed veggies.

thirdeye · June 2011

The 6 or 8 recipes I have for pickled eggs all call for using hot liquid on them.

fishlessman · June 2011

my peppers and onions came out semi crunchy, the cauliflower turned mush, maybe it wasnt fresh enough. i used the wages bread and butter mix with sugar and poured it in hot. my current egg recipe is very mild, i did up a batch of yours and richards and a bunch on the web last year, found i like them real simple, i use fresh bay leaf, peppercorns, a little canning salt, some cloves, celery seed, and mustard seed. 2 cups vinegar mixed with almost as much water, simmer it, remove spices, chill, and put in jars. i makre enough for a few weeks max. love the mrs wages on jalapenos and fiddleheads, maybe my batch of cauliflower could have been better, pushed in but after adding the hot mixture it was half gone in the jar

thirdeye · June 2011

That does sound like the cauliflower was not at it's prime, I've never had things go mushy.

I use the bread and butter mix for my jalapenos, but I reduce the sugar called for and add sweet onion slices or carrot slices to each jar.

For my asparagus and green beans I prefer the kosher dill mix, and I blanch them for 3 minutes before adding to the jars.

Hoss · June 2011

When I can, (0ld fashioned way).I soak whatever I'm gonna can(cucumbers,etc.)in a pickling lime solution overnight before canning.Keeps the stuff crunchy through the waterbath process.I like the refridgerator stuff,just easier to store 300+ jars in a storage room.Ball makes "Pickle Crisp Granules" that are supposed to take the place of the lime soak.It is just calcium chloride.You put some in the jar before filling with liquid.Good Luck!

Botch · June 2011

A recent issue of Fine Cooking (either last month or the month before) had an article on refrigerator pickles, I want to try them but haven't yet. In one of the recipes the veggies were cooked, in another they were put in the jar and boiling vinegar mixture poured over. No sterilization/canning was done (but, they only last in the frig a few weeks).
Sorry I can't give you the exact issue, I'm on the road right now.

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