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 When I made my Grandma's homemade pickles last weekend I had some extra cucumbers that would not fit in my jars, so I decided to try a salt-brined "fermented" pickle method.
I have made this type of pickles in the past, but normally the recipe calls for an about 2.5% salt solution to ferment the cucumbers in. This time I wanted to see if I could use the approximately 5.5% brine that tastes so good from my grandmother's recipe.
The benefit to the brine fermentation is that they do not take nearly as long to pickle, and the lactic acid created in the fermentation process makes the pickles taste more like deli pickles.
Read on for the step by step instructions...
First the ingredients:
cucumbers garlic
 
black pepper dill seed
 
black mustard seeds yellow mustard seeds white vinegar
  
dill weed and red jalapenos- for this batch, I am using last year's pickled peppers from my garden
a big jar and salt. I am using kosher salt for this recipe as I am not concerned with any cloudyness that it might cause in the brine.
prepare the brine
mix up the brine in a ratio of 5 quarts water to 1 quart vinegar to 11oz salt.
(I decided to halve the recipe since I am only using a 1 gallon jar
10 cups water :2 cups vinegar: 5.5oz salt)
prepare the ingredients
1 tsp black pepper, 2 cloves garlic, 2 tsp dill seed, 1 tsp black mustard seed, 1 tsp yellow mustard seed, 1 red jalapeno and 2 sprigs of dill per each quart jar. (for this jar I multiplied everything times 3)
wash and sterilize the jar (I use 1 Tbls bleach per 1 gallon of water to kill all unwanted bacteria)
and clean the cucumbers. Make sure to scrape the blossom end clean to prevent unwanted enzymes from affecting the fermentation. You don't want any flowers, or brown blossom scabs on this end. The other end may have a stem, but that's OK if you like to leave it on.
pack the spices and cucumbers in the jar
and add the brine. (do NOT heat the brine for this method)
as you can see, the cucumbers float.
they MUST remain submerged to prevent spoilage, so I use a small bowl inside the rim and invert the jar lid to make sure the bowl keeps the cucumbers held down.
Now we wait. In a day or two there should be bubbles starting to form around the pickles. IF any scum forms on the surface of the liquid I will skim that off, but I never really ever get any scum...
I'll check back in a few days to see how the pickles are going, and also to see when it is time to stop the fermentation and put them in the refrigerator.
After a few days... On day 4 of the fermentation process, everything appears to be going a little slower than I remember, but I am using a much saltier brine than in past attempts.
The liquid has slightly changed in color, and small bubbles are starting to appear and float to the surface. There is no odor other than the vinegar smell and no "scum" on the surface of the brine.
 After a few more days well, it is a week later
and I can't tell if anything is changing in the jar, so I decided to give one a taste:
Firstly, you can see that some of the smaller ones have shrivelled a little, but the larger ones did not.
Also, they have changed in color quite noticably:
before after shrivelled
  
and the insides are no longer pure white
They are nicely sour but do not taste overwhelmingly of garlic, nor are they hot and spicy. They taste pretty much like your classic deli pickle, and the good part is that it really only took about a week to ferment. (It has been in the 70's to 80s here this week which may have also helped) At this point I am placing the entire jar in the refigerator to stop the rapid fermentation process so that I can enjoy them at my leisure.
I am actually quite happy with the way these turned out. 
Note: if you like your pickles more on the sour side, you can let them ferment a little longer until they reach the sourness level that you prefer, or you can start with a brine ratio of 8 cups water : 2 cups vinegar : 5.5oz salt. The batch I did with this brine turned out quite sour, yet still very tasty.
I also did a batch with a habanero in place of the jalepenos. It did make the pickles a tiny bit more spicy, but not a lot more. I have a feeling that the longer they soak with that pepper, the hotter they will be!
-cris
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Written by Guest on 2006-05-21 03:29:15
 LOL!!!!! | Awesome
Written by Guest on 2006-06-13 17:57:32
Nice guide | EASY TO FOLLOW
Written by Guest on 2006-10-10 00:19:12
Great Tutorial
| Thanks!
Written by Guest on 2006-11-06 22:17:49
I just started a batch tonight in my Harsch crock. I needed a break from all the sauerkraut I've been making, and these pickles fit the bill. Thanks again for posting such a wonderful tutorial. | no problem
Written by kimncris on 2006-11-07 07:46:33
Glad you liked it. LMK how they turn out!
-cris | follow up
Written by Guest on 2006-11-17 13:21:02
(I'm the Harsch crock poster.)
The pickles turned out very well! I used about twice as many jalapenos, but other than that, followed your step by step directions. After one week, they were only slightly sour, so I let them ferment for another few days. For reference, it has been around 50 deg. F around the house.
I will definitely make these again, but I might reduce the amount of salt in the brine to about 3-4%.
Thanks again for the recipe and great directions!
| Written by kimncris on 2006-11-17 13:44:54
thanks for the feedback!
Yeah I think when I did them in summer iw was cloer to 70 degrees F in the house. Could definitely make a difference! Try habaneros too if you liek them spicy 
-cris
| Written by Guest on 2006-12-01 14:42:42
Do hte Pickle!! | Written by Guest on 2006-12-01 14:43:33
Do the Pickle!! | Written by Guest on 2006-12-15 19:30:14
   they look so good
| Newbie
Written by Guest on 2007-01-25 06:04:04
Is it possible to pickle fruit like aples, grapes and avocados? | The Girl Who Loved Pickles
Written by Guest on 2007-04-22 21:43:07
i love pickle.i know someone who doesn't like pickles. his name is carlos.i don't know why he doesn't like pickles.i ask him why he doesn't like pickles.me,my name is picklet jk=just kidding i love pickles.all me and my cousin ever talk about is pickles.then the princess and the handsome prince lived pickley ever after. THE END (pickles)   | Erpelding
Written by Guest on 2007-08-03 11:23:40
Thanks for this tutorial. I used this method last year with great results. Luckily I bookmarked the page for this year. | great!
Written by kimncris on 2007-08-03 11:45:17
Great news! I just made some the other day and with the heat I had to stop them after about 3 days, but they went into the fridge and are very tasty!
-cris
| yummy
Written by Guest on 2007-08-20 07:17:40
the temp in my kitchen remained about 78 my pickles were Fabulous in 7 days i put them in the fridge after day 6 and had woderful homemade deli pickles the following day Great recipe |
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