Capture Summer: A Beginner's Guide to Pickling Everything

Welcome to Essential Ingredients. We have a special episode today. You might have met her before when she was on not too long ago. So Sam, you might have remembered her. She's from Golden State Pickle Works, and we're here with her today to learn how to do this ourselves at home. So we've prepared everything well. By preparing, I mean that we got all the ingredients. They're not yet prepared, but Sam's gonna help me prepare them, so that we can make some great recipes that you too can follow along, or make on your own at a later time, and have to keep and store in your house for weeks to come. So here's Sam. Meet Sam. We're gonna give it over to you, Sam, so you can direct this initiative.

Awesome. Well, thank you for having me again. I'm super excited to make some pickles with you, and I always really love teaching people how to make pickles for the first time. I'm excited. Gotta tell you, by the way, my favorite pickles are cucumber pickles. They're more crispy. Do you know what I'm talking about? They're not quite as yellow or green. So we're going to do those styles today too.

That's my favorite. I'm very excited.

Well, first things first. We have to make sure that we have a really clean, sanitized area using a brand new chopping board, a new knife that's just been cleaned. And we do need to sanitize our jars. First and foremost, jars and lids, and the ring that tightens. What we're going to do is make a food safe sanitation solution with your bleach that is about a quarter of a teaspoon to a quart of water. So in a larger glass, go ahead and fill that up with water, and then add about a quarter of a teaspoon of that bleach to it.

We have my brand new measuring tools.

Okay, great, great. So we put an 8th of a teaspoon of that bleach into the two cups of water that you're going to pour in that water.

Okay, so we're putting in this bleach, and I put in half of the quarter teaspoon.

Which would be an 8th. Good job.

My math is good for two cups of water.

What we're really essentially doing is we're trying to kill any bacterias that really are on there right now, but not trying to overdo it with the bleach. And anything we're doing, as far as diluting it, is really helpful this way. So after you mix up that little bleach in the little bit of water, that's our sanitizing solution. What you're going to want to do is grab a paper towel, get that wet, and wring it out. So it's slightly on the drier side, but completely moistened with that bleach water. Just run that paper towel on the inside surface of that jar and the lid, and the ring that the lid connects to. Do the same thing with the inside of that jar and your other jar as well. Might as well do both.

Though I'm tuning in to watch this, it has been quite a journey to get here, necessarily. Today, July 20, 31st or whatever. But getting to the point where we had all these things and we were prepared, or we put them all together. It's my fault. I had a little disorder.

People often think of pickling as old fashioned or intimidating. But really, it's really one of the most accessible and low tech ways to preserve food. It also helps reduce waste, and support gut health. You really don't need any fancy tools. Just a jar and everything that's around you right now, and some salt and thyme. So ingredients are the real main thing that we needed to gather. And now, we're gonna sanitize the outside of our jars before we set them aside at the end of our day. Set aside that in your sink so that you don't knock it over. Now, we're gonna do a fermented pickle first. We have to wait to air dry our jars right there because we don't want any residual sanitizer in there. But we also don't want to take a towel, because any fibers that will drag inside of that will kind of just dilute that fermentation, and not be so clean to begin with. So while the air dries out, let's take out our ingredients for this specific product. We're going to do those pickling cucumbers. Hold up a cucumber and the jar, and let's see what we've got. Can they stand up straight there?

They can. I can just take off this little stem thing.

That's exactly what we're going to do. That's how we're going to prep those veggies. Earlier when we were going back and forth about how to prepare the veggies, it really depends on the vessel we're fermenting in, because we want to make as much use as the space that we have in there, but still have enough space for the brine to surround it. So in this case, holding up that cucumber compared to the jar, we do know that we can trim up the top and bottoms, and we can just stand them straight up. So go ahead and do about four of those cucumbers, because we also have one or two green tomatoes to add to that. We're not putting them in yet. We're just preparing them. So we're going to trim the bottoms and the top off of that cucumber to make sure they can stand up straight up. Let us wedge that green tomato in sixes or eights. I'm saying sixes or eights because I am keeping in mind that you like half sour cucumbers, which are about a five day ferment. And within the five days, I want that green tomato to also be fermented. Now, the unripe green tomato, part of this is going to stay firmer than the cucumber themselves. Believe it or not, this is the coolest part about having unripe green tomatoes. They're just so firm, but full of umami that it really lends a beautiful flavor. Let's do one one tomato, and we have some garlic, we've got dill. I would say four. But that's just because I really love garlic. Do you love garlic?

I do love garlic.

I would say four ish. Those fun recipes. So it really, it's about how much you like garlic.

So are you saying that if somebody loves garlic, say to put in 10 garlic.

You can do whatever you want. I go a little heavy on the garlic too. I like to put a little chili flake in my cucumbers. Mainly because everything is so bright, I want something deeper happening, and a little bit of warmth. I also put in a little chili flake. You might want to, or you might not want to. But what is a particular classic flavor profile is at least dill and garlic.

Okay. I'm thinking something a little different. So are there any other ideas that you have if there should be some watching this and they want to be adventurous?

People really love curries or Mexican flavors. I make Mexican carrots with cumin, coriander and Mexican oregano. And that would be really beautiful as well.

That sounds right up my alley.

Well, you are welcome to add one of your carrots into that jar or two, and we can add a little bit of that Mexican as well.

Okay, I like that. We're being flexible in our recipes here as we learn.

We're improvising. This particular step is very individualistic. It can literally be anything you want. It's the next step that's really the step that is important to understand.

The stuff that makes it happen.

Yes. So as you're prepping your vegetables, those jars are now completely air dried. In one of those jars, we're gonna make a salt brine. I'd say, a pound of your vegetables, and we'll probably use, would you mind checking out that top number on the jar just to see how big it is? How many ounces does it hold?

I think it's 32 ounces.

Which means we're probably going to just make about more brine than we need. Just simplistic sake. And you can easily use this brine, and keep it for your next ferment. So go ahead and take your teaspoon measure, and a little bit of salt. So fermentation works anywhere between two and 5% salinity. I like to go straight in the middle. Let's do one tablespoon for that one whole quart of water that we're going to dissolve.

Sea salt, by the way.

That's nice. A lot of people like sea salt. It's got those minerals and extra goodies that everybody loves. I personally would use that as well if I was at home. But because I own a business, everything has to be quite straightforward. And by the book, I used kosher salt.

What's the difference in taste?

Your salt is a little more flavorful. Again, it has a lot more minerals. But really, what one big mistake that beginners do make is that they either don't use enough salt, or they use the wrong kind. So you'll want to stick with either Kosher salt or sea salt, as long as it's not iodized. And at this point, we're always going to dissolve it in water. So go ahead and put that tablespoon into your jar.

So should I just put a little extra in? Can you put too much salt in?

You can. You'll know immediately by not being able to eat the pickles. Also, if you put way too much salt, it'll just take a really long time to ferment.

Should I fill this with some filtered water now?

Go ahead and fill it up to that 32 ounce mark.

I have a filtering system, and a little dial, and it goes from hot. Red is hot, white is fizzy, blue is flat. For about a second, it was on the fizzy. Is that going to be a problem?

No, that's just carbon. Next step is closing that lid, putting the flat top on there, putting that ring around there, getting it tight, and starting shaking. What you're going to do is you're really going to try and dissolve that salt. This is the most important part. Because otherwise, you just get salted water, and it's the salty water that creates a brine through fermentation, and turns the vegetable into a pickle. So once you see all of your salt dissolved, let me know. All right, take your empty jar, and put your prepped vegetables in the jar. I would start off with your cucumbers since it is the longest, and you'll want to keep them standing up. And then wedge in your tomatoes and garlic.

Maybe I could wedge them down below, not in the center. Are you going to add a little chili flake?

I would say for that amount, if you don't want them super spicy, I would say one half teaspoon of the chili flake is plenty. A pinch, a two finger pinch. We're talking grandma style now. So do you see how much you're wedging those in? Is it too hard?

No, I think we're good. I think there's just more room below.

You can also cut that cucumber in half just to make it shorter.

All right, I'll do that. Oh, wait, I didn't put the garlic in yet.

Also, keep room for the dill. Would you cut those cucumbers so that they are below the waistline of that lid rather than completely on top?

I'm getting creative here. I hope we have flexibility.

There are two ways to think of this. Some people like to cut them into spears. Now, just keep in mind, what keeps a cucumber crispy through fermentation is that really nice, snappy skin. So if you're exposing the centers, we now don't have the skin to protect--

I'm not going to do that with all of them, just this one because I think then I'll be able to taste the difference. I can have an experience. And it fits better. I'm just not sure about this one.

We want to keep room for a little brine to flow.

Okay, I'm gonna put a little chili in here. Boom.

Nice. And your garlic is in there already. Now, your last thing is your dill.

Okay, my dill is right here. How much dill?

Now, for all of that, I would probably say half of a traditional bunch that you'd see at any grocery store. What I really love about dill from the garden is all that stem that you also trimmed off, you can save those beautiful fronds for the soup and that yogurt dip that you're gonna make later on. It has the best flavor. Now, shove that right on in, and all we're going to do is cover with the brine that you just made, and pour it right into your jar. Is there a way you can kind of fold that dill right into the brine? Now, before we cover that with the jar lid, we want to add a little surface protector, and you're already doing that with the dill. So through fermentation, bacteria starts to grow. That bacteria produces a lactic acid, and that acid is what changes the vegetable into a pickle. While that happens, oxygen produces the bacteria, so we need to prohibit a lot of that mold growth by just not exposing the vegetables to the oxygen. Another way to do that is to have some surface right on top of that brine. So go ahead and place that inside, shove it inside. So this is protecting that brine from the oxygen, and will prohibit - keep it inside. Make it nicely protecting that surface there, perfect. Now, we can put that lid on there, and take the ring, but don't close it completely. Just close it slightly. Okay, perfect. Now, what you're doing is you're creating enough flow for the oxygen to come in and out. Because inside of that jar is going to start to become alive, and it will produce the gas, and it will want to breathe. You'll see that it kind of expands and changes colors, and produces little bubbles. And that's the CO2 happening, because it's becoming alive. Also, what you're enjoying doing next is you're going to set that on your counter for about four days. And again, within that time, the bacteria starts to turn that into a pickle. I would say after day four, you should start tasting that speared piece that you have in there, if you like the flavor that it's going in, then either keep going or stop it by putting it in the refrigerator. Once you like the texture, it's ready for you to eat year round. Just leave it in your fridge completely tight, and it should last forever. It won't go bad. But a best buy time period to keep those crispy pickles will probably be about in the six to eight month range.

Perfect. That's great to know. Wow, it's got a long life. Always make extra. If you don't know how much to make, if you're doing it for friends coming over, or for the weekend, or a barbecue, you can always make extra because you can throw it in the fridge.

Exactly. And you did make extra brine. So anytime you have any leftovers, trim for any of your food that you have. The half of a carrot spoken for, just stick it on in there. One little note about this because it becomes alive and probiotic, it will tend to expand. I noticed that we had so many vegetables in there that the brine might expand outside of the jar, so you might want to place that on a plate, just as the overflow of the brine does come out. And every day, take that, and press your fingers right into that just to make sure it stays underneath that water level that'll ensure it keeps from molding. There are two types of pickling. There's vinegar pickling, which is the quick and easy one. And the fermented pickles, which are the slower and probiotic rich ones that we just did. I do recommend beginners to always try both to see how it fits their taste and the rhythm. So next, we're going to do a vinegar pickle.

I can't wait. What do I do with this?

You're gonna save that for another time. We need a whole other jar. We're gonna use that jar. You're gonna either get rid of that somehow.

Yes, done. We're ready.

All right. Now, clean up your area there. Let's get rid of the dill.

I'm getting rid of the dill, the cucumbers. Do I want the garlic still?

Yeah, unless you would have put another cucumber inside that pickling liquid.

Sure. Why not? Okay, I kept the cucumber. I'm getting rid of the dill.

All right. Now, we are making our vinegar pickling liquid for our sweeter style pickle. Now, a lot of people have a lot of different recipes for American sweeter style pickles. I tend to think that they're always way too sweet, so I always cut my sugars in half. I also love ratios. I can make a recipe small or as large as I want, as long as I know the ratio. And the ratio for a vinegar style pickle is a 4, 2, 1. 4parts vinegar, two parts water, one part seasoning, sugar, everything else. So let's do a recipe. In your one quart jar, we're probably going to need half of a quart of pickling liquid to cover the veggies. That means it is a total of two cups, so half of a cup of vinegar, quarter cup of water, quarter cup of everything else. That's fine. So I love doing combinations of vinegars. With a total of a half a cup of vinegar, either you could do one quarter and a quarter, which is what I would do just to keep it simple, and then a half a cup of water. And this all goes into your pot to simmer.

Okay, so I'm going to start with the apple cider vinegar. I'm going to do a quarter of a cup of that, correct? Once I'm done with that, then I'll go to the--

You're going to be so annoyed with me, I'm doing my math right now. I think you're gonna need more water. Can you please do one more quarter cup of vinegar and half of a quarter cup? So another 8th cup of water.

Which vinegar?

Whatever you want, apple cider is perfect. So we're gonna do a quarter cup just because I think we have a few more vegetables than I remember.

And then how much more water?

Another quarter cup of water, an 8th of a cup of water.

I could maybe get an eighth of a cup.

It's just half of that quarter cup mark. It's literally like the size of your palm. Now, it is a quarter cup of everything else. So go ahead and place that on your cutting board, and start to fill it up with your seasonings. First, we're gonna do about an eighth of a cup of sugar.

Eighth of a cup of sugar. Okay, holy, grab a spoon.

And then just put it inside of that quarter cup measure so that we can just total the measuring cup.

Okay, so it's gonna be, I think it's like a tablespoon.

That looks great. Yeah, it looks like two tablespoons. Did you put it inside of the quarter cup measure?

No, I put it in the pot.

Gotcha. Awesome. Awesome. All right, now let's put about two tablespoons of salt in the pot, not in the measuring cup. And then we're gonna figure out what spices to put in there.

This is not an efficient way for me to do salt.

Salt is your preservative and flavor carrier. So one other thing that people always do is it does seem like a lot of salt, but we have to keep in mind that a lot of it is the pickling liquid that we're infusing with the veggies, so we're not eating all the salt that we're putting in there.

Why not be afraid of salt? I like salt. My shaker is inefficient. Not an efficient way to get salt in the spoon.

I honestly think that what you put in before was enough. Really, it just looks like a lot. I don't know how much is coming out of your shaker though, too. Now, we've got some black peppercorns. We have mustard seed.

How much coriander seed are we doing?

I would say a few, no way smaller than that. I would say about a tablespoon at the most, same along with all of your other spices that you've got.

I like this, it's gonna be pretty.

Yes, you're making your own pickling spice out of what you've got at home. Mustard is great. Also classic bay leaves are classic as well. And do you want to keep this spicy, or a little bit of warmth as well?

We'll just do one warm. How many bay leaves?

I'd say one, if not half. Now, bring that up to a simmer. Put that on low heat while we prep our veggie. Now, we're going to want to take a look at all of your veggies. And again, determine with the size of the jar that we have, how we're going to prepare them. I feel like those carrots might like to be cut in half, especially because they're really dense. Maybe slice them long ways. Now, this kind of pickling happens when you pour hot liquid over fresh veggies, essentially cooking the vegetables with that hot vinegar liquid.

So can I cut the top of the veggie?

Yeah, yeah. And then cut it lengthwise. At least in half, if not in orders.

I'm going to cut it in half too. Is that okay?

By the end of this little tiny workshop, I hope everybody just comes away with the fact that they know they can do whatever they want with anything they want. I think we've shown them that.

Okay, I'm going to keep them like this. Is that okay?

Yeah. Toss them inside of that jar. We also have a stalk of fennel and a big shallot behind you that I see. What else do you have?

I do have shallots and a zucchini.

Awesome. So as far as the zucchini goes, as you know, the zucchini is way more tender than that carrot. So depending on the size, we probably don't need to cut it as thin as the carrots right now.

Should we put the fennel in next? Is this edible?

Well, yes. But what you'll want to do is cut it along the fibers so that it's easy for you to chomp on. Either that, or just put a little piece of that fennel in there for the spice action to support it to flavored fennel. I do think that you would love that pickled onion, so go ahead. And at least put the whole shell in there, either sliced or wedged.

I love the fact that we're using shallots for my garden.

Yeah, so pretty. And, of course, if you want to just use this bulb of the onion, the greens that you have there are definitely not composted. They're going to be used in your next dish.

Oh, great. So should I cut this little tail off?

Yep, yep. Cut the tail off, and then cut the tops off, and then just slice them thinly so you have rings of the shallot, and then top that in the jar.

So while I'm cutting this, if you don't have shallots, what are some other just ideas we can give people for taste and flavor that are really great for pickling, that they might not think of.

Yeah. So what I like to do if we don't have something like the standard garlic, because the garlic is the standard part. I just thought that the shallot was a beautiful addition because it came from your garden, and it's in the same family as the garlic. So thinking in those terms, an Allium of some sort would be really nice. But if you don't have that, I bet somebody has some sort of onion or garlic powder in their pantry that they could use.

And now, I have the zucchini here.

Now, you get to choose if you want spears or coins. Go ahead and go check your pickling liquid. How far is it up? We know that we have a couple more seconds to finalize our jar, do you have any other veggies around you that you want to include?

We can always include more carrots and zucchini. I do have a beet.

If you want, you now keep in mind that adding the beet will definitely meld the beet color.

Yeah, let's stick with the carrots. Can I stick it in like this? So what I'm learning is there's really not a wrong way to cut your veggies. You may decide however you want to eat it later. Is it in a salad? Is it by itself? So you want to figure that out for yourself, and you can figure it out as you play with this.

Yeah, exactly. Depending on what the jar is telling you. Now, I do recall that we left a cucumber ready for you, too, if you wanted to add that in there. Go ahead and get your boiling liquid. If it's not completely boiling, just go ahead and put it on high till it's boiling. Now, bring it on over to the jar and slowly pour that hot liquid into your jar. I don't think there's enough liquid.

We're gonna do a half a cup of apple cider, and do a half a cup of water.

Another half a cup of white vinegar as well.

Okay, okay. And then we gotta get all the spices in?

Yeah. But just put random pinches, I think as far as the salt and the sugar goes, just put a three pinch amount in there, unless you really like to measure. We got your sugar and your salt in there as well. Just add one tablespoon of salt. And because the burner is probably on high, go ahead and either whisk it a little bit, or use a spoon to just make sure that sugar doesn't caramelize on the bottom.

Okay, we're back. We've stirred, it's on the stove, and we're just waiting for that to boil.

Now, we're gonna just get rid of all the other stuff that's around, and what we have is our half filled of almost pickled vegetables. In the meantime, let's sanitize the outside of the cucumber jar that I forgot to walk through. So before, when we had our previous jar, it would be awesome to just wipe down the outside of that jar just to make sure that you're not kind of jump starting bacteria growth. We're going to do the same thing with this vinegar jar. And this one's a little bit more important just because it's got sugar in the brine, and we definitely don't want any sticky sugar on the outside of the jar.

Perfect. Okay, looks pretty.

And you're gonna be surprised how delicious that green tomato is.

Just gonna put a few things away, clean up as we go along.

So this weekly pickling session that I tell a lot of my customers, you've got your carrots, the aging cabbage, or even watermelon rinds can all be pickled. Pickling turns what could be compost into something with another shelf life that really just ups the flavor of anything you're eating, whether it's your sandwiches or tacos, or even traditional porridge.

Yes, I love all those ideas. I think it's great because we do have so much waste. And unless I'm making a juice, I don't use the rind of a watermelon. But if I am making the juice, I'll throw the watermelon, I'll throw the rind in. So things like that that we don't think about, and the truths are all edible. It's just a different way to mix it up, and make something edible, or more tasty.

There are different ways you can do vinegar pickling. I've known some grandmothers who actually don't bring the pickling liquid up to a complete boil because they don't want to cook the vegetables. But in our case, because you've got carrots and firm vegetables, I think it's a good reason to boil the whole liquid. So what happens now is you're going to wait until we're going to keep that completely as it is. We're not putting the lid on there. Because otherwise, we're just steaming inside of that, and then we're creating the extra water that can develop the bad bacterias. So now, we're just waiting until this becomes completely room temperature before we put that lid on, clasp it on really tight, and it lives in the refrigerator. Some people like to do the whole canning method and keep it out at room temp until they actually open it, and that's a completely additional process that we're not even dipping into today.

Okay. So for right now, I'm gonna leave it till it cools down. Once it cools down, I'm gonna put this on maybe before I go to bed, or even in an hour and a half, and then we will have two different pickles down. Maybe you and I can meet on Instagram Live, and we can try them together. I'll try mine.

I'll try mine.

Okay. I'll meet you back here in how many days?

So those vinegar pickles are going to be done by the time you put them in the fridge. So go ahead and taste one, because they're going to be very delicious. The vinegar ones are, because essentially, what we're doing is just cooking the vegetables with vinegar. And by the time it's room temperature or cold, it's pickled.

So how about we meet back Monday or Tuesday next week? We hop on Instagram, and we try our pickles. We talk about how they taste. That's so much fun, right? All the different ways, we compare them. And then in the meantime, we will let them pickle.

Let them do their thing. But what's really going to be cool is watching the daily process of those fermented cucumbers and green tomatoes that's going to visually change from cloudy and bubbly, to a whole different color for the vegetables.

Awesome. Thank you, Sam, so much fun. I apologize, I was not prepared.

I always love walking people through. And this time, it was the first time on Zoom where I couldn't physically just do it and show you. So it was fun to just be able to, you know, you got to do it. Go, go get that.

I ran out, I got it, I came back, and we're good. And those green tomatoes and the pickles just look beautiful. I can't wait. Okay, Sam, we will talk soon. I want to thank our guests for tuning in today. Our listeners, this was a unique opportunity to work with a chef and somebody that makes her own products walk us through this process to make it accessible to you in your own home, to help you to be creative with foods that you don't eat before they go rotten, or just to create another healthy, fresh snack.

I hope everybody understands how fun and very low key pickling can be.

Very low key, very low maintenance. If you're not following us on our podcast because you're watching this on the videocast, don't forget that you can find us wherever you listen to your podcast at Essential Ingredients. We'll see you again next week.