Tips For Making Crunchy, Crispy, Cucumber Pickles
 

These tips were all taken from culturesforhealth.com:

- Add a few leaves of something with tannin in it, s/a oak, grape, bay, horseradish, even a teaspoon of loose, black tea.

- Remove the Blossom End. The end of the cucumber contains enzymes that soften pickles. Use a knife to remove a thin slice from the end, to preserve the firm texture.

- Ferment your pickles in a cool location. Don't let them get too warm during the summer months. (The fridge is probably too cold though.)

- Puncture the skin of your cucumbers before you start to ferment them. This allows the brine to penetrate the whole cuke.

- Use smaller cucumbers...more skin...more crunch.

~ C

ooOooo, add a bit of loose tea. I'll try that. Fresh summer cucumbers are a favorite here. We don't grow them and they are always so waxy from the store. I scrub them, but still 'peel them carelessly' so there is some green for color.

I remember Mom & Grandma using well water (hard water) to make pickles. Rain water from cistern to wash clothes.

Thanks, Tropit. My husband and son love to make pickles.

Be sure you use pickling cucumbers. Don't use purposes ones, they won't work.

Add alum to your liquid.

Mom would add a grape leaf to the jar of cucumbers that were to be pickled - now I know why.

I find this interesting that no one mentions whether these are sweet pickles, bread & butter pickles or dill pickles. Do these suggestions work for all the types of pickles? When I saw ferment, I thought probably dill? Am I wrong?

Agree ...... I was always told that alum gave dill pickles their crunch.


Can't answer your questions specifically, BarbInLouisianna ....However, the only recipe where I have seen or use alum is for dill pickles.

Tips For Making Crunchy, Crispy, Cucumber Pickles
 

I have an easy recipe for a crisp sweet pickle. It would take a while to type. I will gladly share (copy & paste) if you are interested and allow me to pm you.
trustme2

As the season approaches (still quite a ways off though), I'm looking for some new recipes to try this year. So, yes, I would be interested in your recipe. Thank you!!

Perhaps it would be just as easy for you to post it directly here, and just have to do it once? Your choice, just a suggestion.

I would love to have that recipe. You can pm me or post it here.

I looked up my mom's old recipe for dill pickles..and I see she used Alum, 1 tsp in each quart...now I see that there is a warning out for Alum and it is suggested that if you use it...should not be more than 1/4 tsp as it is toxic. I will have to research that further as it seems the toxic properties is thought to add to your chances of Alzheimer's or Dementia. Because of the aluminum in it but I thought I read somewhere that the theory about aluminum being a cause had been shown to not be true and I am also confused about cream of tartar as that seems to maybe have the same components as Alum? Anyway..more research is to be done with all of that, I remember my mom's dill pickles being nice and crispy..

Hi Barb,
These tips were below a recipe for Kosher Dill Pickles, so I'm guessing that is what they were referring to. However, I don't see why you can't use the same tricks for sweet pickles too.

~C

My mom always used the all purpose cucs for pickles and never had any problems.

Alum?
 

My sweet pickle recipe used an alum soak... 1 tablespoon to a 4 gallon (Canadian) crock and let sit about12 - 24 hours.
I have another from a neighbor which uses 1 teaspoon alum plus vinegar in the soak for a large Dutch oven.

Both are poured off and rinsed. Then onto the next step.

For dill pickles I just soak overnight in ice water before proceeding.

I think the most important tip is to cut off the blossom end.

I also tried Pickle Crisp in my sweet pickle recipe last year. Wasn't impressed.

I think that the ice water soak is a good idea. Can't hurt.

Personally, I don't think that I'd use alum. It's not readily available to me and I have tons of grape leaves and other things just naturally growing around here that have tannin in them. Alum seems like overkill. To each his own.

~ C