I just put up some pickled vegetables. This is my first time making ginger carrots from Nourishing Traditions, but I’ve made pickled cucumbers before.
The first time I tried cucumbers was a couple years ago. I put in the 2 tablespoons of salt as the recipe called for and I don’t think the fermentation ever took place. They were just really salty cucumbers. I declared the recipe to be a failure and only retried a few months ago. Then I reduced the salt to 1T + 1t. That worked, but some off flavors developed.
I later came to the realization that the first time I had used your average grocery store waxed cucumber and softened water and that one or the other had halted the fermentation. In my more recent reduced salt endeavor I had used some unwaxed salad cucumbers and unsoftened water.
So on this batch I went back to the 2T salt (for the carrots too). I tried them at the suggested 3 days (they’re sliced) and found that they still tasted too salty and not sour enough. So I let them sit a couple more days at room temperature. Now they have gotten the normal sour pickle taste and the sour balances out the salt. They’re actually quite good.
The lesson learned is that when room temperature is lower (as in the fall and winter), the fermentation will take longer.
For those not familiar with lacto-fermented vegetables, these are not your standard pasteurized vinegar-based pickles you buy in stores. They work on the same principle as yogurt or sourdough bread and are a fermentation using the critters already living on the pickles. The salt inhibits growth of the bad beasties and allows the growth of the good beasties. The good beasties generate lactic acid – which is where the sour taste comes from. Traditional pickles also are a probiotic. They also have loads of enzymes. This is the way our ancestors pickled.
I have a question for you…I have made several fermented fruits and veggies from Nourishing Traditions and in every circumstance except the salsa it has been way too salty. Do you know if is it okay to cut the salt in half? Or, do you know of a way that you could pickle using Bragg’s Raw Vinegar? I can’t get anyone in my family to eat any of my fermented experiments!
I’d be grateful for your advice!
Karen
Karen,
Yes, you can reduce the salt. I have been successful at times cutting it almost in half. That said, there is the increased chance of off flavors if you use less.
What I have found is that you simply need to let the vegetables ferment for a longer period, sometimes as long as 2 months, before the salty edge is tolerable.
Kosher Jewish pickles sometimes use even more salt than the NT recipes call for. They use a freshwater soak the day of eating (or overnight) to reduce the saltiness.
If time is money you’ve made me a wehlatier woman.