We Are Quick Pickling This Month #fijchallenge

Dill Quick Pickles

We are now in the fourth month of our year-long food preservation Mastery Challenge hosted by Marisa of the popular canning blog, Food In Jars. This month we are focusing on quick pickles. This type of preserving method is a simple process used to pickle almost any type of fruit, vegetable or even an egg in a vinegar, water, and salt solution that is stored in the refrigerator. The purpose of this challenge is to expand our skills while preserving a food ingredient that we will actually use. This time I pickled eggs and cucumbers.

Now on to the refrigerator pickles also known as quick pickles. These are typically made in small batches in a vinegar brine with herbs and spices. I bought fresh dill and Persian cucumbers at the farmers market. The cucumbers were sliced and then stuffed into two clean pint jars. Coriander seeds, mustard seeds, black peppercorns, and fresh dill sprigs were added and then the chilled brine was poured into jars, covered and then refrigerated. Pickles will keep for one month.

The recipe has been slightky adapted and is from, “Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving”.

Ingredients:

2 pounds Persian or Gerkin cucumbers
2 cups white vinegar
2 cups water
6 tablespoons pickling salt
¼ cup sugar
16 dill sprigs
5 teaspoons mustard seeds
5 teaspoons coriander seeds
1 ¼ teaspoons black peppercorns

To prepare:

Put cucumber slices in a large heatproof bowl.

Combine vinegar, water, pickling salt and sugar in a medium-sized stainless steel saucepan over medium high heat and stir occasionally until sugar and salt dissolve. Let the mixture come to a boil, reduce heat, cover with a lid and simmer for approx 10 minutes. Pour the hot brine over cucumbers.

Cover the bowl with waxed paper and let it rest until the mixture cools to room temperature. Divide dill sprigs, mustard, coriander seeds and peppercorns evenly into jars. Fill jars with cucumber slices until they are 1/2 inch from the top. Pour pickling liquid into each jar until the liquid covers the cucumbers. Screw lids onto jars. Place in refrigerator. For best results let pickles marinate at least 2 weeks.

Quick Pickles with Fresh Dill

Since it was Easter I decided to prepare pickled red beet eggs, It was a relatively simple process. The eggs were hard boiled. Then a pickling brine was made and heated in a medium-sized saucepan. The brine consisted of white vinegar, salt, brown sugar, and water with shredded red beets. After mixture cools eggs are added and refrigerated. I kept the eggs in the pickling brine 2 days. Sadly these did not turn out the way I thought they should, they were very salty and the texture was a little off. Next time I will try Marisa’s recipe. On a positive note the eggs were a beautiful shade of pink, loved the color.

This recipe is from the April edition of the Bon Appetit magazine.

Red Beet Pickled Eggs