7/28/15

I have noticed with time, the blue in the garlic is really started to fade and some garlics are almost white again. I also noticed that the pickles are a lot darker green and look more like pickles than cucumbers.

Pickle Tasting!

The first time the pickles were tasted was by my brother 1 week after I made them. They were so bad he had to spit them out. 2 weeks after I made them we tried them again. This time they weren't as bad. They were still spicy because of the garlic but you could tell they were becoming more like pickles. They were decently crunchy also. 3 weeks after I made them they taste like spicy pickles and they are fairly good/ normal.

Still blue!

The garlic still turned blue though it wasn't as dark. I researched a little more and have found that it could also be because I didn't use distilled water. There is a possibility that there is metal traces in our water.


Either way, the garlic is still edible/doesn't affect the pickles. Sometimes it just turns blue for no reason.

Fermentation take 2

Since yesterday I learned why my garlic might have turned blue, I decided to do my 2nd trial of my fermentation project and this time I left out the vinegar in hopes that the garlic will not turn blue. I used the same exact process and recipe-minus the vinegar.

7/20/15

The blue garlic is starting to lighten. After doing a little research, I might have found out why it turned blue to begin with.
There is acid in the brine and so when the acidic vinegar is mixed with the garlic, it ruptures the cell membranes of the garlic which allows the amino acids and sulfur to mix. The blue pigment is when a certain enzyme is real eased and also mixes with the amino acids.

Even so, the garlic is still safe to eat and doesn't affect the pickles.

It has now been a little over 24 hours since the jar caps have popped. The garlic in each jar is starting to turn blue.

Pictures!

Cucumbers soaking in water

Jars in hot water

Packed jars

Garlic clove, peppercorn, and dill up close

7/12/15

After talking to my mom about this project, I've learned that she already had a pickle recipe that a friend had given her. So I changed my recipe a tad from the one I originally found. It is now;

4 lbs of pickling cukes ( substituted for mini seedless cucumbers)

3 tbsp salt

3 c vinegar

1 c fresh dill

28 peppercorns

14 cloves

Because I didn't have fresh cucumbers I have read that you should let them soak in cold water for 3-4 hours.

Since yesterday I broke a bone in my ankle, today was the perfect day to get these babies fermenting. With help from my mother (because it's hard to carry things while using crutches), I combined the vinegar, water and salt and heated it on the stove to a boil (this is the brine). Luckily we have a lot of canning jars because my family makes maple syrup. We put all of the jars in a pot of hot water to sanitize and seal. 

After reading a couple of websites like my humblekitchen.com and the food network, I learned that you should put either a bay leaf, grape leaf, horseradish, or black tea in the jar also because it makes them crisp. So in the bottom of the hot jar I put 3-4 peppercorns, 1 bay leaf, 2 fresh dill spears, and 2 cloves of garlic which I chopped in half. The cucumbers were too tall so I  cut them in half and then stuffed as many as I could into the jar. Then I poured the brine in over it all until everything was submerged and capped the jars. 

The jars are now sitting in my kitchen and supposed to be in 65-80 degree temperature. I am now waiting to hear the jar cap pop so I know they are sealed. Stay tuned!

Fermenting Pickles

I am going to ferment pickles.

I have found a recipe on wild fermentation.com to make sour pickles. I thought I would try this because I like pickles and it would be cool to make my own.  I will need cucumbers, spices, and to make a salt solution. Since it is the summer, it says to add more salt to slow microorganism action. I will also need to make a contraption to put them in which I'm thinking I can find a good jar that will work just as good as their special equipment.