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How to make healthy probiotic pickles with a delightful crunch the old-fashioned way by fermenting sliced cucumbers in water, sea salt, and starter culture of choice.
When my Australian husband first moved to the United States in the 1990s, he commented that Americans must really love pickles. No matter where you go in the United States, deli sandwiches are almost invariably served with some sort of pickle on the side.
It’s true. Americans do love pickles.
Sweet pickles, sour pickles, dill pickles, it doesn’t seem to really matter what type. Americans consider them an essential condiment, and the wide variety of pickles at the supermarket is a strong testament to this fact.
The problem with store pickles is that they are for the most part a nutritionless addition to a meal.
The heat required to can pickles or seal and sterilize them in jars that can sit for months or even years on the supermarket shelf or in your pantry without going bad clinches that deal.
In short, these commercialized concoctions are pickled but not fermented.
Fermentation is the process whereby cucumbers are pickled without heat which adds beneficial enzymes, probiotics, and sometimes additional nutrients.
The traditional principles of fermentation can be applied to cucumbers just the same as it can to other foods like beets, apricots, tomatoes, and cabbage all of which have been the subject of previous recipes and/or video lessons.
Given their tremendous popularity of pickles as a condiment, you would think they would have been one of the very first fermentation videos I filmed back in 2009.
True all around, with one very big problem. I’ve never been very good at fermented cucumbers. They always turned out soggy when I’ve made them in the past.
Who wants to eat soggy pickles?
But then, my friend Alex Lewin sent me a copy of his book Real Food Fermentation, and at last I learned the secret for keeping my fermented cucumbers nice and crisp as they transform into enzyme and probiotic packed pickles.
Alex graciously gave permission for me to film his fermented cucumber recipe, which is included with the written recipe below.
Preparation Tips
If you wish a commercial taste to your healthy pickle creation, substitute 1 pint of filtered water combined with 1 pint organic raw apple cider vinegar that has been boiled and cooled instead of the quart of filtered water.
This brand of raw sauerkraut is recommended as a source for the liquid starter if you don’t have homemade sauerkraut on hand. Alternatively, 1/2 cup liquid whey may be substituted for the raw sauerkraut juice. Hint: Kefir whey is the most probiotically active.
Fresh bay or grape leaves may be substituted for the fresh oak leaves.
Fermented Cucumbers (Probiotic Pickles!)
Easy recipe to culture sliced cucumbers into probiotic fermented pickles that are crisp, tasty, and healthy.
Ingredients
- 2 lbs cucumbers preferably organic, sliced across into 1/4″ pieces, cut off and discard the blossom end
- 1 quart filtered water
- 1/2 cup sauerkraut juice
- 2 Tbsp sea salt
- 3-4 fresh oak leaves
- 3-5 garlic cloves optional
- 3-5 dried bay leaves optional
Instructions
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Slice cucumbers and set aside. Be sure to discard the slice with the blossom end as this is where enzymes are located that can contribute to soggy pickles.
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Place peeled garlic cloves, dried bay leaves, and either fresh oak, bay or grape leaves at the bottom of a clean 1/2 gallon mason jar.
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Place sliced cucumbers on top of seasonings. Mix sea salt, liquid whey or sauerkraut juice with the quart of water (or a water/vinegar mixture if you prefer a more vinegar flavor to your pickles) into the fermentation brine water and carefully pour over the top of the cucumbers.
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Leave about an inch at the top of the jar and screw on the lid. Add optional fermentation weight to keep cucumbers beneath the surface of the water. This will help prevent mold. I just use a smooth stone from my yard that I sterilized in boiling water.
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Leave fermented cucumbers on the counter for 2 days. After 2 days, remove one cucumber slice with a clean fork and taste. If it is crunchy and pleasantly sour, then refrigerate. Your pickles are done. If not, leave on the counter for another day, tasting each additional day to determine when the pickles taste pleasantly sour and are yet are still crunchy.
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If a small bit of of foamy bubbles is on top of the brine water, it’s not a problem. Just remove it and refrigerate. If there is a lot of mold with long tendrils down into the water, the batch has not taken properly. Discard and try again using more starter and/or vinegar with your next batch and/or a fermentation weight as a preventative.
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Properly cultured cucumbers, aka probiotic pickles, will last several months in the refrigerator.
Recipe Video
Source
Real Food Fermentation by Alex Lewin
More Fermentation Recipes
How to Make Fermented Lemonade
How to Make Probiotic Sauerkraut
Is there a particular oak that is used? Bc I live in MD & I’ve never seen an oak leaf look like the one you used.
Sarah, I’m definitely going to try this with a fresh leaf. That must be the trick, because I have yet to make a good fermented cucumber. Also, have you ever used fresh dill?
Great stuff 🙂
Guilty :/
I have to make these again.
I thought if you used vinegar the pickles don’t ferment??? Help! This is confusing to me.
Can you also use Kombucha or Kombucha vinegar with this recipe.
ok I would have a few questions about this way of pickling. I was planning on pickling cucs so I have them for my family throughout the winter, but the way your talking it doesn’t seem like these fermented pickles would last through the winter. I thought fermented vegetables were as good as preserved? Also with pickling cucs I have used pickling spices and dill. I planted dill and I have quite a bit of healthy dill growing in my garden, but I see you didn’t even use any of those. If I add them would they be for a different tasting pickle that what you made on the video?
Thank you so much for your fantastic information. This is such a lost art and you are so generous to endow us with your knowledge. I was wondering how we can ferment these foods in order to be able to leave them out? You mentioned that peoples of the past kept these foods for many months or years. I don’t have a lot of refrigerator space and want to have a jar of everything at all times. 🙂 But it won’t fit. Could I just leave them out after the 2-3 days on the counter or must they be refrigerated? Thank you again!
I am going to try this today. I planted cucumbers for the first time this year, and they grew in abundance. I wonder; do you know if I can use home brewed kombucha in place of the sauerkraut juice?