This post was originally published on August 6, 2019.
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Who here loves them some pickles?
Me!
I’d been craving some pickles and feeling like doing some pickling. The last time I had pickled anything was a few years ago with my sister in law. I had picked up a magazine about stocking your pantry yourself and there was a section on pickling. She had never done it before, either and so we thought, hey! Let’s do a fun project together!
Everything turned out super yummy and we were super impressed with ourselves. Pats on the back and high fives, the whole nine.
Plus, the jars were so pretty in all their colors and a mason jar is just a beautiful simplicity in and of itself.
This time around I was inspired by shallots. I really wanted to pickle shallots.
Oh, wait, I also love cabbage. Why not pickle some cabbage?
Cabbage and mushrooms sound good together. Ok, let’s add some hot red pepper flakes, you know, for kicks.
And of course pickles. Other than my Oma’s Hungarian Cucumber Salad, pickling cucumbers for a summertime treat is the next best thing!
So that’s what I did! I bought some persian cucumbers, cabbage that was already shredded, and mushrooms that were already sliced. I already had the shallots and some garlic. Oh! And I bought some dill. And mustard seeds. And whole black peppercorns. And the hot red pepper flakes.
I chose to do a simple brine made of white vinegar, sugar, and salt. It’s pretty basic. I had just enough for the cucumbers and mushrooms and cabbage combo but it didn’t quite reach to the shallots. So I used apple cider vinegar.
Which turned out a little strange, to be honest. So I don’t think I’ll recommend that to you all.
Next time around I think I’ll use rice wine vinegar and let you know how it goes!
Grocery List:
White Vinegar
Sugar
Salt
Whole Black Peppercorns
Red Pepper Flakes
Fresh Dill
Garlic
Shallots
Persian cucumbers
Sliced mushrooms
Shredded Cabbage
To help myself out, I cut up all the cucumbers and garlic and shallots before cooking the brine.
Next I measured out 2 cups of white vinegar, 2 cups water, ½ a cup of sugar and 2 tablespoons of salt into a pan and brought it to a boil and then reduced the heat to medium-low for 10 minutes.
While that was going on, I stuffed the mason jars.
I managed to fit all the persian cucumber spears in the one jar along with the dill, 6 garlic cloves, 1 teaspoon mustard seeds, and ½ teaspoon of black peppercorns.
In the other large mason jar, I stuffed in the cabbage and mushroom slices along with 1 tablespoon of the red pepper flakes and, like, 2 garlic cloves for good measure.
Once the brine had simmered for the 10 minutes while stirring occasionally, I poured it into the jars. I knew that the fresh produce would reduce once the liquid had been added. The pickles were fine but I ended up stuffing some more cabbage and mushrooms into their jar, alternating between the two in layers.
I put the lids on and placed the completed jars in the fridge.
Next, I turned my attention to those shallots.
I had cut them into quarter chunks, thinking that would be a good way to fit them into the smaller canning jar. And, I mean, it was.
I chose to use the apple cider vinegar because of my mother. She’s always going on and on and on about how I should take apple cider vinegar for the health benefits. This one’s for you, Mom!
I basically halved the previous recipe and did 1 cup of the vinegar, ½ cup of water, 1 tablespoon of salt, 1 tablespoon of sugar and simmered it over medium heat until the sugar dissolves, again, stirring occasionally.
Pouring it over the shallots, I placed the tightly closed jars into the refrigerator.
I allowed the jars overnight to blend before trying each. Which was probably more than needed because this is a quick pickling technique. But, you know, for good measure.
I’m really happy with how each jar turned out! Like I mentioned before, the apple cider vinegar with the shallots is a little strange but it may because I’m just not used to the flavor of apple cider vinegar. But, it’ll be fun to experiment in the future!
To be honest, the pickles were a tad on the sweet side, so I’m going to have to figure out the best combination of sugar and salt. Or maybe add more mustard seeds and black peppercorn. But, on the other hand, the cabbage and mushrooms came out sooooo yummy!
I’ll do some more experimenting and let you know!
Tell me about you! What do you like pickled?
