cooking with anti-v : dill pickles

There, just for Karen!

Aha!

Dammit. In my usual lame-brained fashion, I was thinking of making some more pickles. I’m not out of them, I still have a jar and a half left from last year’s making, and I’d only made four jars anyway. But I’ve grown fresh dill this year, and I should harvest it and use it, and what better use for dill than dill pickles?

But, alas, I’m discovering, as I look at the recipe I was sure I’d used, that I must have combined this with another recipe. (I do that so much!) Because this recipe is a fermented pickle and uses no vinegar, and I’d not done a fermentation, but just poured my hot brine over the pickles and canned them. And I know I used vinegar. Sigh….
So, this recipe must have given me some proportions for a smaller batch and some suggestions for flavours, but I must have used another recipe to suggest method. Why do I never make notes?

And here I’d been urging Karen to try this recipe, and now I find it isn’t what I thought it was anyway. And it was so marvelously successful, whatever I’d done. Really, it’s the story of my life! You think I’d learn…

So, now I guess I need to have a quick peek in all my most likely sources, and see if there’s something that seems more familiar than not. Because I’ve got cukes and dill circling for a landing!

Okay, I think I’ve found the missing piece. (No wonder I rarely attempt large batches of this sort of thing. Until you know for certain the recipe is a good one, you hardly want forty gallons of something you can’t even give away. And then, when I actually come up with a champion recipe, do I write it down? Oh well. I was only going for a small batch again. So we’ll just have to cross our fingers. And what I’d found with my last lot, was that I could reboil the brine and refill the jar with more sliced cukes and get a second jar’s worth of refrigerator dills that were just as good! Which meant four jars equaled eight. I didn’t figure I could take it to another batch though. Not only would the sharp flavour start to drop off, at that point you start play with the acetic acid content, and I don’t know enough about the science and chemistry of pickling to want to play around with that…)

Okay. 95% chance that this is the actual Vandy-pickle recipe… And in a small quantity, just for Karen!

2 regular cukes. Washed and sliced on the bias.
Fresh dill.
Dried dill.
Mustard seed.
Garlic clove, peeled and squashed a bit. [Nothing wrong with even more garlic! Say 2 or 3 cloves! But at least 1 per jar.]

Take 2 1-quart mason jars. (I use the old glass topped ones for these. About the only thing other than dry storage or very short-term storage I’m comfortable using them for.) Sterilize. Pack with dill, dried spice, garlic clove and the cuke slices.

Boil up: 3 cups of white vinegar.
3 cups water
6 Tbsp. salt
with pickling spices.

Pour boiling (or near to boiling,) brine over cuke slices. Cap and seal. And process.

*NOTE: Because I make these in small batches (I actually do up four jars,) I’m not as paranoid about using the older jars, or processing till the cows come home. And once they’re opened, or in “round two”, they live in the fridge. I’ve heard that to make and sell pickles you have to take a course in the science of pickling, so obviously there are risks. But I feel that these are pretty simple, with both a high acid content and salt, so are fairly safe. I sterilize the jars before hand, and I do process them in a boiling bath. And I don’t expect them to actually be around long enough to become a mystery jar of strange fermented things…

While they probably would appreciate a longer pickling time, last year we broke open the first jar at the two-week mark because we couldn’t wait! They were great, though pretty “perky”. Even now, almost a year later, the most recent jar I’ve opened has still got bite, though I think it’s mellower.
So, I’ll try to remember to let you know if I did recreate the recipe, or a reasonable facsimile, but at the least, here’s a rough class in dill pickles 101. If nothing else, it should give a sense of proportions to use with any other recipe, so you have a small batch.

Another note: my antique jars are not totally identical in size. Some may be quart jars, some are a bit bigger, some a bit smaller. If I end up short of brine, I’ll make up another bit, note the ratio is 1cup:1cup:2tbsp for vinegar to water to salt.
(So that helps with the math.)
If I end up with a bit of brine leftover, like right now, I quickly scurry around the kitchen looking for some other little thing to pickle. Last time I had some mushrooms. I think I have a few this time as well. For the mushrooms I just add some peppercorns and maybe coriander seeds to the brine, just to change it a bit. But I don’t have to. It could also work with carrots, or cauliflower, or who knows?

Have fun.

Gifts of love....

I know, I should have taken a picture. I never remember the camera when there’s a sudden need. And if I plan to drag it out and along, then it never gets used.

Yes, Bear, one of my loving cats brought me an exciting gift yesterday. (Bear tends to bring me new pets and set them free for my enjoyment!) Yesterday’s special thoughtful present was a lovely little snake. (Urk!)
I was chatting on the phone with my mom in Manitoba, and heard the triumphant call of a cat with a gift, so we finished up the conversation and I went out to check. And there was proud Bear with his trophy, an intricately squiggled and coiled snake. I had a moment’s flurry of thought about what, on my side of the snake, could be used to put over top and trap him there. (Nothing worse than gifts roaming free and uncatchable!) I emptied out a plastic box of threads and sewing notions, and set it over top. Then I could more leisurely praise Bear and offer him better tasting treats.

After some careful maneuvering with a manila envelope and then the lid, I had the snake secure and took him out to show Darrell and set him free.
Actually, it was a very beautiful snake. At a safe distance. A young garter snake striped most exotically in rusty orange, with a glowing orange belly. (Underside?) I’ve only ever seen dull green and black garter snakes before. This one was lovely. At a distance. So we set him free in the front garden, and I watched him slither his way to a new life.

On a more enjoyable note, having decided that all my hummers have abandoned me, I switched that feeder for my sunflower one, in order to cement a relationship with all my potential wintry birds. And the chickadees and goldfinches have been having a good time. Then yesterday we had two woodpeckers show up again, and start a rat-a-tat on the side of the house. (While I could live without them pecking holes in the house, I’m glad to see them back. I think there was one of each, a Downy and a Hairy.) And several times yesterday, what I’m sure was Mrs. Rose-breasted Grosbeak was happily stuffing her face at the feeder…

This past year was the first that I’ve been putting out nyger seed as well as sunflower, and it did make all those little finch birds ecstatic. Birds are such cheap and satisfying pets. Though I often have qualms about appearing to be setting up an all-you-can-eat buffet for my cats. It’s time for my regular stern chat!

Dingos ate my baby

Well, actually no, it’s “Teenagers Ate My Brain”. And really, I think it’s getting better!

I did find that after Twelfth Night, it was all I could do to hold a single thought in my head, and keep it organized. The aftermath week was a bit rough. Laundry didn’t require too much thinking, but I was also trying to plan for a camping trip on the long weekend. And instead of being able to call on auto-pilot for the planning, I was going to have to compile different gear than usual, that would pack into a much smaller vehicle.

Yes, since our boys had abandoned us to go to CanIRON V in Nova Scotia and smelt iron, Selena and I were going to load two (though somewhat reduced) camps into her Mazda Protégé, and do it ourselves! And much to our delight, it worked. (We’re very proud of ourselves. NOTE: this is NOT ordinary camping but a re-enactors’ event, so handy little dome tents would be sub-par!)

But we both ended up with a period tent, and a sunshade, and a kitchen space.

And then, last week, I met with the artistic director of the theatre, and we talked about further work. Except for the first and last shows of their season, where the costumes are already arranged for, he’s pretty much offered me the balance of the season! So I just have to decide if I can survive on “professional-lite” money.
And the Christmas show does have kids, but only a half dozen. Easy peasy, eh!

Right now, I’m having a domestic moment. I picked chokecherries yesterday. (There were still some the birds hadn’t got!) And right now I’m making some kind of apple chokecherry ‘squish’, also using apples from our trees. Of course, this is a bit experimental. I’ve not done much jelly-making before, and am morphing a handful or recipes, but if nothing else it’s made a wonderful perfume in my house!