1st Kosher Dill Pickle Tasting

A tasting of my first attempt at Kosher Dill Pickles.

Appearance - Army green skin with a darker green interior than a commercial pickle. It is amazing how much the appearance changes, getting darker the older they get.

Aroma - A bit of sourness with some dill and garlic. Rather earthy, maybe coming from the pepper.

Taste - Lots of salt with some garlic in the finish. They are lightly tart, but certainly not as sour as many pickles. The sourness is lactic and tangy, not the sharp acetic (vinegar) character that I really dislike. They also have almost no sweetness unlike some commercial pickles.

Mouthfeel - Very crisp, great crunch and snap. I love salt, but here the salt asserts itself a bit too much, making it hard to eat these in quantity without an accompaniment.

Eatability/Notes - Pretty solid first attempt, they are getting saltier the longer they sit in the brine in the fridge. I'll definitely cut down on the salt for my next attempt and maybe even water the brine down further for storage in the refrigerator.

Kosher Dill

After watching a recent episode of Good Eats called Dill-icious which describes how to make kosher dill pickles at home, I decided to try my hand at it.

On 10/26 I took 2.5 lbs of pickling cucumbers and cut off the ends, according to Alton this removes an enzyme which can damage the maturing pickles. In a 1 gallon plastic container I combined a bunch (literal) of dill, 1 tbls of black peppercorns, and 2 whole cloves of garlic (the ingredient that turns regular dill pickles into kosher dills). I then mixed 5.5 oz (by weight) of kosher salt (pickling salt would be easier because it dissolves faster, but I didn't have any) and dissolved it in about 1 gallon of water. I arranged the pickles vertically in the container and poured the brine over them. I took the excess brine and put it into a ziplock bag (so it won't dilute the brine i
f it leaks) which I placed on top of the cucumbers to keep them submerged. I used a rubber band to secure a paper towel over the top of the container just to stop bugs and dust from getting in.


Even though it looks like there are cucumbers/pickles in that ziplock, I assure you that it is an optical illusion (the water filled bag is acting as a lens).

This is a very similar procedure which will cause a very similar fermentation to sauerkraut. The only difference is that you add the salt already dissolved in water instead of counting on it to draw enough water out of the food to form its own brine.

Essentially at this level the salt will inhibit "noxious" microbes, while allowing "tasty" lactic acid bacteria to ferment. Another, simpler way to make pickles is to add acetic acid in the form of vinegar to the brine, and let the pickles soak for a few days. This way can produces good pickles, but they will have a harsher acid character that I do not enjoy as much as fermented pickles. Theoretically you could add food grade lactic acid to the solution as a short cut, but I'll leave that for someone else.

11/03/07 Tasted one of the pickles after about a week, not much sourness and the saltiness is a bit strong and there is still a bit too much "cucumber" flavor.

11/08/07 Moved into fridge a few days after a Pediococcus (?) pellicle formed (last picture). This will shut down fermentation and still let any CO2 out, nobody wants carbonated pickles.

11/12/07 Put the pickles into mason jars and then topped up with the strained pickle juice.

11/16/07 Pickles taste pretty good, and looks just like a commercial pickle. Full tasting soon.

Sauerkraut, Weisswurst, and Mustard

Well my first shot at sauerkraut hit pretty close to the mark. For my first real tasting I had it hot with a a couple of weisswurst (delicious, fresh, veal sausages), some grainy mustard (featuring Sierra Nevada Stout) and pumpernickel. Warming sauerkraut drives off some of the acidity, making it a better compliment to more delicate foods. To wash down the meal I had the new Sam Adam's Longshot Dortmund Export, one of the three beers that won Boston Beer's homebrew contest last year.

The sauerkraut is good, rather sour with that classic mildly sulfury cabbage goodness. It isn't too salty, but I really enjoy salt, if it was too much you could always give it a rinse before eating it. The texture of the kraut is much crisper than any commercial sauerkraut I have had, partially because I cut it pretty thick but also because it has not been pasteurized or treated with any chemicals. I think I gave it about the right amount of time before I bottled it and put it into the fridge, if it was much more sour it would overpower any other food it is served with.

The only problem I am having so far with the sauerkraut is trying to keep the cabbage submerged in the brine during storage. I guess I packed it in there tighter than I should have, as I take sauerkraut out I have to force the remaining cabbage back into the brine. Not sure if there was a way to avoid this besides using more containers and not packing in the sauerkraut in.

Next time I do a batch of kraut I will certainly put more effort into getting the cabbage sliced into about 1/8” slices (this batch was closer to 1/4”).

Sauerkraut Bottling

After 4 weeks getting nice and sour I decided to call my first attempt at sauerkraut ready to eat. After washing my hands and 2 mason jars I crammed the cabbage into the jars and topped them off with the “kraut juice” pushing down on it to get as much air out as possible. My two heads of cabbage ended up filling up the two jars perfectly. The sauerkraut is nice nicely acidic and salty, but still has a great crunchy texture that I think is much better than the soggy texture that commercial sauerkraut normally has.

I don't normally eat straight sauerkraut so it's hard to judge exactly how good my homemade version is until I get some bratwurst or make a Ruben or some brisket with sauerkraut and prunes (mmm mmm heritage).

So far I think the most important lesson I have learned is to slice the cabbage thinner, I have some pretty big chunks in there. Next time I think I'll add some additional spices, I may even give Korean Kimchi a shot (sauerkraut with chilies, garlic and scallions).

Sauerkraut 101

This is my first try at making sauerkraut and my first time playing with spontaneous fermentation. I've been interested in doing sauerkraut for awhile not only because I think it's delicious but also because I have a family history of home sauerkraut making. My mother's grandfather, a German immigrant, used to keep a huge weighted barrel in his basement filled with fermenting sauerkraut.

Sauerkraut seems like it is easy enough for just about anyone to try. At its core it only requires two ingredients, salt and cabbage and about 10 minutes to prepare. In the right ratio salt draws moisture out of the cabbage and protects the good lactic acid bacteria (including our friends Lactobacillus, and Pediococcus which are both used in the production of sour beers) from other microbes that want to invade. After the cabbage is salted you simply apply a weight to the top of the cabbage and wait a few weeks for the magic to happen.

Other spices (juniper, caraway), fruits (apples) and vegetables (onions) can be added to the sauerkraut for flavor or texture, but for this first try I'm going to stay basic.

I sliced up 2 heads of regular green cabbage (3 lbs, after removing the stem and outer leaves) and mixed with 34 grams of kosher salt (2.5% by weight). Then I pressed the salted cabbage into a large Tupperware container put the lid from a smaller container and used a water filled mason jar to weigh it down.

I used Iodophor on the container and lid, but only soap and water on the knife and cutting board. Sanitation is important in making sauerkraut, but it is not as crucial as when making beer because the cabbage is covered in natural yeast and bacteria anyway and the salt is there to protect the fermentation.

After 24 hours the liquid drawn out by the salt was only half way up the cabbage. So I poured a brine made of 2 tsp of kosher salt and 1 pint of water onto the cabbage.

After another 48 hours the mixture was putting off enough sulfur aroma to cause me to move it out of my room and into a cabinet in the kitchen. I wish I had a cellar.

After about a week the distinct smell of sauerkraut was apparent. I had to top off with more brine because it had started to evaporate. I suspect that my rig is getting caught and not efficiently putting pressure on the kraut.

After another week I took a look at the kraut and there were several small, blue colonies of mold floating on top of the brine. This is not a serious issue as they are simply on the surface. I took the weight (mason jar) out and skimmed off the mold, replaced the weight and put the rig back on its shelf.