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Photo by Holly A. Heyser
Pickling is not solely the province of sweltering August kitchens, nor does it require vinegar. Over the years I’ve begun to put up produce in every season, and I am finding that springtime is a particularly good time for pickles: sugar peas, sauerkraut, artichokes, ramps, and the last young carrots of the year.
Instead of suffering in the summer’s heat, with sweat flavoring your brine and forcing yourself up early in the morning to beat what will likely be yet another 100-degree day, pickling in spring means you can turn the heat down in the house, open the windows and enjoy the steamy warmth of the stove properly. Or you can skip the boiling pots altogether and go lacto.
Lacto? Lacto-fermented pickles. Stay with me. Springtime is a perfect time to experiment with these natural pickles. Chances are you’ve eaten naturally fermented pickles — sour and half-sour dills are a specialty of good Jewish delis. I never knew how they were made until I read Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn’s Charcuterie.
Since that first encounter, I’ve learned a lot about lacto-fermented pickles from gurus such as Sandor Katz’s Wild Fermentation. Katz’s latest book, The Art of Fermentation: An In-Depth Exploration of Essential Concepts and Processes from Around the World has become an object of obsession for me; it is the kind of book I wish I’d written, but am happy enough just to read.
The key to this kind of pickling is the proper ratio of salt to water and coolish temperatures: Hotter than 75 degrees or so and you enter the danger zone. These carrots were the first thing I ever pickled this way, back in 2007, and I’ve been working with lacto-fermented pickles ever since. I plan on writing more about this fascinating topic soon.
Until then, eat these pickles to tide you over.
Photo by Holly A. Heyser
OLD-STYLE PICKLED CARROTS without VINEGAR
Pickles without vinegar? Blasphemy, right? Wrong. Where I grew up, Jewish delis had big crocks of brined pickles that are still the best pickles I have ever eaten. No vinegar, just a strong brine — it keeps the cukes green and, while salty, I find I can eat far more of these pickles than vinegared ones. Plus you can eat them while drinking wine, something impossible with vinegar pickles.
And that tang? Oh, it’s fermentation. Yep. These are fermented pickles. Don’t be scared. They’re easy. This is how I do it with pickles. If you want a nice, basic natural pickle recipe, you could do worse that pick up Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn. This recipe is (very loosely) adapted from theirs.
Makes 1 quart.
Prep Time: 3 days to 2 weeks, depending on how tangy you like your carrots
- 2 pounds small carrots, peeled
- 4 cups water
- 1/4 cup kosher salt
- 1 sprig of fresh thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 dried hot chile
- 1 teaspoon cracked black peppercorns
__________
- Cut the carrots into discs the size you would want to eat at a cocktail party. Or leave them whole. Or split them in half lengthwise. The key here is to keep the thickest part of any piece no wider than about 1 inch.
- Boil the salt, water, bay leaves and chile for a minute or so, then turn off the heat and let this cool to room temperature. This gets the flavors melding. Once the brine has cooled to room temperature, pack the carrots and the thyme sprig into a clean Mason jar and pour the brine over them.
- You will have leftover brine. Pour this into a plastic bag and tie it off. Push the bag into the jar — you want the carrots to be completely submerged in the brine. Alternately, fill a smaller jar that will just barely fit into the pickling jar with some water, screw on the lid and use that to prevent the carrots from contact with air. If the veggies hit air while fermenting, you get mold.
- Put the jar into a cool, dark place for at least 3-4 days. What’s cool? Cooler than 75 degrees. Like many things that ferment, 55 degrees is about perfect. Don’t go colder that 50 degrees. I ferment at about 72 degrees. You can leave the carrots in longer if you want — they will be saltier and tangier. I often ferment these carrots for a full 2 weeks.
- Remove the bag or small jar from your pickling jar. To store your pickles, either do as I do and simply screw the cap on the pickles and put them in the fridge, or you can pour the brine into a clean pot and boil it. When it is cool, pour it back into the jar with the carrots and seal it up. If you want your pickles to be shelf-stable, you must boil the brine and then process it for 15 minutes or so in a hot water bath. Kept in the fridge, these pickles will last up to 6 months.
Photo by Holly A. Heyser
I love that fermentation turns the food into a high probiotic, good for you food, and even increases the vitamin content in many cases. Canning, on the other hand destroys much of what is good in the food.
so, the tops of the bigger jars is open? just a bag o’ brine or the smaller jar sitting in the water? Just want to get it right.
excellent! I can’t wait to try this with some green beans
I love this recipe, they are great with ginger as well. I love home fermenting everything from beets to milk to kombucha and beyond.
I feel the need to add a comment though, about making them shelf stable, or processing them.
By lacto-fermenting, you not only create a delicious pickle (boiling not actually required) but you amp up the vitamin and enzyme activity, making them even healthier than raw.
If you process them, aka boil or heat in any way, you Destroy all of that lovely work you just did creating an enzyme rich super food.
You generally shouldn’t process, can, cook, freeze or otherwise denature fermented foods if you want to keep the nutritional value in tact.
Laura: Yep, tops of jars are open. You only cap them once you’re done.
Susan and Joli: I am not overly concerned with the vitamin content or whatever. It’s a nice side effect, but I do this for flavor. That said, I leave most of my lacto-fermented pickles in the fridge so they are still alive. A question back to you two: What do you do when you run out of fridge space? You can’t very well leave a fermenting jar of pickles at room temperature indefinitely.
A question back to you two: What do you do when you run out of fridge space? You can’t very well leave a fermenting jar of pickles at room temperature indefinitely.
You didn’t ask this question of me, but I hope you don’t object to my answering. I put fermented veg in a dark cellar. Some people cap fermented salsa and do this. It continues to ferment a bit, but it stays good for many months.
Opps! I forgot to add that fermented cukes rarely stay firm for long, even with the advent of grape or oak leaves. Those leaves do help them stay crisp a tad longer, the tannins I guess. Other things like salsa, coles, carrots, etc. do very well in a cool basement.
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I have a quart of carrots fermenting on my counter (after I tasted yours clamming, had to have some!) It’s been 4 days- liquid got a little cloudy day 3 (I understand that’s OK). But also day 3 white foam around the top of the jar (none touching carrots, which are submerged, bag of brine on top). I read it’s OK, and to skim the foam off the top. Have you ever had this ever happen?
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Hank, it seems like you don’t make a great quantity since you keep in the fridge. I have cucumbers I want to preserve and was wondering if right now would be a good time to ferment them and leave in the garage (without boiling). Anyone done this before?
Sorry, English is my second language.
Thank you for this post. I made these as instructed except that I didn’t have a dried chili so I used a fresh jalapeno from my garden. woah.. excellent flavor.. but wow the heat was intense! You know.. in a good way.
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my carrots are cloudy- I have been fermenting cabbage for the past year and didn’t notice the cloudiness- probably because the color is so close. I opened them and smelled them and they smell like carrots. Hoping they are on the right track- it has been about a week, and the temp in my house is not real warm. Thank you for any advice!
Thank you so much! I love preserved veges, but can’t eat vinegar – so I’m definitely going to give this recipe a try.
Great post. I have been making no vinegar pickles for over 40 years.
We make 40 – 48 quarts per year and they last an entire year. We start making pickles in early August. We have always used the no vinegar recipe. Once made, the jars stay in the cold spot the entire time. The temperature ranges from 60 degrees in August to 40 degrees in January. We “do not” process these jars in any way, they just naturally brine and once the brining is complete the jars stay on the shelf. Yes, they are not as crisp the longer you keep them, but still excellent and crunchy enough for me. When we make the pickles we pack the jars and place one head of dill on top of the pickles in the jar to make sure they stay submerged. We then screw the lids on tight once the ars are full and filled with water. We found that the old style glass lids are the only ones that can withstand the pressure of the brining process, the metal lids that are normally used in canning tend to buckle due to the pressure generated in brining, then they let air in and spoil the pickles. Using glass lids we found that only one or two jars of pickles spoil. Some jars are so well sealed that when we open them the effervessence, is like a bottle of carbonated soda, these I find are the best pickles and even drink the brine, and, use the brine(a small amount) in a bloody mary cocktail. We have been doing this for 40 years, and, my family for 40 years before that, none of us has died using this process, and we have always been healthy with no digestive problems. This I attribute to these pickles and also to drinking th juice.
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should i scrape the scum/mold off the top? this will be the 2nd day and the lid was not left on tight- its white and bubbly.
Thank you for your help~
Rudy: I leave it and pick it off when I am finished. You can pick it off, though.
Thanks Hank- they are sooo delicious!! My farmer forgot my order and I can’t wait to make more!