Pickles--Cook-Off 32

[JohnT]

Okay folks, here is a question. I have been making pickled onions for years, but only in small batches of 2 or 3 kg at a time. This past week I became the proud father to 40 kg of pickling onions - thousands of the little buggers!

My question is - how the hell does a person skin them quickly? Anybody worked in a pickled onion factory and wants to divulge the secret? A couple kg's I can handle, but doing this in bulk is something I have never considered or contemplated. John.

[Anna N]

John T. It appears no one has an answer for you and I certainly don't. And I suspect you have already solved the problem anyway or buckled down to do it the hard way.

I swore today that I would put my nose into a book and not remove it for anything short of an atomic blast or world war. But when I went into the kitchen to make coffee I was pulled up short by a wave of guilt. On the counter sat a bag of beets. I had bought them for a salad but had far more than I needed. The bunched beets which would have been perfect were even sadder than the bagged beets. So I hauled out the pressure cooker, gave them 40 minutes which was perfect and made Danish pickled beets. I kept enough aside unpickled for another salad. Now back to my books.

[Martin Fisher]

Briefly blanching them is the easiest way I know.

[JohnT]

Briefly blanching them is the easiest way I know.

Thanks DDF, that's what I ended up doing - sort of! I actually ended up brining them skin on and the next day found the skin "slid off" quite easily. I will just have to wait another month of so to see if they have remained crisp, which was my aim. I have previously tried to blanch pickled onions and the skins also came off quite easily, but the result was that the onions did not remain crisp.

[ChrisTaylor]

Pickle madness. A recipe in the Momofuku book for pickled cherries caught my eye. Naturally, I ended up buying a dozen Mason jars and spending the best part of a day pickling things. I've made pickles before but never got around to canning them. So, using the basic pickle recipe from Eat With Your Hands, I pickled cucumbers, spring onions, celery, radishes and green chillies. One jar of the cukes was jacked with half of a fatali chilli. From Pickles, Pigs and Whiskey I made a batch each of the peaches and okra. And, yeah, those cherries I'd originally set out to pickle.

 

[Shelby]

Beautiful pickles, Chris and I love the jar lids!

[ChrisTaylor]

Days when you're meant to be writing your thesis are the best days for messing around in a hot/humid kitchen, pickling stuff, right? Of course, one of these things is not like the others. One of these things is not the same.

 

Both are the products of John Currence's Pickles, Pigs and Whiskey: pickled sweetcorn and marinara sauce. At some point in the next week or so I'll get around to the pickled grapes and pickled pig ears (so I can deep-fry them).

 

[Shelby]

I have that book, Chris.  You're making me feel ambitious.

[bethesdabakers]

I love that book.



I got the bug too this year. Do the pickled grapes, they're fabulous and very easy. And the pickled apples.Those two really get people you wouldn't expect nibbling away.



But the star, as far as I'm concerned, is his "Tabasco". I've made a jalapenos version and a scotch bonnet. You have a couple of months to wait but it's serious stuff. This year I'm going to have little vats of various chiles fermenting and I'm going into blending.

 

Mick

[ChrisTaylor]

I've made his spin on Tabasco. It was the first chilli sauce I've made and, after my early success, I've been reluctant to try anything else. It's very simple. It just works. Although I have realised that the quality of the end product hinges, more than anything else, on the vinegar. Vinegar that might be fine in small amounts in a salad dressing or sitting in the background of a fridge pickle (i.e. jacked with sugar, salt, spices, the flavour of whatever vegetable you've parked in there) turns out to ... not be so fine in Currencebasco. Considering good white wine vin is really expensive I'm tempted, for my next batch--I'm waiting for my chilli plants to fruit a bit more--to sub the white wine vin for something else. Rice vin? Sherry vin?

 

Blending is nice. The first time around I used 500g of assorted chillies: half a dozen kinds. I thought it worked nicely. Some jalapenos for the flavour with smaller quantities of some hotter chillies.

 

Incidentally, your jars don't look like Mason jars? Do I process them the same way?

[ChrisTaylor]

Well, I can't say no to a request

 

[bethesdabakers]

Hi Chris

 

I’m pretty new to this whole thing. I’m trying to understand the fermentation process which is a bit ironic given I’ve been a sourdough baker for so long and a supporter of certain fermented beverages.  As recommended by Mr Currence I tracked down a cheap copy the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving – very clearly written apart from the North American volumetric measures.

 

I buy good quality organic cider vinegar in 5 litre quantities. John Currence calls for champagne vinegar but that’s a step too far for my pocket. To be honest I haven’t found it an intrusive taste.



The jars are Kilner Jars which are standard UK issue, except for the rubber sealed one which is Vogue, a French company. I use the standard water bath method.

 

Unlike you sunny photographs you can see we are in the deep mid-winter here in mine!

[ChrisTaylor]

You use the cider vin in the hot sauce? That's good enough for me. Champagne vinegar is expensive. Especially when you're watching a whole bottle's worth glug-glug-glug into a container of fermented chilli mash.

[FauxPas]

I went to the farm to pick up some Kirby cukes this morning, and used some of them with Shelby's Quickle recipe. 

 

Thanks, Shelby! I'll try to hold off tasting these for a week or so.

 

 

 

 

[Shelby]

NICE FauxPas!!!  I'm so glad you made some  And, thanks for bumping the thread......I'm getting ready to make some, too.  I don't have any garlic cloves that aren't frozen so I'm nervous about that.  I'm going to try the frozen and see if they work ok.  

[rotuts]

Id appreciate any ideas on kirby's via chamber vac.

 

my favorite pickle i.e. the ones i buy are the Ba-tampte Half Sour's

[FauxPas]

NICE FauxPas!!!  I'm so glad you made some  And, thanks for bumping the thread......I'm getting ready to make some, too.  I don't have any garlic cloves that aren't frozen so I'm nervous about that.  I'm going to try the frozen and see if they work ok.  

 

Thanks Shelby! And thanks again for sharing the recipe. 

 

I would think that frozen garlic would be fine, though the texture might suffer. But you won't be eating the garlic itself, right? You probably just want it for flavouring and that should still work OK. Good luck! 

[FauxPas]

More pickles. The farm had six lbs of cukes saved for me this morning and that made six quarts. I also made some 'baby' garlic-dills and some bread and butter pickles. 

 

 

[Shelby]

Rotuts, I'm sorry I'm no help but I'm sure someone around here is.

 

FauxPas, another gorgeous batch!

 

I made my one jar of quickles.  I think you're right, FP, the frozen garlic should be ok.  Thanks for reassuring me

[FauxPas]

LIke Shelby, I'm no help on this either. I don't know much about chamber vacs. Are you asking about putting cukes and pickling brine in a bag via chamber vac vs using jars, by any chance? Or instead of using a crock??? 

 

 

 

 

Id appreciate any ideas on kirby's via chamber vac.

 

my favorite pickle i.e. the ones i buy are the Ba-tampte Half Sour's

Edited June 28, 2015 by FauxPas (log)

[FauxPas]

rotuts, I think I see what you are talking about - like this? Or this? 

 

I assume you have a chamber vac? have you tried pickling yet? 

[Shelby]

Crocking up these guys in a minute

 

[Shelby]

 

Quickles

[Shelby]

 

Crock pickles (half sours)

[HungryChris]

 My garden cukes are slowing down, so this might be the last batch. Deb's BIL's chickens are going great guns, so the pickled eggs are how I stay on top of them.