Half Sour Pickles : esp Ba-tampte

[rotuts]

Ive been getting these pickles for some time.  refrigerated.

 

http://www.batamptepickle.com/products.php

 

the 1/2 sour.

 

recently for a few bottles, they were very green in color and frankly, tasted like cucumbers in a brine moved as fast as possible to the consumer.

 

nothing 1/2 about them. the 1/2 sours are not bright green, their, well, 1/2 green

 

so  has anyone noticed this ?  are they simply shipping their pickles as soon as possible and not bothering to the the 1/2 on their end for

 

some sort of reason, economic ?

 

Ive called them, but they don't call back

 

sad.  loved the true 1/2's

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I suspect it has to do with how long the jars have been sitting on the (albeit refrigerated) shelf.  I have experienced considerable variability in half sours, within the same brand and among brands.

[rotuts]

good points.  I looked at two other stores since I bought the jar I have.   all the jars in each store are bright green  i.e. cucumbers.

 

Im betting they now send them out as cucumbers and no longer bother actually making 1/2  sours at their factory.

 

Ill have to hunt down other brands, but i don't think there are any.

 

they also don't seem to return calls.  Ill look into an email if they have that on their site.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Shoprite has a new (ish) house brand of half sours and other refrigerated pickles.

[Martin Fisher]

7 hours ago, rotuts said:

...1/2 sours are not bright green....

 

I'm no pickle expert but the half-sours I'm accustomed to are definitely more green than not.

As to the Ba-Tampte's, some seem to feel the same....

 

"First of all, do NOT buy these pickles if they look like the ones in the photograph here. They MUST be bright green, with none of the brownness shown in the photo or the olive-greenness of other supermarket pickles. These are essentially fresh cucumbers, and that's what they should look like.
It's very misleading even to call these "pickles", because they're an entirely different product from anything else by that name - including other refrigerated pickles like Claussen and even other Ba-Tampte pickles on the shelf right next to these - and they require entirely different handling."

 

Source: http://www.wegmans.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10052&catalogId=10002&productId=352767

 

Edited April 2, 2016 by DiggingDogFarm (log)

[rotuts]

interesting.  taste differ.   the picture you noted are more like the pickles Im looking for.  they do not taste like a cucumber, nor do they taste like a 100 % pickle made by other

 

brands.  about 50 : 50  which is why I thought they were called 1/2 sours. but its a slippery slope. kosher friends of mine have told me that the dark green ones have not

 

cured enough.  but no matter.  you either like it or not.

 

it is true that if you get a jar that looks like that picture, you have to eat them fairly quickly while they still have crunch.  forget them for a while in the

 

refrig, and all you are left with is flab with no crunch.

 

PS  its quite possible that what ive enjoyed over the years is not really the real 1/2 sour, i.e. the green cucumber tasting item.

 

what ever it was it was a lot better than any other pickle to me, refrigerated or not.

 

maybe Ill try the Green Tomatoes.   never had those.  their  garlic-dills were interesting, but didn't have the crunch Ive associated w the 1/2's

Edited April 2, 2016 by rotuts (log)

[kbjesq]

@rotuts picked green tomatoes, green beans and picked okra are worth are trying -  if you haven't already. I love me some pickles, especially whole sours and beets. Also I make batches of pickled carrots and diakon (the kind served on bahn mi) just for snacking. They're very easy to make and have a great crunch factor. 

[Wayne]

 

I'll add my $0.02

 

I've been doing lacto-fermented half sours and full sours for a number of years and the loss of the bright green colour into a dull green is one of the indicators of a progressing fermentation. Chlorophyll's colour is pH dependent and as the pH drops (as the fermentation progresses and lactic acid is produced) the bright green fades to dull olive green. You will lose some of the crunch however this can be minimized by trimming off the blossom ends of the cucumber and adding a tannin source (such as grape or oak leaves) to the fermentation container. I get the same results lacto-fermenting green jalapenos.

 

Sorry to be so long winded. The short answer is they weren't allowed to ferment to full sours .

 

[rotuts]

thank you   @Wayne  

 

I like the pale-'r  1/2 sours as most of the Cuke flavor is gone but they still have crunch.  Im not a big fan of cucumber flavor  but don't worry too much about it.

 

if you ever have some of you 1/2's or full's  available for a pic   Id be interested in seeing them

 

thanks again.

[Wayne]

1 hour ago, rotuts said:

thank you   @Wayne  

 

I like the pale-'r  1/2 sours as most of the Cuke flavor is gone but they still have crunch.  Im not a big fan of cucumber flavor  but don't worry too much about it.

 

if you ever have some of you 1/2's or full's  available for a pic   Id be interested in seeing them

 

thanks again.

 

Can do.

I do a lot of ferments once the garden is cranking out produce. I'll be doing pickling cucumbers, jalapenos, hot cherry peppers, hot sauces and am planning to try green beans this year. Later on it will be daikon, watermelon radish and green tomatoes. I also want to experiment with an Ethiopian recipe I found for fermented collards.

I will post photos and comments in the preserving thread.

Cheers.

 

[kbjesq]

@Wayne while you are doing all that pickling, can you make me a batch of watermelon rind pickles? Not too sweet, please.