I love pickles! When I was a kid, I spent my summers at the pool where I would order a Moon Pie and a delicious dill pickle.
I had no idea that pickles could be supremely healthy and actually probiotic until I read Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon Morell. It’s traditional to make pickles in summertime when cucumbers are in season. Modern pickles are canned with vinegar — which doesn’t do jack for your digestive system.
Lacto-fermented pickles, on the other hand, are akin to eating yogurt or drinking kefir. If you are not a fan of eating a pickle spear or a whole pickle, make pickle relish and add it to your tuna, egg or potato salad to give a probiotic boost.
Recipe Notes
This recipe is from Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon Morell. The oak or grape leaf helps to make the pickles crisp and crunchy. I have tried making pickles without a grape leaf and they came out soggy.
Lacto-Fermented Dill Pickles
Ingredients
Cucumbers, organic if possible, pickling (4-5) or gherkins (15-20)
Mustard seeds (1 TBS)
Dill, fresh (2 TBS)
Sea salt (2 TBS) — where to buy sea salt
Filtered water (1 cup)
Optional: Oak or grape leaf (1)
Equipment
Glass jar with lid, quart size
Directions
1. Wash cucumbers well and place in a quart-sized wide mouth jar.
2. Rinse an oak or grape leaf and add it to the jar.
3. Combine the mustard seeds, dill, sea salt and filtered water together.
4. Pour over the cucumbers, adding more water if necessary to cover the cucumbers.
The top of the liquid should be at least 1 inch below the top of the jar.
5. Cover tightly and keep at room temperature from 3-7 days before transferring to the refrigerator. Depending on the size of the cucumbers, it may take up to one week to fully sour.
Photo Credit:Zero-X, on Flickr
Disclosure: cmp.ly/4 and cmp.ly/5
{ 40 comments… read them below or add one }
I should try these again… mine came out soggy, but I didn’t use a leaf. Also, I think maybe I put them in the refrigerator too soon. Either that or I just need to get used to the lack of vinegar taste.
I like the vinegary flavor, too! I find that lacto-fermented foods of any kind just lack that satisfyingly sour vinegar taste.
I find that the strong flavor will develop over time. My pickles have a great flavor, but are getting soft as time goes by. Didn’t add the leaves on that batch. I did carrot strips a while back and didn’t much care for them at first, but after they’d been in the fridge for a couple of months the flavor was awesome and very vinegary! I’m going to make more of those very soon. Also, I use a pickl-it jar, so I leave mine on the counter for up to 14 days.
Yes, a pickl-it jar helps a lot to ensure crisp pickles
Don’t know f I can find the grape or oak leaves fresh, can I use dried. Is there somewhere to get these dried or something else to make them crispy. One more question, I grew up on Vlasic and was wondering if these taste anything like that. Mine always seem to be fizzy when I bite into them, any ideas why or are they supposed to be???
Fizzy?
No whey to ferment?
I don’t use whey for pickles because I think it makes them mushy. I just use sea salt.
I agree about the mushy pickles when you ferment with whey. I discarded two bottles of fermented pickles because I couldn’t get past the mushy factor. Any other ferments in NT that you suggest using sea salt instead?
Two years ago I made THE BEST fermented pickles. Tried again last year (same recipe) and they were AWFUL! I noticed you did NOT use whey?? Isn’t that necessary in order for the pickles to ferment?
Blessings,
Sunny
They turn out fizzy if your lid is on too tight during fermentation. The gasses build up just like when making water kefir or kombucha.
Thank you for a mystery solved!
I just tried making these this week for the first time and mine turned out fizzy as well. It’s a bit…off-putting. Do you lightly tighten the lid or just rest it on top to prevent the fizziness?
You don’t need whey. I find that it makes them mushy. You can just use salt.
where can i get grape leaves?
I’m not sure in your area. Sometimes you can find grape leaves at farmer’s markets. I just bought a small grape vine and stuck it in the backyard.
Thanks for the recipe, I’ve been looking everywhere for this recipe. My aunt made these pickles when I was a little girl and she would set them out for me every time I visited. Once my Dad and I tried to make them ourselves in a big crock. Dad insisted on adding more salt, because he said that the brine just had to be saltier than aunt’s recipe. Well, a few days later we had a big crock full of mush and a big ‘I told you so’ from my aunt. I can’t wait to try your recipe.
Robin
I have lots of oak trees on my property. Will any oak leaf do, or does it have to be a certain kind of oak? Also, is one leaf enough?
I think one leaf is enough. I’ve always used grape leaves so I don’t know. Experiment!
I finally made delicious lacto fermented pickles this year… so exciting! I used 3 cloves of crushed garlic, 4 whole black peppercorns, and a handful of fresh dill in the bottom of my quart jar. I’ll definitely try mustard seeds next time. Yum! My brine was 1.5 T sea salt to 2 cups water. I don’t have access to grape or oak leaves, but I read on the Wild Fermentation website that cherry leaves work to prevent mushiness. We have a bush cherry, so I put 2 leaves in each jar. I left them on the counter for 3 days, then moved to the fridge. They are crunchy, dilly and delicious!
Last year my pickles were a HUGE flop. The cucumbers were too big, so I speared them. I tried fermenting in a gallon jar with grape leaves. They were nasty, and mushy. Definitely go with smaller, whole cucumbers and quart size jars.
That’s really interesting. Is the point of the oak or grape leaf to get the bacteria on it?
You know, I’m not really sure why it works. My co-chapter leader taught me to do it this way.
The purpose of the added leaves is actually tannin. And you don’t want too much of it. One small grape leaf will do nicely. The site Pickl-It is a wonderful resource for fermenting info. This page discusses oak vs grape leaves. Red oak is the worst, apparently.
http://www.pickl-it.com/blog/177/crispy-pickles-grape-leaves-experiment/
Poke around the site for more info
Raspberry leaves work, too!
I’ve been making lacto-fermented pickles like crazy this summer!!!! I still have a whole drawer full of cukes waiting to be canned. My family goes through a quart every 2-3 days. I do use whey but of course, you don’t need to- salt is sufficiant. We crush about 4-5 cloves of garlic into ours and add a heaping TBSP of organic pickling spice and fresh dill weed as well, making sure to add in 2 good size wild grape leaves. Absolutley fabtastic. I really enjoy slicing the larger pickling cukes… you know the ones you forget to pick for a day and they turn into monster fattys? Yeah, those. I enjoy slicing them really thick, like about a good half inch or more. Did some spears too but our faves seem to be the thicky slices and crunchy whole daddys
I haven’t tried relish yet though… it’s on the list. Thanks for featuring this- such an easy peasy probiotic to add to almost any meal!
This is NOT the recipe for pickled cucumbers from Nourishing Traditions, nor is it lacto-fermented. Lacto-fermented means that it contains lactic acid from whey, which is in the Nourishing Traditions recipe, but not in this one. I doubt that this one would even make pickles at all, but I am not even going to try it.
Lacto-fermented cucumbers would be, according to the book, far less acidic than those pickled with vinegar. However, they do have several nutritional advantages, which are enumerated in the book as well.
I did try using the recipe last year from this book for making lacto-fermented Sauerkraut with whey. and found it to be both easy and delicious!
This is recipe is from NT book —I just checked it. Also you don’t have to use whey to have lacto-ferments you can use extra salt, like this recipe does which is also mentioned in Nourishing Traditions!
You can use salt to ferment, I agree… But does it really have lactic acid in it then? MY NT BOOK INCLUDES WHEY IN THIS RECIPE!. I have made sauerkraut before by just using salt, but when used whey according to the NT book, the results were very superior! Where would lactose (milk sugar) come from if you don’t add a milk product like whey? If it doesn’t have lactose or lactic acid, it would seem to me to just fermented, not LACTO-FERMENTED. Please explain. Thanks!
I’m not 100% sure on this but maybe it’s Lacto due to the lactic acid created by the Lactobacillus (bacteria).
That would be a good guess, I think, but I always thought that those bacteria came from milk, not from salt….? In fact, salt is supposed to be anti-bacterial, not bacteria supporting. I’m so confused. Does anybody have the answer to how this works?
I’m sorry if this is no help, but this link: http://www.pickl-it.com/faq/148/process-microbial-lacto-fermentation/ explains that 1. the “lacto” refers to lactobacillus, not milk and 2. after the initial few days, salt inhibits the bad bacteria but the good ones are then allowed to grow b/c of the bad ones not liking the salt. I didn’t read in all detail so I don’t actually know where the lactobacilli come from in the first place. I would like to have more guarantee of it myself so that I don’t make a huge batch when cukes are in season only to have them not turn out because one little thing wasn’t right.
I have a pin oak tree on my property. Will those leaves work? There isn’t any chance it would be poisonous, is there?
I don’t know how different oaks behave but links from Pickl-it, http://www.pickl-it.com/blog/177/crispy-pickles-grape-leaves-experiment/, and http://www.pickl-it.com/blog/36/crisp-pickle-oak-leaf/, say that the oaks that they tried were very bitter.
Are these lacto-fermented? I thought you used whey for lacto-fermentation. I can’t see mention of using whey.
thanks.
According to http://www.pickl-it.com/faq/148/process-microbial-lacto-fermentation/ , the “lacto” refers to lactobacillus, not milk. HTH
I just posted a youtube video on this very subject. Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy4PEn2fdIQ
No whey, by the way.
The lacto-fermentation bacteria were first identified in milk products, hence the name. But there’s no milk in lacto-fermented vegetable like these pickles, or true fermented kraut or kimchi.
I have a great new product for doing lacto fermentation of vegtables in canning
jars.
The product is glass weights, shaped like a disc, that are made to keep the
vegtables down in the jar during fermentation.
If you go to this link:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/110737857697?var=410035989773&ssPageName=STRK:MESOX:IT&_\
trksid=p3984.m1559.l2649
you can see a picture of how they work.
I can also give discounts to groups who want to do a combined order, just email
me if you are interested.
Richard
central Maine
Can you tell me more about those weights for lacto-veggies?
My son loves vinegar. I do, too, but am willing to put it aside for a yummy-bacteria pickle instead!
I was wondering if I added vinegar, after the fermentation is done, would that kill the good bacteria? I would be adding just for the taste, and do NOT want to kill the good stuff.
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