Friday, May 21, 2010

Notes:

White geraniums attract Japanese beetles, which are poisioned when they eat the leaves  according to this site:
http://www.ghorganics.com/page2.html

Pickled Ripe Tomatoes:
Saw something similar on a Bizarre Foods episode taped in Russia
http://www.russianfoods.com/recipes/item00075/default.asp

Recipe for Cornichons (French sour pickles):
http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~bcohen/cucumbers/recipes/pickles/cornichons.html

Alton Brown's Dill Pickle Recipe (real fermented)
Dill Pickles

Ingredients

    * 5 1/2 ounces pickling salt, approximately 1/2 cup
    * 1 gallon filtered water
    * 3 pounds pickling cucumbers, 4 to 6-inches long
    * 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
    * 1 tablespoon red pepper flakes
    * 2 cloves garlic, crushed
    * 1 teaspoon dill seed
    * 1 large bunch dill

Directions

Combine the salt and water in a pitcher and stir until the salt has dissolved.

Rinse the cucumbers thoroughly and snip off the blossom end stem. Set aside.

Place the peppercorns, pepper flakes, garlic, dill seed and fresh dill into a 1-gallon crock. Add the cucumbers to the crock on top of the aromatics. Pour the brine mixture over the cucumbers in order to completely cover. Pour the remaining water into a 1-gallon ziptop plastic bag and seal. Place the bag on top of the pickles making sure that all of them are completely submerged in the brine. Set in a cool, dry place.

Check the crock after 3 days. Fermentation has begun if you see bubbles rising to the top of the crock. After this, check the crock daily and skim off any scum that forms. If scum forms on the plastic bag, rinse it off and return to the top of the crock.

The fermentation is complete when the pickles taste sour and the bubbles have stopped rising; this should take approximately 6 to 7 days. Once this happens, cover the crock loosely and place in the refrigerator for 3 days, skimming daily or as needed. Store for up to 2 months in the refrigerator, skimming as needed. If the pickles should become soft or begin to take on an off odor, this is a sign of spoilage and they should be discarded.


Tsukemono

A tsukemono press would probably be good for any brine pickling project, but the ones at Amazon are junky looking and over priced.
Time for another PVC project?


And to round out the subject:

Sauerkraut

Kimchi

2 comments:

Faith said...

I've got some recipe books on fermentation. I miss having time to pursue all this different things. Pout, pout...

I loved that J beetle note. LOL I did a search and found an article that I shared on my blog.

~Faith

icebear said...

I think a nice border of white geraniums encircling the house would be a great thing for this summer!

i have a variegated porcelain berry vine that almost never set berries because the durn beetles swarm over the flowers.