Mountaineer Chronicles

Do you have an excess of fresh cucumbers? Refrigerator pickles are a very simple and quite quick way to preserve them.  The process is very simple. Fresh cucumbers cut how you'd like them packed into clean jars and pour over a hot brine. hot brine and some jars.  To boost the flavor of your soon to be pickles, add some pickling spice or other favorites to your jars. My choice of flavors is quite simple: some black peppercorns, smashed garlic, and some fresh dill.  Another important component is to add a crisping agent, and I've had great luck with Mrs Wages Xtra Crunch . These newer crisping agents are simply calcium chloride rather than the alum used heavily by our parents and grandparents. The FDA doesn't recommend using alum any longer and this option seems to work well without the need for additional chemicals. Pack your jars. Bring the brine to a boil, pour the hot brine over the cucumbers, put on a lid, stash them in the fridge for a day (or few), then enj

So, despite my best effort to convince Brooke to let me thin the cucumbers to a more manageable number for our small garden, we are quickly becoming overrun with cucumbers. Luckily, I convinced her to plant small, pickling cucumbers, so it is no big deal. The cucumber vines on the left, have nearly shaded out our peppers. For those looking for some abomination of a sweet "pickle" recipe, keep moving. Sweet pickles do not touch my lips, and I consider it false advertising when restaurants don't distinguish that the pickles they serve are in fact horrible sweet monstrosities. So anyway, I've been wanting to try making my own pickles for a while. The real thing, dill pickles. So after quick bit of research, it is easy to find out that there are a couple main ways to make pickles. The first way utilizes vinegar solution, and is similar to the pickles packed on most grocery store shelves. The other way involves a simple brine solution and a little patience. These