Fermenting for Foodies

Health, Taste and Tradition

Grandma’s Fermented Storage Pickles

The easiest way to make pickles - fermented, probiotic and delicious

I have a hand-me-down canning cookbook from 1950s.  It is well used, and tape now holds most the pages together, but it still has some inspiring recipes! My favourite recipe is for a fermented pickles recipe that only involves packing pickles into canning jar, screwing on the lid and then… leaving them… sitting on a shelf… until you are ready to eat them.

An offbeat fermented pickles recipe

This recipe is very different from the usual fermented pickles recipes. All you have to do is pack the pickles then store them. There’s no canning, preserving, or scum removal. And it makes the most delicious traditional-style pickles. It really is an amazing recipe.

(Side note: when I lived in Ireland we simply preserved jam by laying a piece of wax paper over the finished jam and putting on a lid.  I had about a 20% failure rate… which wasn’t bad considering there wasn’t any preservation involved.)

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Grandma’s Fermented Pickles

Mason jar of grandma's fermented pickles

This is a traditional fermented pickles recipe that is really easy to make. It will last in a dark, cool location for up to 6 months without canning!

  • Author: Emillie
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Total Time: 10 minutes
  • Yield: 2-3 quart jars 1x
  • Category: Pickles
  • Method: Fermented
  • Cuisine: Polish
Scale

Ingredients

Icing

  • 1 lbs pickling cucumbers
  • 1/3 cup pickling salt
  • 4 cups water (chlorine free)

Pickling Brine

  • 2 cups of chlorine free water
  • 1/4 cup vinegar (5% acidity)
  • 2 tbsp pickling salt

Packing in the Jar

  • 1 tsp grated horseradish
  • 1 sprig of dill
  • 1 tsp mustard

Instructions

  1. Trim the blossom ends off the cucumbers
  2. Mix the icing solution using cold water, and let the cucumbers soak in the icing solution over night. Keep the cucumbers submerged in the icing solution by weighing them down with bags of ice (also helps to keep the cucumbers cold).
  3. While the cucumbers are icing, mix the Pickling Brine ingredients (vinegar, salt and water) and bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes.
  4. Pour brine into a sterilized 1 quart mason jar and allow to cool over night.
  5. The next morning drain the pickles and pack them into the brine filled mason jar, along with the dill, horseradish and mustard. Leave at least 1 inch of headroom.
  6. Put on the lid then store in a cool dark location.
  7. The pickles will bubble and ferment for 4-5 days, but leave them undisturbed until you are ready to eat them.

Notes

  • I recommend leaving the pickles for at least a month. I usually make enough jars to last us through the winter.
  • Always be extra cautious with any long term ferment. Don’t eat anything that looks or smells bad, and don’t add garlic.  Garlic can be a botulism risk, and no one wants that. Read up on the basic fermentation rules for more information.
  • The traditional recipe call for standard mason jar with metal lid and jar ring. I like the low-tech solution, however, I use an airlock or  fido for any batch of pickles that is going to ferment for more than 1 month.

Keywords: vintage, traditional, 1950's, preservation, summer, probiotic, healthy

Grandma's super simple pickle recipe - traditionally fermented pickles

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Hi Emillie, I’m curious about your statement to not use garlic. My recipes for fermenting Brussels sprouts, and most of my other ferment recipes call for cloves of garlic. How did you come to this conclusion?

    Reply

    • A few reasons: I took this recipe from a 1950’s cookbook, and it called for me to skip the garlic. Also, garlic is low acid and a risk for botulism. I don’t think that’s an issue for sauerkraut, carrots, etc. However, I leave these pickles, unprocessed, in my closet for months… usually around 9 months until we finish them, so the risk of botulism is greater. Saying that I am currently fermenting garlic in honey and plan to leave it for a few months as well.

      It’s all about weighing the risks. And as a blogger, I really don’t want to be responsible for a case of accidental poisoning. 🙂

      Reply

      • Thanks. I too have wondered about fermenting garlic and peppers. When we lived in Oregon people were always dying from preserved peppers, though the reports never said how they were preserved. I would think safety would be connected to the salt/water ratio just as it is for any pickles. We always hear to be careful of old pickle recipes because they did not call for as much salt as newer ones do. As I read different recipes for ferments, I have noticed a fairly wide range of salt requirements which always makes me wonder why.

        Reply

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