What is your go to pickling recipe?

I would like to add variety to my pickling recipes and rather than purchase a magazine or spend hours looking online I thought I would ask all of you!! Normally I do white vinegar, water, garlic cloves, peppercorns, mustard seeds, sliced onions, and a cinnamon stick. Would like to have a few variations so that not all my pickled veg taste the same. My main veggies are beets, cucumbers, green tomatoes, beans, and if I'm lucky asparagus. Any thoughts??

I'm new to canning and about to embark on my first "pickling" season.  I'll be watching for answers here as I learn!

I'm looking for a few things to really understand this all,  like water: vinegar ratio as a general rule of thumb.  Recipes are all over the place.   But I don't want to follow an "exact" or specific recipe every time I make something.   I want a "basic" formula that I can then play with as far as flavor and spice.

I'm thinking I'll have at least a "regular",   a "sweet" with splenda or something, and a "spicy" with dried red pepper.    Then I can play with vinegar types and substituting or including a new herb flavor.  

I grow a variety of my own herbs;   dill,  coriander/cilantro, mustard seed,  thyme, orgeno,  basil,  savory, rosemary, chives, garlic chives,  chervil,  parsley, loveage...  

By far, the tastiest pickles are the lacto-fermented kind.  The bonus is that they are pro-biotic and will help improve one's gut biome!  Sauerkraut is made by lacto-fermenting cabbage as well.  A book by Shockey named Fermented Vegetables is a very good hands on guide that teaches the reader how to start lacto-fermenting, with lots of recipes for almost every vegetable.  I also found this blog which explains it well.  

https://www.makesauerkraut.com/fermented-pickles/

Joshua LeDuc wrote:By far, the tastiest pickles are the lacto-fermented kind.  The bonus is that they are pro-biotic and will help improve one's gut biome!  Sauerkraut is made by lacto-fermenting cabbage as well.  A book by Shockey named Fermented Vegetables is a very good hands on guide that teaches the reader how to start lacto-fermenting, with lots of recipes for almost every vegetable.  I also found this blog which explains it well.  

https://www.makesauerkraut.com/fermented-pickles/

I totally agree! I love lacto-fermented pickles/veggies but I quickly run out of fridge space. they are more a small batch type for me. I wish I had two fridges so one could be filled to the brim with fermented goodies but alas I am not so fortunate.

Heather Staas wrote:I'm new to canning and about to embark on my first "pickling" season.  I'll be watching for answers here as I learn!

I'm looking for a few things to really understand this all,  like water: vinegar ratio as a general rule of thumb.  Recipes are all over the place.   But I don't want to follow an "exact" or specific recipe every time I make something.   I want a "basic" formula that I can then play with as far as flavor and spice.

I'm thinking I'll have at least a "regular",   a "sweet" with splenda or something, and a "spicy" with dried red pepper.    Then I can play with vinegar types and substituting or including a new herb flavor.  

I grow a variety of my own herbs;   dill,  coriander/cilantro, mustard seed,  thyme, orgeno,  basil,  savory, rosemary, chives, garlic chives,  chervil,  parsley, loveage...  

I have found it to be a good rule of thumb to try two versions. personally anything too vinegary gives me heart burn. I go with a 1 part water 1 part vinegar. but I have also tried 3 parts vinegar 2 parts water and although the veg is great thanks to all the spices it is very strong on the vinegar side. Depends greatly on the food being pickled too. I did quail eggs recently and boy was it good on a 1:1 water/vinegar. I love pickled eggs but the vinegar is so overpowering sometimes. This 1:1 was just right.

My favorite pickled red beet recipe is 2 cups red wine vinegar, 1 cup water or red wine if I have it, 1 cup sugar or to taste, 1 Tbsp. salt and per jar - one bay leaf and two sprigs of thyme. Usually I do these in pint jars. Scale up or down as needed.

Stacy Witscher wrote:My favorite pickled red beet recipe is 2 cups red wine vinegar, 1 cup water or red wine if I have it, 1 cup sugar or to taste, 1 Tbsp. salt and per jar - one bay leaf and two sprigs of thyme. Usually I do these in pint jars. Scale up or down as needed.

Thanks for that!  I have about 20 golden beets in the garden, and I was wondering what to do with them all because I didn't think that they would freeze very well.  Pickled beets is the answer!!

Stacy Witscher wrote:My favorite pickled red beet recipe is 2 cups red wine vinegar, 1 cup water or red wine if I have it, 1 cup sugar or to taste, 1 Tbsp. salt and per jar - one bay leaf and two sprigs of thyme. Usually I do these in pint jars. Scale up or down as needed.

This is brilliant thank you!

My go-to one when I've got a surplus of almost anything is this one:

1 cup demerera sugar
½ cup white sugar
1 ½ cups apple cider vinegar
½ tsp Himalayan cooking salt (or any pickling salt)
½ tsp mustard seed
½ tsp ground celery seed
½ tsp ground turmeric
¼ tsp ground cloves (could cut this in half)

Put all the above in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook and stir just until the sugar dissolves. Fill jars with cucumbers, onions, garlic or whatever and then fill with the brine.

Process between 180-190 degrees Fahrenheit for ½ hour.

It doesn't actually call for any water and does have a fair bit of sugar. If Hubby buys too many onions, I slice them into it just as refrigerator pickles and they work great. It's been popular as pickled eggs also.

I've not done as well trying to lacto-ferment stuff yet - I think I need a better system, and a more consistent temperature for the fermenting part.

Joshua - for yellow beets I would switch to white wine vinegar and white wine so as to not change the color of the lovely yellow beets, otherwise you are welcome. Enjoy.

Oh, and let me give credit where credit is due. I adapted this recipe from one I found in Linda Ziedrich's Joy of Pickling. It has been sufficiently changed that I'm not required to give credit, but I do love her pickling book. So if you are interested in more unique pickling recipes, I highly recommend this book and she has a blog as well, not posted to frequently, but enjoyable nonetheless. Her pickled cherries are too die for, unfortunately they contain way more sugar than I can eat these days but for those of you that can still have sugar, they are wonderful spooned over vanilla ice cream among other things. Happy pickling!

my three go-to pickle recipes are:
- a sweet bread-and-butter refrigerator pickle (gallon jar, my daughter can eat it over just a few days in hot weather)- very similar to Jay's, maybe a bit less sugar, white vinegar, I fool around with the spices a lot but get the best reviews from whole AND ground mustard seeds, turmeric, and whole black peppercorns.

- lacto-fermented Sichuan-style pickles (whatever I've got that needs to be used, sometimes it's carrots or chayote or nappa cabbage, keeps for weeks in the fridge, makes an excellent side dish squeezed, chopped, and topped with chili crisp and a shot of soy sauce)

- a quick refrigerator dill pickle (https://selfproclaimedfoodie.com/easy-refrigerator-dill-pickles/ this recipe is everything it promises to be)
I have never gotten fermented dill pickles right here, possibly because our salt has iodine in it? tropical heat when cucumbers are in season? they always either come out mushy or just flat out rot. But this recipe, you would swear they were the real thing made in a barrel with brine, crunchy and everything (and that's without even using any sort of "crunchy leaves" like oak or grape).

ooh and i forgot to add: giardineira is a great option when you want to also use up various things and make something that everyone swoons over. https://www.thekitchn.com/giardiniera-22977810

Tereza Okava wrote:

- lacto-fermented Sichuan-style pickles (whatever I've got that needs to be used, sometimes it's carrots or chayote or nappa cabbage, keeps for weeks in the fridge, makes an excellent side dish squeezed, chopped, and topped with chili crisp and a shot of soy sauce)

Would this be a decent representation of chili crisp?

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:Would this be a decent representation of chili crisp?

Absolutely (although some recipes use dehydrated onions/garlic to cut cooking time, making it even easier)!
There are many options (most famous Lao Gan Ma, "angry lady" or as we say around here, "godmother" sauce), and it's easy to make your own.
Beware, it's addictive and you may find yourself eating it by the spoonful if you like hot stuff.

Too early for grape leaves to keep my pickles crisp what do you use to keep your pickles crisp with added tannin? Bay leaf, black tea, horseradish leaf?