has anyone ever done any of these pickles using bite size pieces of things like carrots, cauliflower, whole garlic, chunks of onions, baby shallots or small green tomatoes, peppers etc.....I've recently tried to do some (using the above produce) and was told to put some rock salt in bottom of jar then layers of various veg packed tight then adding vinegar - about 4 dessertspoons or 5 if jar is big then topping up with tap water - then a sheet of polythene over then tightly screw on lid.....then wait 3 weeks but try the jar after 10 days or so....sometimes, an adjustment is needed to the liquid (if too salty, tip some off and replace with water!!
I tried one of the 2 jars I've done (so far) today and found the veg to be nice & crisp but very salty - think I overdid the salt :o....so tipped some liquid off and topped up with a mix of little bit more tap water and more wine vinegar (which is the one I used and was told to use)..
will try tasting again in about 5 days and see if any further adjustment needed.
anyone tried these please?
oooppps....sorry - should have put that in recipes :-[.....should I transfer it?
Try here :)
http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/joomla/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,72/topic,23200.0
Col
thanks for that link Col but most of that info tells you about putting 'hot vinegar' onto the pickles which softens them.....the idea of the brine/vinegar/water being cold is to keep them crunchy- they need to be 'hard veg' in the first place - by mistake I've added mushrooms to another jar and been told they'll go 'mushy' which I don't want :o just didn't think of that happening....it's the brine that preserves them apparently.
Maybe I'll just adjust the salt & vinegar a bit more and see how things go....my English friend on the greek island of Lesbos has been doing these brine/vinegar pickles for years & years (uses any green tomatoes up that way) and has great success with them she says....I just wondered if anyone else used this method :)
thanks tho ;)
just thought I'd add a photo here (if I can remember how to do it) so you can see the 2 jars I've done so far......as you can see - I couldn't get the labels off the jars used - they were not your usual sort that you could soak off!
(http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l264/maggiemay_07/vinegarpickles.jpg)
keeping my fingers crossed ::)