More Pickles!

I pickled a pound of crimini mushrooms yesterday with a few porcinis, sage, thyme, parsley, tarragon, garlic, balsamic, olive oil and salt.  I don't have pictures though, so I'll post on those when they're ready to eat in a week or so.

Tonight I finally got around to making pickle pickles, dill pickles as it were.  Except I couldn't get dill heads, or even dill seeds, so really they are imitation kosher pickles, with tarragon standing in (adequately I hope) for the herbiness of the dill.

Here is the whole spread before assembly:

We have:

3 pounds pickling cucumbers, blossom ends removed
4 sprigs of tarragon
8 cloves of garlic, sliced
3 de arbol chiles, split lengthwise
1 tablespoon allspice
2 tablespoons yellow mustard seeds
2 tablespoons coriander seeds
1.5 teaspoons black peppercorns

Close up of the spices:

Assemble the ingredients in layers, kind of like this:

Finally, dissolve 1/2 cup (uniodized) salt in 3 quarts of water and pour the brine until the cucumbers are covered.  Fill a ziploc freezer bag with leftover brine and push the cucumbers down so they are all completely submerged.

Apparently they will be ready in about 2 weeks.  I will update on their progress before then.

I also pickled some more pears, this time of the Seckel variety, which is the traditional pickling pear in America.

One

Two

Three

I used the same recipe as last time, halving the quantities once again.  Really, this is a better size pear to pickle, although peeling them is a bitch.