Brine Cured Summer Squash Pickles
I enjoy having extra produce from my garden all summer. It reduces our grocery bill, increases our nutrient intake, and tastes great…what a deal! Sometimes I have so many veggies ripening that we can’t use them up fast enough. Canning, dehydrating, and freezing are great ways to save the extras, but you may also brine cure them, or ferment them.
I like brine-cured pickles so much better than canned pickles. The texture stays crisp and firm, and the flavor is tangy. It is suggested that you keep these pickles for 6 months, but I’ve had them longer with no problems.
We have tons of summer squash coming in right now, so why not make pickles with them? I used the same basic recipe for the brine that I use for Dill Pickles, but I didn’t use dill in this batch. I sliced the squash and red onions into a bowl, added mild pickling spice (from Frontier Herbs), and poured brine solution over the whole mess.
Brine Cured Summer Squash Pickles
- 2 cups water
- 1/4 cup sea salt, without iodine.
- 2 cups distilled white vinegar
- 1/4 cup mild pickling spices
- 5 or 6 yellow summer squash (or other veggies), sliced or cut into spears
- 2 or 3 onions, sliced
Heat water in a small pan and add salt. Stir to dissolve, remove from heat. Pour salt water and vinegar into a glass bowl or small crock and combine. Add squash, onions, and pickling spices. Make sure the brine solution is deep enough to cover all of the vegetables. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Place a plate on top that is small enough to set right on top of the wrap and solution. You will need to put some weight on top of the plate to hold all of the vegetables under the solution. Vegetables that are in contact with the air may spoil. After a couple of days, you can start dipping into your yummy pickles! Don’t use your fingers, use a clean fork to remove pickles and prevent contamination of your brine solution.
What kind of veggies do you like to pickle? Do you brine cure them or can them?
Well somehow my dyslexia morphed into my writing on that last post. Go figure. My name is “Don_in_Odessa
No worries!
Gonna’ do it! Thanks…
Now … if I can just keep the pickle worms out my cukes.
Let me know what you think, Don! I have pickle pest too, but they have two legs. 😉
I recently tried “Pickle Crisp Granules” (Calcium Chloride) from Ball for the first time… Have you tried it? Another week before I can taste-test them, but judging from the rave reviews online, they should be better than the taste of the old time recipe from my neighbor that soaks them in an vinegar/water/Alum solution for a few days prior to canning. The Alum pickles come out crispy, but the taste is a bit off… (well, a *lot* off.) I’m hoping the Pickle Crisp version is better. I’d tried the ball Blue Book recipe for dill pickles, but that was a complete flop with an un-appetizing mushy texture.
Hi Jackson,
You know, I bought some of the Pickle Crisp at one time, but I have no idea what happened to it. So I never did get around to trying it. Let me know how you like it. If I’m going to can pickles again, I really want to try something to keep them crisp because the last few batches are too mushy.
Thanks for sharing!
They look so yummy! Yummy! 🙂
Thanks, Regula!
We make sauerkraut in a monster crock and can it every year. The kraut does stay crisp though. There is no comparison to the store bought. I can’t live without it. Never done pickles of any kind like this though. You say they stay crisp? Even the squash? (Well as much as squash is crisp ha!) And you don’t can them? My wife makes canned (not fermented) pickles but they are soft and I’m not partial to them. They are tolerable so I don’t complain.
Hi Don,
The pickles I can come out squishy, but these are stay crispier…I probably shouldn’t say they are crisp, however. But much better than the ones I can. You can make a small batch to test them out and see how you like them. 🙂