brine pickles

[LQ...@mi.sig]

My wife made some pickles and after a month of soaking they were soft.
She is now starting another batch and is going crazy "trying to get it
right" she is weighing every thing, boiling the water (she read that
somewhere) weighing the pickles ....I believe the temperatures were
too high during the fermentation.

It seems to me that all one has to do is make the solution of
water/salt/vinegar and pour over the pickles until they are covered.
The actual weight of pickles are irrelevant as long as they are
covered. Am I right?

This is the basic recipe she is using (as you can see, it infers that
there is a relationship between pickle weight and the amount of
brine):

>
>Ingredients:
>4 pounds of 4-inch pickling cucumber
>2 tablespoons dill seed OR 4 to 5 heads fresh or dry dill
>½ cup pure granulated salt ("pickling" or "canning" salt)
>¼ cup vinegar (5 percent acidity)
>8 cups water
>2 cloves garlic (optional)
>2 dried red peppers (optional)
>2 teaspoons whole mixed pickling spices (optional)
>

>Procedure: Wash cucumbers. Cut 1/16-inch slice off blossom
> end and discard. Leave ¼ inch of stem attached. Place half of
>dill and spices on bottom of a clean, suitable container.
>Add cucumbers, remaining dill and spices.
>
>Dissolve salt in vinegar and water and pour over cucumbers. Add suitable
>cover and weight. Store where temperature is between 70 and 75 °F for about 3 to 4 weeks
>while fermenting. Temperatures of 55 to 65 °F are acceptable,
> but the fermentation will take 5 to 6 weeks.
>Avoid temperatures above 80 °F, or pickles will become too soft during fermentation.

[mr p.]

I like your thinking better than your wifes. I followed the Ball Blue
Bool receipe for brining pickles, but the weighing part left me bonkers.
I used their salt to water ratio, cut the blossom end off, cleaned them
really well and then soaked them in the brine for a few weeks. After
that. Mold, both green, white and grey grew on top of the salt water.

I just stored them in the garage. I then hosed them off, throwing out
all cukes that were not firm. 24 hours in a freash water bath, and then
I BWB them with a vinegar, pickling spice, salt, sugar, hot pepper, and
garlic mix.

They came out GREAT!

I learned from Brian Mailman on this list that there are a million
receipes for making pickles. His line about "did you taste them?" served
me well. Forget the fear of making pickles. You can't really go wrong.

Regards,