nanila | Day 10/183: Pickling news and Some 366 meme questions

In pickling news, I have made my first attempt at gherkins/American pickles. My recipe* involved the following:

Tiny cucumbers, sliced
Garlic granules
Two bay leaves
Enough coarse sea salt to form a thick layer on the bottom of the jar
Tablespoon of peppercorns
Water
Fermenting jar (1.4 litres)
Time (1 week)

I tried them after seven days and they weren’t quite right, so I dumped in more salt and waited three more days. They taste almost exactly like the gherkins you would buy from the supermarket, even without the mustard seeds, but I feel as if something else is missing. Could it be sugar? If you have a favourite gherkin/American pickle recipe, please share it in the comments.

Jan 15: If you could pick a new first name, what would you choose?

I wouldn’t. I am very fond of my first name. It’s one of the best things my dad gave me. When I was younger, I wanted to be Natasha. I can’t remember why.

Whenever Humuhumu has to make up a name, she either uses Sophie or Aleesha. She won’t tell us why.

Jan 16: What is your favorite board game?

Scrabble, but we never play it because it always turns into “Squabble”.

Jan 17: What self-care things do you find helpful to ground yourself or “talk yourself down from the ledge” when you’re overwhelmed by your feelings or by stress?

I drink tea and go to the gym.

Jan 18: What is the most extreme weather you have ever experienced?

A Category 3 hurricane, when I was about eight. I also vividly recall a hailstorm in Minnesota when I was about the same age, where the hailstones were the size of golf balls. It was terrifying but on the positive side, it only lasted a couple of minutes, unlike the hurricane.

Jan 19: Do you operate out of any particular faith system that informs your actions? Do you intentionally NOT have a faith system, and if so, what beliefs or ideas inform your actions?

I’m an atheist. I’m sure that growing up in a household of lapsed Christians, briefly attending a Catholic school, being surrounded by ardent believers of various stripes during most of my schooling, and living in a predominantly Christian society, probably means that the Christian faith has at least some impact on my behaviours.

I believe that other people have the right to have a faith system, and that one of my duties as an atheist is not to be a dick about that.

Jan 20: When you go to a fancy coffee shop, what’s your go-to order?

If we’re talking about the sort of coffee shop where the baristas will describe the bean origins and roasting conditions in exquisite detail, then I will have an espresso. If we’re talking about the sort of coffee shop where most of the fancy drinks have only a passing relationship with actual coffee, then I’ll order the gingerspicematchalattething with sprinkles and cream, because why not go all out?

Jan 21: What genre of books is your usual favorite when you read for pleasure?

It used to be fiction (fantasy, murder mysteries of the Agatha Christie type, humorous, “literary”, and sci-fi). I read a good deal more non-fiction for pleasure (autobiographies/memoirs, economic theory, science) now than I did when I was in my teens and early twenties.

* recipe does not contain any actual merkin. Please do not google with tea in your mouth.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Date: 2020-01-21 11:21 pm (UTC)

From:

fred_mouse

no subject

I don't know American pickles from any other, but my pickling spice mix includes whole cloves and cinnamon, as well as the bay leaf and peppercorns you mention. And yes, sugar. But also vinegar. But I'm usually pickling beetroot.

Date: 2020-01-25 08:08 pm (UTC)

nanila

Mmm, beetroot. I love roasted beetroot. And shop-bought pickled beetroot. I must try making some. What sort of vinegar do you use?

Date: 2020-01-26 11:23 am (UTC)

Cheap brown vinegar that is just pricey enough not to be white vinegar with caramel.

Date: 2020-01-22 12:33 am (UTC)

meepettemu

H and her best mate once went to a wig party. They went with merkin wigs...

Date: 2020-01-25 08:10 pm (UTC)

That's excellent. Placed anatomically correctly, I presume? :D

Date: 2020-01-25 08:18 pm (UTC)

Yes :)

Date: 2020-01-22 05:09 am (UTC)

st_aurafina

'Merkin Gherkin' is cracking me up. And yeah, I'd guess sugar is the ingredient you're missing? Just from the fridge pickles I've made.

I'm going to try with sugar and fresh garlic next time.

Date: 2020-01-22 07:53 am (UTC)

annofowlshire

Perhaps dill?

I’ve found gherkins in the UK to be too sweet for me. (Which is weird, because usually things over here are less sweet than the American counterpart.) I miss the mouth puckering Farmer’s Kosher King Dills (I think all those words, maybe not in that order; I can recognize the jar but Google is failing me). I need to try making my own....

(Locally made kimchi is also different here, and too sweet for my taste. G has promised me a kimchi fridge in our next-house-with-a-bigger-kitchen.)

Date: 2020-01-25 08:12 pm (UTC)

I love dill pickles. I must try to find a recipe.

My fermentation book has a kimchi recipe so that's on my list of experiments too.

Date: 2020-01-22 08:13 am (UTC)

ed_rex

Oh hear! hear!

I have no advice vis-a-vis gherkins, being a Slavic and/or Jewish style dill-pickle man myself — although, come to think of it, I couldn't help with any of those either!

I believe that other people have the right to have a faith system, and that one of my duties as an atheist is not to be a dick about that.

Yes, that! Though I confess, in my heart of hearts, though I respect the right of people to have faith (should that be Faith?), I'm not quite so good at respecting the faith itself. At some cost, I've learned to listen, and to offer opinion only when it is genuinely asked for.

Date: 2020-01-25 08:14 pm (UTC)

Re: Oh hear! hear!

I don't engage in discussions about the specific tenets of a faith with believers. There's just no way to be dispassionate about it.

Date: 2020-01-22 11:42 am (UTC)

tree_and_leaf

I think it's sugar. I like dill in pickles myself, but I think that might take them in a different direction to what you want.

Date: 2020-01-25 08:15 pm (UTC)

I definitely want to try making dill pickles at some point! I need to do my sugar/fresh garlic experiment first, when we've eaten the current batch, and then I'll try dill.

Date: 2020-01-22 12:42 pm (UTC)

cmcmck

I find that fresh, peeled whole garlic cloves work best.

Date: 2020-01-25 08:16 pm (UTC)

That's what my recipe called for but I didn't have any to hand when I did the experiment, and the shops were shut, so I went with what I had to hand. The next experiment will be with the fresh stuff

Date: 2020-01-22 01:46 pm (UTC)

antisoppist

It's only just occurred to me that "dill pickles" probably aren't actually Americans pickling jars full of nothing but leaves and stalks of dill (I hate dill so I have never bothered to investigate further, just assumed whatever they were, they would be revolting).