Take a step back from the counter for a second. Imagine this – in front of you are all the necessary ingredients you’ll need to make pickles. You’re in heaven.

In your hand is an ingredients list and the instructions to the recipe you want to make. All of your jars and cookware are clean. We’re talking ran-them-through-the-dishwasher, sterilized. Same with your knife, cutting board, etc. What else could there possibly be to consider?

Well, pretty much just one thing.

The quality of food you start with is going to be your single biggest factor in getting a crunchy jar of pickles. Choosing the freshest vegetables is your main goal. If you pick them in your garden, they should be used the same day, or at within one day if you are making fermented pickles. Store bought cucumbers need to be hard to the touch, hot peppers the same. Soft produce is being eaten from the inside out by a few microorganisms that could make the final product trash worthy.

Bacteria? In MY produce? How?

After a fruit ripens it becomes REALLY ripe. The kind of ripe where you decide it’s time to scoop it up off the counter and throw it in the compost. Here’s the boring science-y part; pectinase is the entire reason behind this. It is a naturally occurring enzyme found in all produce. It breaks down pectin, the stuff that holds cells together (the suffix -ase in pectinase means to break).

What most people don’t know is that there are a ton of microorganisms that take over when pectinase has done its duty. According to this article from 1985 (still relevant), there are lots of other enzymes inside cucumbers. Some people like to cut the blossom end off of the cucumber before adding them to the jar, well that’s where these things live in the beginning. When a cucumber is allowed to sit for a few days, those enzymes start the party. A refrigerator won’t help. Even after just two days in the fridge, cucumbers will look, feel, and smell fresh, but will smell or taste off. Pickles created using boiling-hot water and vinegar won’t have this problem, because vinegar kills microorganisms and heat neutralizes enzymes that would otherwise spoil pickles in a few days time. Meaning you’ll be canning and saving most everything. Still, the best bet is start fresh, because in a contest, fresh always wins.

Happy picklin’! 

Brendan at Pickles of Wisdom