Need Crunchy Pickles? (2024)

FAQs

Need Crunchy Pickles? ›

Add a Source of Tannin

Soak Cucumbers In Ice Water Beforehand

If you're not canning your cucumbers immediately, leave them in an ice bath or in your refrigerator overnight to maintain firmness. Doing this before you start canning them will give you the crunchiest pickles you've ever had!

One of the most common visible contaminations is a white, cloudy substance called Kahm Yeast. While Kahm yeast isn't harmful it can indicate that there is a problem with your ferment. Kahm yeast is actually safe to eat as long as there are no molds present and the ferment tests at a pH of 4 or lower.

Mineral Rich Salt

Salt hardens the pectins in vegetables and this is what makes them crisp. Without enough salt, your vegetables, and especially pickles, will be soft and mushy. Pickles need more salt than my other cultured vegetables to keep them crisper.

Those pickles are called cornichons (pronounced "KOR-nee-shons"), and they are exactly what they seem to be: tiny pickles, or, as the English call them, gherkins. Their tart, mildly sweet flavor makes them the ideal garnish to serve with classic charcuterie items such as pâtés, terrines, cured sausages, and the like.

To begin, choose the right cucumbers. Most varieties will work, but the small, firm ones are best. Kirby pickles are ideal — they have a thick skin that stands up to pickling liquid and naturally have a great crunch.

Using tea leaves isn't the only way to get a crunchy pickle. You can use a fresh grape leaf, oak leaves or horseradish leaves too.

If the pickles are soft, they are spoiled from the yeast fermentation. Don't use them. Using too weak a salt brine or vinegar solution may cause soft or slippery pickles, as can using moldy garlic or storing the pickles at too warm a temperature.

In a vinegar brine, salt draws water out of produce to make the pickles more crisp, particularly water-heavy vegetables like cucumbers.

For a quick and easy way to help ensure crisp pickles: soak cucumbers in ice water for 4 to 5 hours before pickling. This is a safer method for making crisp pickles. Using lime, or calcium hydroxide, in solution for soaking cucumbers changes the amount of acid in the cucumber tissue.

Why are store bought pickles so crunchy? ›

Calcium chloride (CaCl2), sometimes known as “pickle crisp”, is a type of salt that helps preserve the crunchiness of food. It is used in the food industry to help preserve the texture of canned fruit and vegetables. Sea salt is sodium chloride. In this case, we're talking about calcium chloride!

McDonald's uses dill pickles in their burgers including in the Big Mac®.

An easy pickling recipe to follow is the 3-2-1 method; three parts water, two parts vinegar, and one part sugar. This 3-2-1 pickle brine is on the sweeter side, making it great for bread and butter pickles or spicy pickled beets. For a more savory pickle, use less sugar.

If the pickles are soft, they are spoiled from the yeast fermentation. Don't use them. Using too weak a salt brine or vinegar solution may cause soft or slippery pickles, as can using moldy garlic or storing the pickles at too warm a temperature.

In addition to crisping up pickles, calcium chloride can also give a bit of a salty taste, while not adding any sodium to your food. Home brewers who mistakenly add too much calcium chloride to their brewing mash complain that it tastes like sea water.

It replaces pickling lime, which home picklers have long used to firm cucumbers into pickles . Calcium chloride aka pickle crisp is easier to use: you add 1/8 teaspoon along with the fruit or vegetable pieces and the pickling liquid to a pint jar, or 1/4 teaspoon to a quart jar and voila! Your done!

Without the fuss of canning, refrigerator pickles also stay more crisp than canned ones since they're not subject to high heat.