On Tuesday, June 18, 2013 at 4:49:07 PM UTC-4, Mark Curry wrote:
> Hi all - regular lurker here with a question.
>
> Last year took I took a dive into making various pickles with mostly
> success. Dilled Carrots, Olive Oil Pickles, and a few quick pickles
> were a great hit.
>
> The Half-Sours that I tried tasted ok, but were mushy.
> Most are still sitting in the fridge waiting some kind of
> use as a relish or chutney, where the texture won't be noticed.
>
> Found out about Pickle Crisp in this newsgroup, and want to
> give it a try. I'm not sure on the use for fermented pickles
> however - should I add the Pickle Crisp before fermentation or
> after? It's just another salt, so I think it shouldn't affect
> the fermentation too much. The package doesn't help much.
> Most of the recipes I'm using are from The Joy of Pickling
> by Linda Ziedrich
>
> Looking for suggestions from the more experienced folks here.
>
> The garden just gave us about 5 lbs of cukes - kids can only
> eat soo many fresh. There's a few quarts worth ready to go...
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mark

Hi Mark,

My grandmother soaked her cucumbers (and other veg) overnight in a picklecrisp solution (not sure what the ratio was). Then she rinsed them off and put them in fermenting crocks with regular salt, spices, garlic and dill. They came out real crisp and she didn't have to cut the blossom end off either..