How do you make pickles the old fashion way?
The old-fashioned way of making dill pickles, fermenting cucumbers in a salt-brine, produces the type of dill pickle commercial picklers call a “genuine dill pickle.” While you preserve most other kinds of pickles by using acetic acid present in vinegar, this type of dill pickle is preserved by lactic acid produced during a fermentation process that takes place over several weeks. Here’s what happens. You place cucumbers in a glass or stoneware crock or heavy food-grade plastic container. Cover with a salt brine that contains dill, garlic, spices and a little vinegar. The cucumbers are weighted to keep them below the surface of the brine. Cover the container loosely and allow it to stand at room temperature, preferably between 70 and 75 degrees F. Natural sugars from the cucumbers begin to go into the brine where salt-tolerant lactic acid bacteria cause natural fermentation. The amount of salt in the brine is very important if fermentation is to go well. Too little salt lets undesirabl
