Sugar-free fermented garlic pickles.
This is the ferment I make most often, because it takes almost no effort and it is the one that survives being eaten straight out of the jar standing at the fridge. Four ingredients. No vinegar, no sugar, no starter culture.
What you need
- Pickling cucumbers - small, firm, unwaxed. Kirby if you can get them.
- Garlic - 6 to 10 cloves, peeled and lightly crushed.
- Non-iodised salt - sea salt or pickling salt. Iodine can interfere with the ferment.
- Filtered or dechlorinated water - chlorine kills the bacteria doing the work.
- Optional: dill, black peppercorns, a grape or oak leaf for crunch.
The brine
3.5% by weight. That is 35 g of salt per litre of water, or roughly two level tablespoons per quart. Weigh it if you can - this is the one number that matters. Too weak and you invite mould; too strong and fermentation stalls.
Method
- Dissolve the salt fully in the water. Cold is fine, it just takes stirring.
- Trim the blossom end off each cucumber - it carries an enzyme that softens pickles.
- Pack cucumbers, garlic and spices into a clean jar, tight enough that they do not float.
- Pour brine over until everything is submerged with about an inch of headspace.
- Keep everything under the brine. A small glass weight, or a folded cabbage leaf tucked over the top. Anything above the surface will mould.
- Cover loosely - an airlock lid, or a regular lid you "burp" daily. Fermentation makes CO₂ and a sealed jar will build pressure.
- Leave at room temperature, out of direct sun, for 5-10 days.
- Taste from day 4. When it tastes right to you, seal it and move it to the fridge.
What you should see
- Day 1-2: not much. Maybe a few bubbles.
- Day 3-5: brine turns cloudy, active bubbling, sour smell. This is what you want.
- Day 5-10: bubbling slows, flavour deepens, garlic mellows and may turn slightly blue-green - harmless, a reaction between garlic sulphur compounds and trace minerals.
When to throw it out
A white, flat, filmy layer on the surface is usually kahm yeast - harmless, skim it off. Fuzzy growth of any colour is mould, and that jar goes in the bin. Same for anything that smells genuinely putrid rather than sour, or cucumbers that have gone to mush. Fermenting is safe and forgiving, but "when in doubt, throw it out" is the rule, and it costs three dollars to be wrong.
Two honest notes
This is salty. A fermented pickle carries real sodium, and if you are also salting food heavily and supplementing around fasts, it adds up faster than you would guess. That is fine for most people and genuinely worth watching if you are managing blood pressure.
Ferments are high in histamine. If you are someone who reacts to aged meat or leftovers, start with one pickle and see how you feel rather than working through the jar. The longer it ferments and the longer it sits, the higher that gets.
More on why I eat ferments at all, and what the research does and does not support, is on the main page.