Go to the Recipe: Crisp Sous Vide Pickles
I love using this method for water bathing pickles. So much easier than the short boiling water bath of traditional canning. I am curious if the same protocol of 140F for 2.5 hours for quart jars or smaller could be used for other suitably low pH sauces or chutneys assuming the tested pH of the recipe batch is below 4.6. Most of the recipes I'm thinking of test at 3.x pH.
Bad advice!
You don't need to raise the temperature or use sous vide at all. You can just put the vegetables in boiling water for 15 minutes, then sterilise the jars with steam, pour in the brine and close with special lids for canning (they have a rubber seal).
Can I use this methode for "canning" passata ? After boiling the tomatos.
Thanks
Can I use a vacuum bag instead of the jars?
Can I use a vacuum back indteyof the jars ?
I've used this recipe a couple times with mixed results unfortunately. Pickled radishes were good not great, classic pickles (i.e. cukes, dill, garlic, etc) never have the snappy texture. The big one though is beets. Classic red beets are fine if not maybe too snappy? But gold and candy stripe get stripped of all color and again mixed results either very soft or a bit too toothsome. Flavor is always there but the end result is always disappointing. I use quart jars, vin and water ratio, salt, sugar, etc. Any other tips especially with the beets. When i was a line cook i would pickle roasted beets but they never lost their color infact they were more brilliant. Wondering if that's thd reason. Any help would be much appreciated!
is the brain at room temperature when you add to the fill jars
If not all jars are already submerged, the waterline is usually below the lids, that will change once all jars are in there. That may be the case in the photo.
Hey there, what do you mean by "fully submerged" I have my jars totally under water; 1/4 inch below the surface but your pictures show a somewhat different story. does it only need to be submerged to slightly above the internal fill line?
Great recipe! Great results. Easy and tasteful. Thanks.
Would I be able to use a 1 liter mason jar with the same timing?
Can you give some guidance on using pint jars? Assume the cooking time would be less, but will it be ok to just go the full time for the quart jars?
Hello, generally speaking cellulose breaking down happens at 180 degrees. This is why almost all vegetables need to be cooked at 180 or higher or else they never get tender- ie potatoes and carrots. Scapes should be no different.
"Turbo" is a software function. The Joule Turbo circulator can cook anything, not just meat. It is essentially identical to earlier Joule circulators. It just has an addition to the software that can speed up cooking certain meats (not all).
Hello, I'm planning on using the Savory brine for my garlic scapes. Because they're not as dense as cucumbers will the 140°/2hr 30 min. cause then to become mushy?
Thank you,
Carla
i didn’t realize that the turbo was only for meat. My daughter was interested in starting to cook Sous vide so I gave her my other one. Back to the store!
That answered my question…thanks
If you are having a problem achieving a good seal, see my comment below.
This is not a Joule Turbo recipe, so the recipe is the same no matter what model or brand of immersion circulator you use. Joule's Turbo approach is only used for cooking certain tender cuts of meat (chicken breast, pork loin, steaks) and isn't designed for anything else. It can only be run using provided Turbo recipes in the app.
I would like to know this as well since I have two and no need for turbo. Thank you
How long should we sous vide using a non-turbo immersion circulator?
Could you please explain more? When underwater the pressure is like a vacuum.
Can you vacuum seal your jars before you put them in the water?
One of my fav CS recipes of all time.
Pro tip: The low 140°F temp does give a crispier result, but also has a downside. In traditionally canning, the high temp is what creates a lower pressure vacuum in the jar as it cools, sealing the lid (and depressing the little divot in the center of the lid). Since this recipe uses a much lower temp, sometimes the lids don't seal, which is important if you intend to store the pickles at room temperature (frankly, I usually only make a few jars and store them in the fridge anyway).
The way to avoid this problem is to crank the bath temp up to 180*F or so for a couple of minutes. The higher temperature will give a better vacuum, but not affect how crispy the pickles are.
Of course you can. Either use as is yielding a more acidic result or dilute back to 5% with water or use 5/7 of the called for amount for the same result
Yes, you 'can' can sauerkraut but at 140°F the enzymes and bactria will be destroyed. Best to just keep kraut in the fridge and under its own brine for longer storage. Or just make choucroute and cook with some white wine reduction.
Can you can natural saurkraut after fermentation, I salted it at 2%. I am trying the 60C water batch for 2.5hrs.
can the same be done not using vinager, i only brine with salt and herbs
Hi….Can you use a higher percent vinegar? Mine is 7%. Thanks
I don't see anything about sterilizing the jars. I have always sterilized my jars for all canning and pickling but have never done either sous vide. Do you not have to sterilize your jars, lids & rings with sous vide?
I made the "sweet brine" for Nectarines I put some blueberries, jalapeños and that was it! It's good but I need your
"expertise" to give me some suggestions for other flavors like cinnamon, cloves and other goodies. I would like to know what would have been another good "pepper" to put into the jars. The peaches are delicious. Hey how about doing a "pepper show."
If i sterilize my jars, fill, leaving head room, with uncooked peach jam using sure jell put in sous vide covered ny two inches of water cook for two hours at 180° will they safe to store unrefrigerated. They are sealed well.
It would not be considered shelf stable, but you can toss them in the fridge and they will hold for months.
The jar lids did not “seal” with a pop and the lid can be pressed down. Is this still considered shelf stable if the jars did not seal as with conventional canning methods?
You can also make fire and ice pickles by starting with any good recipe for bread and butter pickles and adding peppercorns and dried or fresh chilis to the brine. Which chilis you choose will determine the amount of fire you get. I like chili de arbol and usually put a dried pod or two in each jar of pickles (https://www.chilipeppermadness.com/chili-pepper-types/medium-hot-chili-peppers/chile-de-arbol-chili-peppers/ ). Then process following the method here or as called for in the B&B pickle recipe you are using.
You can leave it out, it will just be a bit more sharp and vinegary.
How important is the sugar? Can I omit it if pickling cucumbers?
Can I use the low temp pasteurization for other high acid foods like salsas and chutneys as long as the pH is below 4.6? Mine usually test at 3.x.
My go to recipe for a refrigerator pickle of mushrooms calls for cooking them in water for 10 minutes first. I plan to do this and then try the sous vide method with the same spices as the refrigerator pickle recipe. I really want some shelf stable pickled mushrooms.
Mushrooms have a great deal of air in them (you see this when you saute them and they shrink while also absorbing liquids/flavors). I would cook/saute them first and then pickle them.
Maybe it is because okra has a lot of air space inside the fruit. The vinegar goes in and fills those spaces during processing? Which would leave a headspace in the jar that is too large for a good seal? Just a thought.
Thank you for the response, Gian. I actually had enough okra from my garden to make another couple of jars of pickled okra last night. I processed them in a boiling water canner for 15 minutes, and they sealed without a hitch. I noticed again that the okra seems to absorb a lot of the brine during processing. I only gave the jars 1/4 inch of headspace, but by the time the jars had cooled after processing, there was about 1/2 inch of headspace. I just checked the jars that sealed from my first (sous vide) batch back on August 5, and they started with 1/2 inch of headspace when I put them in the sous vide water bath, but they now have a good 3/4 inch of headspace. Since my okra plants are still cranking out the pods, I'll try the sous vide method again this weekend or next week with only 1/4 inch of headspace and see if the jars seal.
Hello, I’m a big fan and love to use, cook and store with mason jars. My question is, can I vacuum seal the jar before I place in water bath?
I have done this with custard and cheesecake in the jar with fine results. Wondering if ok to do with pickling brine.
Thanks!
Susan, I'm going to go way out on a limb and suggest that the okra's mucilage is possibly interfering either with the degassing during the 140 F sous vide bath or, if it somehow collects at the rim, with the seal of the lid during cooling. To see if the former is the case, you could conduct an experiment by processing at a higher temperature. and or longer time. Of course, the higher you go and the longer you process, the more the texture may degrade.
Hi, Steve! "Fire and ice" pickles are sweet and hot pickles. Some people make them by taking a jar of store-bought dill pickles and adding a LOT of sugar and some red pepper flakes and/or hot sauce and garlic. Those are fool proof and very good. I like to make them from fresh cucumbers (my garden is cranking out the cucumbers and okra this year). I haven't taste-tested my homemade batch this year to see if the Chef Steps "savory" brine is sweet enough for the "ice," but if not, I'll still have tasty spicy pickles. I should be able to taste-test in a week or so and then adjust the recipe for sweetness if need be.
Let me know how your okra comes out. If your jars all seal, I'll know it's just user error on my end that I keep having seal failure.
Thanks for the commentary, Susan. I’m about to start my first batch of pickled okra. Question for you: what are “Fire and ice” pickles? Thanks. Steve
Update: I made another batch of pickled okra and two batches of fire and ice (cucumber) pickles. None of the okra jars sealed this time. All of the cucumber jars sealed. I don't know why I have the trouble with pickled okra sealing properly when I've got 100% success (thus far) with cucumber pickles. Anyway, I still love this brine recipe. When you zing it up with red pepper flakes and garlic and dill and mustard seed and peppercorns, it's very good.
I have a question about alternatives to acidification with vinegar, especially for those of us who would prefer to avoid vinegary flavors in our preserved fruits: is there any reason that vinegar at 5% (pH more or less 2.5) cannot be substituted with citric acid? About 4.2 grams of anhydrous citric acid per liter of water, or about 4.6 grams of monohydrate citric acid per liter of water provide a solution with a pH very close to 5% acetic acid (vinegar). A half tsp of citric acid or 2 TBS of bottled lemon juice is in fact what the USDA recommends be added to each quart of low acid fruits (for example asian pears, figs, and white peaches) or tomato preparations (also considered low acid) at canning. Speaking of which, why is acidification necessary at all for high acidity fruits? It is not, according to the USDA, but perhaps Chefsteps felt it best to recommend it for all the suggested brines to stay on the safe side. And I don't think the difference is that the USDA manual on canning high acid fruits specifies the classical pasteurization at 212 F for 10 to 30 minutes depending on altitude and fruit acidity, since I have seen nothing to suggest that sous vide pasteurization at 140 F for 2.5 hours is not equally effective at destroying bacteria, molds, and spoilage enzymes. So why acidify high acidity fruits? And if one must, why not use citric acid instead of vinegar?
I tried the savory brine for pickled okra yesterday. One odd thing--three of my jars didn't seal properly (well, two didn't, and when I gently pushed up on the lid of a third one, it popped easily). I noticed that the okra seemed to absorb a fair amount of the brine, so my jars had a lot more headspace after processing than they started with. I'll try to start with a bit less headspace next time. And there will be a next time. I was not confident about the "savory" brine since it had all that sugar in it. But I trusted Chef Steps, and went for it. Some of my jars were plain dill okra (using dried dill), and some of them had fresh dill sprigs, a teaspoon of red pepper flakes, garlic cloves, mustard seed, and peppercorns. If you had told me I'd like slightly sweet pickled okra, I would have told you you were crazy. But this is fantastic. And the version with the red pepper flakes is so good, I may actually get another half bushel of okra from my friend and make nothing but the spicy/sweet pickles. If the pickled okra is already this good the day after I made it, I can't imagine how good it will be with a couple of weeks or more of aging.
Thank you for your response! It's a little sad to throw these mushrooms out, but safety first. All the lids were new and I wiped the rim clean. I did my best to edit together a before and after shot of the jars to confirm they were under packed.
Hello Zach, Sounds like the jars were under packed. If you had some seals that failed it could be a faulty lid or just wasn't tightened correctly. When in doubt of things going bad or spoiling the rule is to throw it out. Im afraid we cannot recommend what to do with already attempted "canning". a tip to make sure you get the seal you need, is to wipe the rim of the jar dry before fastening the lid and ring.
Hi,
I am new to the ChefSteps website/community. I have been binging your content for the last couple of weeks and I am loving all of the information and recipes.
One recipe that really intrigued me and that I recently attempted was your sous vide pickling recipe: https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/make-crisp-flavor-packed-pickles-on-the-quick?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=general&utm_campaign=july-21-2020.
I attempted to pickle mushrooms, but they didn't come out quite right. Even though I followed all the directions thoroughly, 3 (of 5) jars failed to seal properly, and more worrisome, even in the jars that sealed properly there appears to be a ton of air/space at the top on the container that wasn't there originally. The mushrooms, which at first had almost filled the jar, shrank to about 1/2 of their original volume. My assumption is that the mushrooms must've harbored a significant amount of air that was vented to the top of the jar during the heat treatment step.
I was hoping that someone might be able to inform me if these jars are safe. I was considering opening all the jars (even the sealed jars), combining their contents, and re-applying the heat treatment (sous vide) step. Does this sound dangerous or ill-informed?
Please note that I am a completely novice canner.
*This message is also posted in the ChefSteps Community Forum under 'Recipe Q's'.
Would this recipe be safe/good with beets?
The water balances the sharpness of the vinegar. You can omit or reduce the amount of water to desired taste. Make the brine and give it a taste, and then proceed.
What's the point of water here? Can't I just use straight vinegar, salt and sugar?
I was wondering if I could create a shelf-stable version of "melanzane e zucchine sott'aceto" using your recipe with pregrilled eggplant, zucchini, garlic, herbs, balsamic vinegar, water, salt and sugar, but I wasn't able to find any Information about the shelf-life of low-temp-pickled eggplant online... Any suggestions if this would be a safe bet or if I will kill my family with this?
