Go to the Recipe: Crisp Sous Vide Pickles
How long do we cook for?
I like pickling my liver.
If you're using quart-sized jars, cook for 2 1/2 hours. (Updated to make this more prominent.)
Awesome, this recipe is another on the list that persuades me to try sous vide.
any idea how long to cook pint jars. i have a small household and pints seem better suited for my needs.
Is there anything else in the cherry jar aside from sweet brine and cherries? Any herbs worth mentioning with fruit? Or is that more for the savoury ones?
So, do they last "forever", as mentioned in the video, or only 6 months long, as mentioned here in the text?
OTOH, if pathogens are killed by cooking and can't grow because of the acidity, then why only 6 months?
What would go wrong, if one were to cook smaller jars, say 500ml, for 150mins?
Any good spice suggestions out there?
I'm a fan classic Lacto Fermentation, sure it takes about a month (40 Day Kosher Dills are amazing), but I'll give it a shoot...
What brand/model of pot is featured in the video?
What about pickling in sealed bags? Any ideas on time, I've done a version of Momfuku's pickled shiitake in a bag for 45 minutes at 85 degrees Centigrade. They turned out very well indeed.
voudavon
The "forever" in the video is a hyperbole. If you'll look on store shelves, you'll find that pickled vegetables have a shelf life. They may last longer than the date printed on the label (or the storage recommendation on the website) but nothing will truly last forever, without the product beginning to breakdown over time.
They also state above that this method pasteurizes the pickles. Pasteurizing is different from sterilizing. Some bacteria can still survive. They also give the following warning:
"Everyone loves a good canning joke. But please note that the recipes below do NOT make shelf-stable pickles. Keep ’em refrigerated or eat right away so you don’t die."
Spice suggestions for what? Not all spices and herbs will go well with all fruits or vegetables being pickled. What are you planning on pickling?
Yeah... Remember the time, when there were no nonsense in chefsteps recipes and videos?
As for the quoted warning, that applies to non-heated pickling methods. It does not apply to the sous vide pickles described here.
If I pickle Okra the sous-vide way - will they still be slimy?
Actually the quoted warning applied to the specific pickling method ChefSteps describes. It is a warning from ChefSteps. It's just below step 9 on this page.
I remember a time when ChefSteps had almost no talking, I don't remember a time when they had no nonsense.
Love the article. I really want to do several things with rice vinegar and it all seems to be between four and four and a half percent acidity. Could you possibly re run the math accordingly? My acid/base chemistry has pretty much rusted away with age.
Hi Jeff,
Would you be willing to share your Dill technique? I keep losing firmness with my using facto-frementation? Do you start all natural with microbes present on the dills or do you use any kind of starter?
Cheers,
Bas
Herbs with fruit can be nice!
Do you have a brine for whiskey sour pickles?
Will this method work without acid too? Like canned cherries?
I would recommend against this. the acid in the vinegar is one of the preservatives, that allow them to last as long as they do. Canned cherries are preserved by using a retort. Basically, food is packed in the jars or cans, and put into an environment where it is exposed to high temperature and high pressure for an extended period of time, which sterilizes the jar and food within. There is no need for extra salt or acid in these types of products because all microorganisms have been killed.
If you get your hands on a pressure canner, it will come with instructions as to how to make canned/jarred foods, which have been completely sterilized, but it will require, at the minimum a pressure cooker, preferable with a pressure gauge, or ideally a pressure canner. I hope that helps.
What's in the jar on the top right of the image with all the pickles
What flavourings are you using in the pickles
What do you have against the metric system? I have a few of the Ball Mason Jars... trying to Google conversions makes one head spin... I have an 800ml jar.. is that too big or is correct?
If i'm using 24oz jars, I take it I just reduce to the time from 2 1/2 hours to say just 2 hours?
Thomas keller I think does a potted rainer cherry with split vanilla bean and rum (probably replace a small amount of water with rum to keep acidity correct.) and does a bing cherry with tarragon, black peppercorn and balsamic vinegar (again make sure to keep the PH/acid level correct. I think cheap Balsamic is 6% and the real stuff is 4.5%)
Nobody sent me a Joule to beta test so I had to use another brand
Did a savory brine "Giardiniera" style with cauliflower, carrot, celery, garlic and hot peppers, and did a sweet brine bing cherry with red wine vinegar, white peppercorns and coriander.
I cannot agree to your comment. Traditionally cherries are preserved sweet, without vinegar and without the use of high pressure. You are right if it comes to temperature. But exactly this is the point. The proposed method decreases the temperature but increases the time. So my question to chefsteps is, if this will work for "brines" without viniger too.
Did you pierce the veggis for better brine penetration before pickling the veggies?
Sometimes, instead of using pressure, they are soaking in chemicals such as sulfur dioxide and calcium choloride, and then heated to significantly higher temperatures, and then dyed red. Lemon juice (acidic), and alcohol (a sanitizer) are also "traditionally" used. They are still cooked to high enough temperatures to kill off most, if not all, pathogens. You can cook them in sugar water if you like, without the use of any kind of preserving agent, store them for a while, and feed them to whoever you like, but I wouldn't be terribly surprised if they get very sick from doing so.
Trying again with this question, could you run the numbers for 4% and 4.5% vinegar? Five percent rice vinegar is hard to find, and there are a bunch of asian themed things I want to try.
Over the weekend I did a quart each of blueberries, zucchini chips, cherries and cucumber spears. The cherries & cucumber spears are delicious, we're saving the other two for later in the year... I used store bought pickling spice mix for the cukes & zukes, picking out all the dried peppers to put with the cucumber. My husband ate 3/4 of the cuke spears the day we opened the jar and has been begging me to make more. The cucumber did not seem as crisp as the ones in the video--perhaps because it was cut into quarters?
If anyone experiments with pint jars, please post results for cooking times, as I'd like to pickle things in smaller jars for gifts...
Can you use this method for pickling eggs?
They look like garlic scapes to me.
Hi there! I have had great luck with full sours on cucumbers. If you get a chance read about things that help with crispiness. ... horseradish, grapeleaves... Those kind of things help substantially.
Sea Beans!
Theoretically, what would the minimum cook time be to pasteurize 250ml jars?
If you try it, let us know! I'm hoping some one experiments with the most readily available size jars & puts together a chart with minimum sous vide times...that would be extremely helpful...
Can you reuse the pickling liquid? I gather you would have to supplement the old with vinegar, salt, and sugar, and of course, to re-process. But as long as the salt, sugar, and acid levels are comparable and the brine is re-pasteurized, is there an in-principle reason not to do this?
You can calculate that easily yourself., since it is diluted with water anyway. For 4% just take 25% more vinegar and reduce the water by the same volume.
I self-answered my question. You didn't, since it worked well without doing so. It also might be part of why it stays crunchie.
Messure the pH and add vinegar accordingly. Add salt and sugar to taste.
Can this technique be used for canning anything that normally doesn't need to be pressure canned (like tomato sauce)?
Can you explain the rationale for why you need to let the cans sit out over night? It seems like opening one to eat immediately should not cause any damage?
Since were allready in the jar business. Id like to see Chefsteps take on fermenting.
Is there a maximum amount of thing-to-be-pickled that I can put in a jar? Could I put enough food in the jar that too little pickling liquid makes it into the jar and the equilibrium pH will cause food safety issues?
thanks for your response Aubree I googled it and they look like sea beans never seen them before this
Leaves. I use Bay, but Grape and Oak are also supposed to work to keep the skins crisp (I want to try Oak..)
Also, be sure to cut off the flower end, an enzyme that causes mushiness lives all up in there.
Freshness matters, get your cucumbers as fresh as possible, and get 'em in the brine the day you get 'em.
Other than that, I just use salt and water (well, herbs and spices, also), but no starter.
(I will admit, in a 10 Liter batch, I will get a few disgusting mush bombs, but for the most part amazingness...)
Has anyone done mushrooms? I'm thinking of doing chanterelles, was wondering what the texture would be like after this time/temp combo.
I second this.
Third This..!
Fourth this!!!!
I have experimented with the lacto-fermentation and have had mixed results. With cucumbers as my baseline the brine i used was a success, but being used on much more fibrous vegetables requires some salt and pressure (sauerkraut recipe). I originally used just a salt brine to ferment them but found that the natural pickling to not be as tart as i'd liked, so i added equal percentage of vinegar to salt to give it some pop. I ferment at the 43 degrees Celsius for 24 hours and they turn out wonderful. As recommended by ChefSteps this is a much more dangerous route, as it requires fresh, healthy vegetables, clean water, and sterile equipment to produce safe to eat food. And after opening i would recommend storing in the refrigerator for up to maybe a week. And don't think to try making wine it doesn't work at those temperatures, the yeast used to make wine is temperature sensitive and you would kill it before it even began to work. Not sure with beer but it might work. The conclusion I have for lacto-fermentation is that it produces a much cleaner, natural flavor than a pickle that was pasteurized in a high acidic solution, but if you love those store bought pickles then i would recommend the ChefSteps route, it's much safer and it is the taste you are looking for but better than the store shelved ones.
The cucumber in the video was a pickling cucumber, it has a much firmer skin than your typical salad cucumber (which also maybe waxed if you bought it from the store). Its all about the size and the age of the cucumber when pickling. If skin is too thin it won't standup to the pickling process and go limp. Too thick and it will be hard to chew. Its like the goldie lox of cucumbers. Medium sized with medium skin.
Natural fermentation takes a couple weeks minimum. If it's not getting tart enough, that means it hasn't fermented enough. using pressure often can have a detrimental effect on microorganisms. for fermentation, it is recommended to use a salt brine to protect the veg from pathogens until the lactobacillus can take hold. As for your "fermentation" at 43°C for 24 hours, this is not fermentation. Unless you've put a significant amount of bacteria in with your brine (10-15 grams of bacteria) there will be little to no actual fermentation. sauerkraut often takes a month or more to make.
While I'm sure what you're making tastes good (as it's just more or less just a vinegar brine which is mostly what's available in stores) you aren't actually fermenting anything to any level where it would have an impact on flavor. If you want to really ferment something, I recommend a 3% salt brine, cut or score your vegetables that you want to ferment, innoculate with .5-1 g lactobacillus bacteria blend, and put in a warm dark place for 2-3 weeks.
How many people will it take? I fourth this!
I've read before that you shouldn't overcrowd your pickle jars too much, but it wasn't highlighted as a big safety risk. I think if you're reasonable and not smashing them down in there it should be fine.
They likely leave them out to make sure the jar was properly preserved. If it wasn't done right the lid will be loose or off by the next day. As for opening it and eating it right away, you definitely can, but the flavour won't be as good and going to the trouble of preserving something you're opening right after it's done is a bit odd.
Yeah I was kind of surprised that Chef Steps didn't do that. They're usually pretty good with the charts.
This summer I've done some half quart jars along with my quarts, just took them out at 2 hours...they've come out well...
I have also had some trouble with soggy fermented pickles. I think variety of cucumber matters. Slicing cucumbers that you buy in the grocery store have a higher water content. Kirby cucumbers have less water. I have had good luck using a 4% water and salt brine preferment. I soak them 12-24 hours to draw out some of the water then dump out the brine and start the normal fermentation.
Also you could try calcium chloride (aka pickle crisp) though I have only used that for canned pickles.
