Real, sour pickles

Tony here.....This was a spur of the moment decision.  I was flipping through my copy of Charcuterie to find the next cured meat project that I wanted to tackle and came across this simple recipe.

The best way to describe it is real, sour pickles.  Or as titled in the book, "The Natural Pickle".  It reminds me of going to this old butcher shop on Rt. 18 in Abington, MA with my mother (can't remember the name of the place).  They had large open barrels of this type of natural, cucumber pickels.

Essentially, you take fresh veggies, soak them in a salt, spice and water mixture for 7 days (at room temperature) then store them in the fridge.  That's it.  The book leaves the choice of vegetables, spices and other flavorings to the reader.  I went with what we had at the time which was:

• Zuccini, sliced into rounds
• Baby carrots
• Pickling spice
• 2 dried chile peppers
• Black peppercorns
• 3 garlic cloves lightly crushed

The results were great.  Nice mild sour pickle taste.  The heat from the peppers was just right.  However, too much garlic.  There must be something about the fermentation that accentuates the garlic flavor.  Next time one clove, if that.  And I need to try some traditional cucumber pickles!