I’ve made pickles a few times this summer. They tasted great, but they weren’t crunchy. Then I read on a forum how one can use a tea bag in the ferment to preserve the crunchy. I tested it out this week and it works. You need to use black tea. Check out the Awesome Pickle post Live-fermented dill pickles with tea for a pickle recipe that uses tea bags.

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Comments

Jim

August 11 at 2012 at 4:38 PM

Their 8/2 post describes a 1-week kimchi. What do you think?

MAS

August 11 at 2012 at 4:47 PM

@Jim - 1 week sounds right to me. Most of mine clock in around 6 days.

Barbara

August 11 at 2012 at 7:27 PM

What a great tip! Divine and I didn’t think to eat pickles during the summer, but what a fantastic idea!

hännah

August 13 at 2012 at 2:57 AM

Thanks for the tip! I just made my first fermented pickles (actually cauliflower) and I’ll definitely try the tea bag trick in my next batch.

Eric

August 16 at 2012 at 6:09 PM

@Jim I thought one week was a little short, too, but that kimchi tasted great. I usually let mine go longer, but it all comes down to taste and how quickly the fermentation is moving, which seems to have a lot to do with how hot it is.

MAS

August 16 at 2012 at 7:07 PM

Interesting that in the new book The Art of Fermentation there is a quote from “a team of Korean academics” that determined optimal taste for kimchi required just a 3 day ferment with a 3% salt ratio.

I’ve done 3 day ferments in the heat of the summer that tasted awesome. They don’t have the diverse probiotic cultures of older ferments, but they still taste good!