Home Pickling Adventures

I never cared all that much for sweet pickles, until I tried the ones my grandmother made. They were extremely crunchy, and they had lots of green dye in them, so they had an interesting appearance.

A while back I started canning my own pickles. I’ve written about it here. They’re somewhat similar to the ones Granny made.

I cranked out six jars of pickles today. They should be magnificent. I won’t know until I try one later in the day.

I also sliced two heads of cabbage for kimchi. I am crazy about homemade kimchi. I made my first batch last month, and it was stupendous. This time, I’m making it even hotter, with my horrendous backyard-grown Trinidad Scorpion peppers.

I used regular old cabbage last time, but the recipes I’ve seen call for Napa cabbage. I bought two heads for my latest kimchi batch. I will never buy it again. It cost me over ten bucks for two cabbages. I don’t care how good this stuff is. It’s not worth it. I believe the other cabbages cost 90 cents a head.

Pickling stuff is a pretty good deal. You don’t have to be insanely meticulous about sanitation and so on, because the acidity prevents botulism, and you don’t have to use a pressure canner.

It’s probably impossible to can kimchi. The bacteria that create it would make sealed jars blow up, and if you heated the kimchi to kill the bacteria, you’d end up with something pretty odd.

I wonder if I can do this with chutney.