80 pounds of cukes!

[janey99]

I am not exaggerating! That's what I picked today, at various sizes. Bring on the pickle recipes!

Anyone have a great one?

I'm especially interested in a cornichon recipe and a salty, garlicky pickle that is NOT a dill pickle.

TIA!

Jane

[Buzzer Beater]

Oh I am just jealous. Here we're lucky if we get 8 lbs.

[MissMommyNiceNice]

I would think that you could just make the dill recipe without adding the dill. That's not what preserves the pickle, it's the salt & vinegar. i've tried out 5 different dill pickle recipes the last five years and still haven't found one I personally enjoy.

The Better Homes & Gardens Best Canning Book has one that is called Company's Best Pickles, which takes 7 days to set up.

With that many cukes, though, I'd break out the cuisinart shredding attachment and start making some relish. There's less work slicing & dicing. Sweet pepper cuke relish is delicious. There are several recipes in the ball blue book that I've done with success and were quite tasty. I actually just made one with my bounty of giant arm sized zucchinis.

[Literate]

Well, you wouldn't want 80 pounds of it, but try this fridge pickle recipe. I love it.

[notwonamesalike]

How about making some cucumber lemonade?


Puree 2 cukes with water, strain. Add lemon juice and sugar to taste. Serve over ice.

[sweetpeppers]

cucumber salsa is delicious (fresh at least) just add cucumber to a normal raw salsa recipe

I'm so jealous of all your cucumbers, my vines (with one exception) are not growing at all.

[Owen'nZoe]

I'm very impressed with your haul! (And do not, unfortunately, have a good pickle recipe, either. )

[tanyalynn]

Want to ferment them? Lots of yummy bacteria?

I love the recipe from Wild Fermentation, it's available online...
http://www.wildfermentation.com/reso...p?page=pickles

You could leave out the dill if you want, I'm sure. My kids love to eat the garlic that's left at the bottom of the jar for these. And I know some folks leave their ferments out at room temp for extended periods, the fermentation slows down as the acidity increases, just skim the scum off the top periodically.

eta--the room temp suggestion was if you're limited in frig space, I mean.

[chaoticzenmom]

I don't know about pickles, but cucumber soup is soo good. Blend some cucumbers with laughing cow cheese or yogurt, salt and maybe some garlic powder...yum. Or add a tomato and blend well.

I'm addicted to Bubbies Bread and butter chips and searching for a good b&b recipe.

[janey99]

Found some pickle recipes - think I messed up one batch

Well, I found some pickle recipes, but I think I messed up one batch.

First, the good news - I found a couple of sour cornichon recipes, and I tried one today - the jar looks great and in a month, we'll see!

On the other hand, my "open crock pickles" are a fetid disaster! Recipe said to slice coins into a giant pot or crock, sprinkle on 2 cups of salt, cover with boiling water and "let stand" 1 week. I put them in my breakfast nook on Sunday. Today, there is a smell rising off them that can best be described as dank, and the top layer of slices looks like it's actually decomposing. That layer is slightly above the surface of the brine. I'm thinking if I had placed something heavy on top so all the slices were well submerged, this wouldn't have happened? Anyone have any ideas or done a recipe that had this as a first step?

My plan is to throw the whole lot in the compost pit tomorrow, as I don't want anyone to get botchulism, or whatever's growing in there, but I though I would post here first in case anyone had any thoughts.

Tomorrow, I'm going to get started on some garlic sours with my kirbys.

Jane

[catballou24]

i'm so jealous!! i pulled all our cucumbers as it was just too hot and the ones that did set were so bitter we couldn't eat them. i am drooling over the idea of 80 pounds! great job!

[the2amigos]

Holy cukes!! I'm impressed! We picked just 14 nice size cukes today and I'm a little befuddled...it's hard to make too much when you are on bedrest So here I sit, DH isn't interested in helping with too much putting up of veggies. I thought I planned the garden so we just have some to eat and maybe some veggies to freeze. Didn't plan on a wonderful cuke crop - I have hundreds more cukes that will be ready next week....yikes!

I'm thinking some creamy, not too healthy cuke salad today! :