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10/19/10 at 8:12am
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I have access to oak barrels, and I am interested in using them to make/store fermented cucumber pickles. The barrels are traditionally used to make a kind of hard liquor (Serbian rakija), and they need to be soaked in water (to make the wood swell and become waterproof) and then filled with a alcohol for a couple weeks (which you then toss--it's to get the tannins out of the oak, which make the rakija taste too strong to drink) before use according to their original design. I am assuming that the tannins will be a good thing for pickles (since that's the whole point in adding grape leaves or whatever, so the tannins keep the pickles crisp, right?) but is there some other way you need to prepare the barrels for use? Do I just soak in salty water and then go for it?
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