Our cucumbers, however, surprised us. We thought they had stopped producing but lo and behold, there were two giant cucumbers waiting for us when we got home.
You can imagine what happened next...
Instead of slicing the cucumbers, we cut them into wedges.This is John's flow chart of our pickle preparation:
Last time, we didn't process the jar in boiling water. But then Karen (John's ma) told us that the boiling water step is to kill off any remaining microbes. Oops. So we made sure to let the jar sit in boiling water before and after there were pickles in it. After letting the jar cool, we stuck it in the refrigerator (unlike last time) and let it sit for 24 hours. When we opened it back up, we were thrilled with delicious deli-style pickle wedges. The jar lasted about four days.After doing some reading, I learned that you're actually not supposed to let your cucumbers develop for so long if you plan to pickle them. They're not supposed to have developed seeds like ours did. They're supposed to be under-developed (but not yellow) for crispy pickles. While ours were delicious, they would have been much better if they hadn't been so floppy.
Next time...
Our pickles from our last attempt are still sitting in the pantry and should be ready in about a month. They don't look as appetizing.
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