Couple weeks back watched internet video guy made fermented pickles. I figured I give that a try got cucumbers in garden just right for that. Got my jar did the recipe for the brine got them brewing. Figured not that different from making Sauer Kraut. Yesterday I decided to give them a taste see what I had. Now the fella in the video said they have and earthy flavor. I would have to agree having ate more than my share of dirt in my life. For me this is a fail not sure what I did wrong. Very disappointed. Taste like compost smells so probably where I will dump them.




Mac

Not sure i understand fermenting in a pickles case unless your talking about crock pickles Anyway i'm sorry for your loss

did you use that lid the entire time?


fermented pickles need to breath or you kill the bacteria doing the fermenting and then it will smell like dead vegetation because that is what you have.

Green
I had a glass weight in on top of the cucumbers. Yes that lid was loosely on the jar but had a paper coffee filter underneath. I knew it could breath done small batch Kruat that way. Been in my version of cellar in basement.
So Im not really sure what wasn't right.
I do have another jar with same basic set up to check. Might be just this jar thats not good??
Will see.

Mac

I learned this year that sometimes you do not have all you need to ferment well when using natural products. It is an experiment for sure.

maybe this helps
once you have a good fermentation , you can use a little of the brine from a good batch to start other brines fermenting.
she has diagnosis tips at the end

We ferment some pickles and okra. I made the mistake of slicing the pickles first one time and they came out nasty. Using whole pickles has vastly improved my success with fermenting pickles. Fermented okra turned out good too

Thanks that is a very good video.
After watching the video, I think I probably missed taking the white yeast off??? I just now opened the same jar as hadn't dumped it yet. She said in video if going right smell like pickles. This now somewhat does? I may have eaten a couple funky ones that were right on top. Of course Im not sick ⁵and I didn't die.. Score one for surviving..
I actually did my batch pretty much how she did. I used a grape leaf instead of bay leaf because my brother inlaws mom always used them. I did leave the stem or flower butt's on so won't do that again on any kinda pickles I make. I also did not leave head space just let liquid push over. Live and learn and had the wife order me a PH meter from Amazon.
Guess I will dump this jar. Try again.

To edit in something else I just realized. I need to get a jug of water from the artesian well. Not use city water I know better than that for these things. Brain fart.

Mac

Fifty years ago when we were first married, the wife made a canner of sweet pickles. They could have been good tire patches. Sticky hardly describes them.