Pickling continued!
From Telkoth.net
Well, I opened the jars of pickles tonight, a week earlier than recommended, but it was neccessary.
I am, unfortunately, disappointed. They came out tasting not-so-good. Katie was a little more forgiving than I was... we judged them without refering to their individual recipes - 1 to 10, 10 being awesome - though some ingredients like hot red peppers and dill were always immediately obvious. We also ate bits of bread inbetween, to try to clear out each pickle's taste before moving on - to cleanse our palate, if you will.
Well, here are our ratings:
| Jar | Katie | Ben | Total |
| #1 | 6 | 6 | 12 |
| #2 | 6.5 | 6 | 12.5 |
| #3 | 6.5 | 5.5 | 12 |
| #4 | 5.5 | 4 | 9.5 |
| #5 | 4.5 | 3 | 7.5 |
| #6 | 5 | 5 | 10 |
| #7 | 5.5 | 5.5 | 11 |
| #8 | 6 | 6 | 12 |
| #9 | 6.5 | 6 | 12.5 |
It is worth noting that we had initially given jar 1 a 7 and a 6, and jar 2 a 7.5 and a 6. Since they were the best rated at the end, I wanted to go back and re-evaluate them as the best. Their scores ended up being lowered.
It is possible that the large quantities of vinegar and salt consumed was simply too much - though we did eat small quantites - it's hard to say. Overall, however, I personally was disappointed with the outcome. Katie says she'll eat the pickles, but I dunno that I will :P
I partially blame the relatively low number of cucumbers put in to each jar. In my first several jars were only two slices of cucumber, while in the others were 4 slices. A "slice" was 1/8th a sizeable cucumber... there was not much more room in the jars with 4 slices, however I could probably stuff in a couple more. I suspect that the additional cucumber would help dilute the brine - I would have liked milder pickles. I'd like to reduce the vinegar content, but as I understand it that can be risky, since the whole point of the vinegar is to stave off bacteria.
Looking over the recipes recorded last month, it seems like hot peppers and bay leaves were... the least unsuccessful :P So I suppose I will attempt variations on those recipes tomorrow, and hope for the best. I'll post the recipes for those when the time comes :)
