My grandmother lived ninety-three years before she left, and remembers two things: one is my mother's nickname and the other is how to pick up vegetables。
She used to say, "there's no pickles in the house. Is that life?"
I didn't know when i was a kid. I thought pickles were pickles. It was sour. He then left his home, went to university, worked, ate a lot of books in north and south, and tasted a lot of it. But every time i eat, i feel less。
I can't say what i'm missing, i'm tired of eating。
One time my mother came to live with me and the first move into the door was not to drop the suitcase, but to pull out a glass jar from the bag full of pickles. Carrots, carrots, beans, green peppers, in a little yellow juice, are seen to swallow。
I had three bowls of rice in that pickles that night. And after that, my mom smiled, "you see, i said, "there's everything out there, that's it."
Since then, i've been learning to make pickles。
There have been countless failures. Pickles are white, soft, smelly, or they're not good, salty and smelly. I went online, asked the elderly at home, bought several pickled books, tried them over and over again for two years, and finally made pickles to my satisfaction。
I'm not bragging. I've got two cans of pickles in my fridge. Friends come to eat at home and leave with nothing else, and pickles must go with a bottle. A friend's husband, a northeasterly man, who had been so careless about sichuan pickles, ate my cooking, called me the next day and said, "is your pickles ready for delivery?"
I'll give you the whole square today. There is no need for old salt water, no need for a mess of additives, and food can be purchased at the market, operating for no more than 20 minutes and eating in three days. Sour, fragrance, fragrance, appetizers, rice, wine, porridge and cuisine, whatever you want。
Why do you always fail in making pickles
Before we go, let me say a few of the most easy pits for everyone to make pickles. Look how many you've hit。
The first pit: the altar was not handled。
A lot of people bought a new altar, brushed it out of the detergent and thought the cleaner the better. But the pickles didn't work in two days, white flowers, smelly. Why? Because of the baptism, all the lactate that should have been killed, the bad bacteria took advantage of it。
Second pit: oil。
This is the most common reason for the rollover. You've got oil on your plate, you've got oil on your chopsticks, you've got oil on your can. One drop of oil, all the pickles. Because the oil creates a membrane on the surface of pickles, isolates the air, causes anaerobics to breed in large quantities, and the pickles quickly rot。
The third pit: the water was wrong。
Many people use water directly. There is chlorine in the piped water, which inhibits fermentation of lactate. If you can't ferment, pickles are just pickles, without that sour smell, and it's easier to break。
The fourth pit: salt is too much or less。
It's too salty, too salty to eat pickles. With less salt, the fungus grows crazy, and pickles stink before they're sour。
Fifth pit: throw everything in there。
Vegetables, cabbage, cucumbers, tomatoes these are too watery to make pickles. Throw it in for a few days, it's soft, it's rotting, it's messing up。
How many have you got? If you failed to make pickles, 99 percent is the reason. Avoiding these pits. Half the success。
Ii. Preparation of materials, simple
After the pit, let's get ready. This is a very simple piece of material. You go down to the supermarket or the market, you can buy it。
Let's start with the altar。
It's better to use that traditional pottery. The lid can be watered. It's a good aerobic, and it's a much more crocky dish. If not, the sealed glass cans can also be used to make it easier to observe changes inside and suitable for beginners。
See how big you do. A family of three would be enough for a five-litre or so. When the altar was bought, it was washed, then burned with open water and dryed, making sure there was no drop of raw water in it。
Say vegetables。
The essence of pickles is radish. The key is fresh, hard and empty. Carrots cut into strips or blocks, not too thin, too thin to bubble out. Probably a thick finger。
And prepare some of the cuisine: the beans (the one that you pick, the one that is broken), the peppers (the two bars or the peppers, not the ones that are thick, the gingers (the best, the old ginger is too hot), the garlic, the mills of rice (which are not hot)。
These are the basics. They're delicious. You'll be skilled in cabbage, celery, and even broccoli – yes, the part that is usually cut off and thrown, and the skin is cut in, and it's soaring。
Then say the sauce。
The most important thing is salt. What salt? It would be preferable to use either pickle salt or crude salt, or salt without iodization, if not. Iodized salt bubbles are prone to suffering and affect fermentation。
Splendid: a small set of peppers (this is the soul, it has to be put), two cents of eight, two or three fragrances, and a little bit of cinnamon. You like the taste of it, you can add a couple of lilacs, but not too much。
Ice candy: a small piece. Sugar makes pickles more cyanide, and it makes the taste softer。
White wine: high white wine, above 50 degrees. A small bottle of caps is enough, the effect of which is to kill bacteria, tots and to prevent white flowers. Two pots of sorghum, no wine。
Finally, water。
No running water, no pure water. The piped water has chlorine, the pure water is too “clean”, the minerals are lacking and the lactacid bacteria are poorly reproductive. It's better if it's cold. It's running water. Or with mineral water。
Three: one step at a time
Ready? Let's go。
Step 1: deal with the altar。
Wash the altar, burn it with boiling water, dry the buttons. This process must wait until it's dry and there are no beads inside or outside. Conditionally, you can wipe it again with a kitchen towel。
Step 2: treatment of vegetables。
All vegetables are washed and dryed. It's important that we don't bring raw water to the altar. Carrot chops, beans cut into bits as high as the altar, and peppers can be put in whole or cut in half. Sliced in thick, garlic peeled, all the petals。
Note: the plate and knife for cutting vegetables must be oil-free. If you have only one board in your house, which is usually mixed with meat cutter, then wash the board and the knife before cutting the pickles and then redo it with water. For safety purposes, i suggest you make a special set of pickles and knives。
Step 3: proportion of pickle water。
That's the key figure for the whole square。
The ratio of water to salt is 20:1. That is, 1,000 ml of water, 50 grams of salt. 500 ml water, 25 g salt。
Let's see how much water you can get on your altar. Take a clean cup and pour water into the altar. For example, a five-litre altar actually contains about three-litre pickles. Three litres of water is 3,000 ml and requires 150 grams of salt。
What's 150 grams of salt? The little spoon at home for dinner, 10 grams per spoon, 150 grams per spoon. Or more simply, go to the supermarket and buy a bag of 500 grams of salt, pour out about a third。
Pour cold water into a large basin, pour salt in, and mix it into full melting. The water is salty at this time, but it's not enough, and it's fragrance。
A small pack of peppers (about twenty grains), two eight cents, two or three fragrances, a little bit of cinnamon, a piece of ice cream. Put these in the salt water and mess it up。
You can taste it this time. Salt water should be a little bit of gin in salt, and the aroma of the peppers is about to come. It's too salty. It's too salty。
Step 4: loading the altar。
One layer of dried vegetables into the altar. You don't have to press too hard. It's just loose. The carrots are down, the beans, the peppers, the gingers are on top, the garlic and the rice are in the void。
And then pour in the well-modified pickle water, which is completely out of all the vegetables. If there's not enough water, just make it up a little bit。
Finally, a small bottle of high white wine and a lid。
If you use a pottery pottery, the dent on the edge of the lid will be filled with water, which will seal off the air. If you're using a glass can, just screw it up, but keep the lid open and breathe every day, otherwise the gas from the fermentation will burst the can。
Step 5: wait。
Put the altar in a cool place, don't tan. It'll be two or three days in summer, five or seven days in winter。
The sign of pickles getting sour is that the color of the water has become a little obscurous from the very beginning, and it smells of a fresh sour scent, and the radish has changed from white to translucent jade. At this point, a pair of clean, oil-free chopsticks, if both the acidity and the brittle are right, it works。
Iv. The thing about “bitters”
Most of the people who make pickles are “bite” — a white membrane on the surface of the water, like mold. The whole altar stinks when it's serious。
In fact, a few white flowers don't panic。
The reason for white flowers is usually air or fungus in the altar. You can leave the white flowers with a clean, oilless spoon, and then add a little salt, and a small bottle of white wine, and mix it. In two days white flowers will disappear。
If the white flowers are so many, and pickles are soft and smelly, don't save them. This is usually the case where the food is not dry, or has oil on his hands, or the altar is not sealed。
Remember a few points against white flowers: everything must be oil-free and water-free; the lids must be kept clean and the water dirty; the chopsticks for pickles must be exclusive, not saliva, not oil。
I've had pickles for over three years and never had white flowers. It's not my luck. I use chopsticks every time i pick pick up pickles。
V. N-food for pickles
The pickles are ready. How can i eat them
The most direct thing is to get out and eat. The rice is hot, a cold pickled radish is sour, it can eat half a bowl. It's like a fairy food in the summer。
Pickles are fried with meat. Cut flowers are cut to the ground, a little less oil is put in the pot, it's made to the ground, and it's dried up with garlic and pepper, and it's cut into the fire. No salt, pickles themselves. Spill a garlic seed in front of the pot. I'm not exaggerating。
Pickle fried rice. All night long, rice, cut-off pickles, an egg, a little onion flower, and a pellets of pellets, sour appetizers. It's better than any fried rice。
Pickle fish. Strawfish or salsa tablets are made of rinds, white pepper powder, eggs. The boilers are oiled, the garlic and pickles (which must be extra and at least a small bowl) and then boiled with water for five minutes so that the taste of pickles can be fully released. Slip the fish in one piece and boil it white. A little fragrance, a little sour, a little soup。
Pickle tofu. The old tofu is cut, cooked with pickles, and the tofu is full of sour, warm and particularly comfortable in winter。
Pickle noodles. Fresh pasta, with shredded pickles, cucumber silk, a little sesame sauce, a spoon of pepper oil, is simple and delicious, much better than the cold noodles sold outside。
You see, how much can a pickle cook? It takes 20 minutes to do it, to eat it for a month and to change it every day。
Six: keep pickles alive
The most amazing thing about pickles is that it's not finished at once。
You've finished your first meal and don't pour the pickle from the altar. That's the "old salt water" you made. It's got a lot of yogurt in it。
All you have to do is add new food inside. New dishes are handled (cleaned dry) and stuffed directly into the altar. Taste the pickle. If it's cold, add salt. I don't think it smells good enough. I can add a little pretzels and eight horns. You think you're running out of water, you pour in a little new salt water。
This way, an old pot of salt can last for years, even more. My grandmother's old salt water, she's had it for over 40 years, older than my mother. She was sad that she had not eaten for three days。
If you don't eat for a long time, remember to check regularly if the water in the jar is dry. A piece of radish comes out every month and stays active。
Moved or away, old salt water can be bottled in the freezer. When you get back, bring it back to the warmth, add fresh food, you'll be alive in two days。
Vii. Final dingles
So much, it's just one thing: pickles are not as hard as you think。
When i first did it, i was so nervous that i had to confirm it three times. When it is done, it turns itself into something good, as long as it holds several key points — oilless, waterless, proportional, salty. It's much more than we thought. You don't have to help it. Don't mess with it。
Now in the corner of my kitchen, there are two glass cans in my kitchen. One can of pickles and one can of old salt water that's growing. Every time you open the fridge and don't know what to eat, you look at that pickle, and you feel good。
Last month my daughter came back from school and said the canteen was too expensive to eat. I took a couple of carrots from the jar, cut her up and mixed her in the rice. She ate a bowl and said, "mom, it smells like grandma made it."。
And for that moment, i felt that something really came down from generation to generation. It's not the square, it's not the crafts, it's the sense of comfort。
Try it, too. It takes 20 minutes, less than ten dollars, to make yourself a pickle. Three days later, you have a summer appetizer and a taste that can be passed on。
Trust me, you'll come back and thank me。
