Things wot I Made Then Ate

hamburger, poached egg, avocado, fresh garden tomato, Parmesan cheese

With lime squeezed all over even on the egg and the hamburger.

One three-LB cabbage fit into two quart jars.

Three tablespoons of salt five pounds of cabbage.

So, how much salt for 3 pounds of cabbage?

Both 5 and 3 can be multiplied to 15. So multiply both top and bottom of three over five: 9/15

3 tablespoons salt / 5 pounds of cabbage

Equals:

9 tablespoons salt / 15 pounds cabbage.

Divide top and bottom by 5

1.8 teaspoons salt / 3 pounds cabbage

Maths!

Since 1.8 is so close to 2 I used two teaspoons of salt.

And my Brittany Celtic sea salt is less soda-chloride-y and more mineral-y so I made them heaping teaspoons. And they still didn't produce very much water. I had to add water to the jars.

This has ginger and thinly sliced red bell pepper. And that's all. No black pepper, no fennel seeds, no mustard seeds, no allspice seeds, no seeds at all. No turmeric. Just ginger.

Because I'm really digging ginger right now.

When it's done fermenting, I'll add sugar to adjust the taste to my preference. And I'll probably add citric acid to get the taste away from that weird lactic acid taste produced by the process. These will not be stored. In a few days they'll go into the refrigerator and they'll both be gone in a week or two. Maybe three.

Sweet ginger pickles

The cucumbers were purchased from a really cool Greek neighborhood grocery and butcher. A boutique. Nearly like Whole Foods except a lot less expensive. I bought half the bin, a full plastic grocery bag. Cost: $17.something. They were perfect. And they taste good as raw cucumbers. I kept telling myself, what if I'm filling the jars and I'm short just 1, 2, 3 cucumbers? Stop eating them, they have purpose.

10 Cups sugar

6 Cups vinegar

1 teaspoon Britany sea salt

2 big fat honking hands of ginger, thinly sliced to paper thinness on the mandolin. That was fun.

1/2 jar allspice berries.

1 bay leaf for each jar

I was supposed to add onion slices but I forgot.

Tasted the syrup and was satisfied. It will do very nicely.

Cucumbers soaked and rinsed. They weren't so nearly dirty as they look in the first photograph. Nothing came off of them.

Quartered lengthwise and generously salted and left to weep their liquid for, oh, say an hour or so.

Rinsed again.

Soaked in packed ice water in the sink. A full 10 LB bag of ice. For several hours, I'm guessing four, possibly five.

Ate a few more cucumber quarters.

Syrup brought to a boil again, cucumbers added and boiled until they changed color to translucent. Then jarred. The jars filled to just 1/2 inch below the rim. At this moment they're cooling down. They'll go directly into the refrigerator.

There is nothing here to guarantee shelf life. They must be consumed fairly quickly and I have no doubt I can do that.