This is my recipe for fermented grape leaf pickles. They are a must during the summer for some salty deliciousness!!
First step is to pick your cucumbers. You will need small to medium size. Don't put extra large cucumbers because they may end up hollow in the middle and take up too much space that can be used for better cucumbers. Make sure to wash them thoroughly and get all the little stickers off them.
I just added this one because it was neat and a Siamese cucumber...lol
You will need a crock. The one I use is a small 2 gallon crock but you can go bigger if you have more cucumbers to do at a time. I did several different batches over the summer in a small crock.
Put some water in the crock and then enough salt to float an egg. Yes that is correct, you need to have enough salt to float an egg to make them brine correctly. They will be very salty when finished but if your like me then you will love them. You may hear them called salt pickles or grape leaf pickles.
Supposedly the gape leaves help with the crispness of the pickles. I go by what my parents and grandparents did and that's good enough for me!!
In this batch I added some dill just to put a spin on it. I also started off with my pickles to see how many I had and put water in to cover. I took them out and then added the water back and salt before putting the pickles and grape leaves in so the measurement of water and salt would be correct.
Put a good size saucer to cover the cucumbers and a gallon jug with water to weight it down. The cucumbers will float but they need to stay completely covered in the brine.
When all steps are complete cover and put in a cool dark place. I put mine in the basement and wrapped it with a large towel. Every few days you need to check them. Scoop off the scum from the surface and I always test them to make sure they are coming along okay. They should ferment for around 14 days or longer. After they are pickled you can wash the salt off and put them in the refrigerator or even can them. I canned some but I would not recommend it. They are better fresh. This is something I look forward to every summer!!
