Fermenting Cucumbers: Making Israeli Pickles

Fermenting cucumbers is an easy way to preserve the summer harvest. In Israel, lacto-fermented cucumbers are basically Israeli pickles, the ones I grew up consuming by the gallon. let me show you how to make Israeli pickles!

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There are so many ways to make pickles. Honestly, I didn’t know that there were so many ways to preserve cucumbers and make pickles until I landed here in the U.S. back in 2005. In my home country, Israel, we mostly eat pickles in brine (fermented cucumbers) and some people also like pickles that are preserved in a mixture of salt and vinegar but that’s it. They are the only two kinds. 

I was amazed to find out that you can make sweet pickles and that there are so many different recipes for pickling cucumbers. So I got a bit excited and tried a few. I’d choose a different kind at the grocery store to find one that I liked so I could find and use a recipe for that kind of pickle to preserve my summer harvest. 

Fermenting Cucumbers: Making Israeli Pickles…

But… I just didn’t like any of them. I don’t like vinegar much and the sweet kind doesn’t sit well with me. The Hamburger pickles are probably the only kind I can eat but they don’t make me too excited. A normal person can’t live without pickles, I’m sure we all agree on that. So something had to be done. 

And so, I set out to recreate my childhood pickles which meant fermenting cucumbers. But that wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. The kinds of cucumbers they use in Israel for pickling is different than the kind we use here. Also, I’ve always just eaten them from a store-bought can, I didn’t have a family recipe to go by. 

I’ve tried all kinds of things and it took some experimenting but I think that I can now safely say that I’ve found my recipe. The recipe that produces fermented cucumbers just like the ones I grew up eating. And I am super happy to say that it’s simple and takes only minutes to put together. 

What is the Process of Lacto-Fermentation? 

Lacto-fermentation means preserving food by using a brine mixture (salt dissolved in water). The brine creates an anaerobic, acidic environment in which bad bacteria can’t grow, therefore, we are able to keep the food longer. 

The cool thing about lacto-fermentation is that it’s so simple! No boiling water baths, no special pressure pots or any special equipment is necessary. But maybe the best thing about lacto-fermentation is that in the process bacteria, probiotics, and enzymes that are beneficial to our digestive system are created so we actually increase the nutritional value of the food that we ferment.  

Tips For Success…

I am pretty sure that anyone who has ever fermented cucumbers will tell you that your success (crunchy and delicious pickles) depends on the cucumbers you start the process with. I am no different here. I grow my own pickling cucumbers and I recommend that you do the same. Here are a few tips…

• Grow a pickling variety – you can pickle slicing varieties, however, pickling varieties are better since they are smaller, firmer, and have thicker skin.
• Harvest small – harvest your pickling cucumbers when they are 3-4 inches long. Also, harvest in the cool morning hours.
• Pickle right away – if you have enough cucumbers to fill a jar, go ahead and ferment your cucumbers right away. The fresher they are, the better. Some say that it’s a good idea to keep your cucumbers in an ice bath until you can pickle them but I’ve never done that. If I can’t ferment my cucumbers right away, I keep them in the fridge.
• If you don’t grow your own – you can find a ton of pickling cucumbers at the local farmer’s market during the growing season. Make sure you choose the smaller ones and ask the farmer when they were picked. 

Ingredients…

This recipe makes a one-gallon jar of Israeli pickles.

• Pickling cucumbers – I can usually fit about 20-30 in a gallon jar depending on their size.
• 9 cloves of garlic – crushed but not peeled.
• 2 tablespoons Ball pickling spice
• 5 bay leaves
• 6 Japone chili peppers – or you can use other kinds or peppers like Cayenne or maybe Jalapeno.
• A few stems of fresh dill
• A couple of grape leaves – this is optional. Some say that grape leaves help the pickles stay crunchy longer.
• For the brine – use non-chlorinated water and non-iodized salt like canning salt, Kosher salt or sea salt. I like my pickles salty so I use one tablespoon of salt per one cup of water. You can do as little as one teaspoon of salt per one cup of water but no less.

Kitchen Tools…

• Measuring spoon
• 4-cup Measuring cup
• One gallon jar 
• Fermentation weights – please don’t be like me and promise yourself every season that you are going to get fermentation weights and never get them. Just get fermentation weights, they’ll make your life much easier. If you don’t have fermentation weights or you don’t want to get them, you can use a plastic wide mouth freezer lid as I did here (update – I finally got fermentation weights and my life will never be the same!).
• Fermentation lid – during the fermentation process gas is created. We need to let this gas out once a day. There are fancy fermentation lids that save us this work, but they are completely optional. It only takes a second to “burp” the jar (more on this later).

Should You Remove the Blossom End Before Fermenting Cucumbers?

Let’s focus on this question for a minute since there seem to be all kinds of opinions about it. A cucumber has two ends, the end with the stem (where it was connected to the plant) and the blossom end. Rumor has it in the U.S. that the blossom end contains enzymes that can cause the pickle to get mushy and therefore it is advised to remove it. I don’t know, people… I have never met a pickle in Israel that had this end removed and they were all perfectly crunchy.

However, if you are concerned about the blossom end, you have two options…

1. Remove it – simply cut the blossom end and then wash your cucumbers before fermenting them.
2. Blanch your cucumbers – bring a pot of water to a boil and add the cucumbers. Let them stay in the boiling water for 3 minutes before removing them right into an ice bath to stop the cooking. The boiling water will kill any enzymes. You can learn more about blanching in my blanching potatoes post.

I like to live on the edge though (and I am also a bit lazy but let’s not focus on that…) so I have to be honest and say that I simply wash my cucumbers with cold water and a sponge with a tiny bit of dish soap. I don’t remove the blossom end and I don’t blanch the cucumbers, ain’t nobody got time for that! And… My pickles always turn out great!

Watch Me Make Israeli Pickles…

How to Make Israeli Pickles Step by Step…

Step 1 – prepare the cucumbers. Start by washing the cucumbers and, if you want, remove the blossom end or blanch them.

Step 2 – Pack the jar. Make sure to wash the jar well and then pack it half way with cucumbers…

Next, add the garlic, peppers, and the rest of the seasonings…

Before adding more cucumbers to fill the jar. Make sure to leave a couple of inches of headspace so there is room for the fermentation weight.

Step 3 – add the brine. Prepare the brine by dissolving one tablespoon of salt for each cup of water and add to the jar. Keep adding brine until the jar is filled. Leave about an inch of headspace.

Now is the time to place the fermentation weight on top of the cucumbers. Since I didn’t have a fermentation weight, I used a plastic, wide-mouth freezer lid. I flipped it and placed it on the cucumbers. Pushed it down a bit and added a little more brine. This created a weight that kept the cucumbers under the brine which is what we want.

Step 4 – let the cucumbers ferment. Close the jar with its lid and place it on a plate. During the fermentation process some of the brine will spill out, the plate will catch it and save you some mess. Place the jar on the kitchen counter or somewhere at room temperature to ferment.

After a few days, you’ll notice that the brine becomes foggy and there is some bubble action close to the top of the jar. This just means that the fermentation process has begun! Remember to let the gas out, or in other words, to burp the jar. Once a day, twist the lid open, wait a few seconds, and twist it back to close the jar again. There is no need to open the jar all the way.

It takes a gallon jar about two weeks to finish fermenting. If you ferment cucumbers in a quart jar or half a gallon it will take less time. You’ll know when the fermentation process is done once the brine clears. It will never be as clear as it was at the beginning, but it will be much clearer than what it was during the fermentation process.

Storing Your Fermented Cucumbers… 

The best thing to do is to store your pickles in the fridge or in a cool root cellar. I usually transfer my jar to the fridge (since I don’t have a root cellar) and once we are halfway through it I start fermenting the next jar.

Make sure that you always use a clean fork to fish a cucumber from the jar and that the pickles stay under the brine even when the jar is stored in the fridge.

I came by this article from the National Center for Home Preservation that explains how to can fermented foods and it’s definitely something that I want to try. However, I won’t be able to do that with a gallon jar, I’ll have to use quart jars instead.

Serving Israeli Pickles…  

You can serve Israeli pickles just as you’d serve other kinds of pickles. I feel like they taste better when they are cold, so I let the jar chill a couple of days in the fridge before we open it. Here are a few serving ideas…

• Just serve these pickles as a healthy snack!
• Add them to an Israeli vegetable salad.
• Use them on a hamburger.
• Dice them and add to an egg salad or a tuna salad.
• Stick them in any kind of sandwich.
• Serve them as a side for fritters or a Mediterranean casserole.

Frequently Asked Questions…

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This is, hands down, my favorite way of preserving cucumbers! I really want to learn how to can those fermented cucumbers so I can always have jars and jars of them on the shelf. I hope that you’ll give this recipe a try and I hope that you find sour Israeli pickles tasty!

More Fermenting Tutorials…

• Lacto-Fermented Green Beans
• Fermenting Turnips
• Fermented Jalapenos
• Fermenting Beets
• Easy Fermented Radish

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