Lacto Fermented Kosher Dill Pickles

Here is the link to Kenjis recipe that is posted online, much different from the one on his show, but to each their own!

– Link on serious eats website – – Link to Kenjis Video –

Inspired by Kenji Lopez-Alt I am currently attempting to make Lacto Fermented Pickles in my storage room. I began my love of pickles starting with Costco’s Kosher Baby Dills, graduating to a home made 2 week pickle recipe that I will detail at a later date, and now giving my shot with fermentation; not just for alcohol any more!

I got some small cucumbers from a local farmers market, wasnt quite sure the difference between these guys and the cucumbers with the more bumpy skin, but if anyone wants to enlighten me or recommends the others I am happy to switch if they are better. Cut the tips off as it is thought to make the resultant pickles crispier? Seems like the right thing to do so you aren’t eating the knobs in the end anyway.

Cover the pickles with cold water so that they are fully covered. Using a scale to measure the weight of water that was added we can calculate how much salt is needed to be added; the recipe recommends 3% salt solution.

Ex. There was 5kg of pickles and water in the container, That means 150 Grams of salt would be needed, and I round down a little as pickles aren’t 100% water = 140 g of salt

Calcium Chloride was also recommended to keep the pickles crisp and is also used in wine and beer making as you can see from the picture. 1/4 teaspoon per litre.

Fun science fact – 1 litre of water weighs 1kg and occupies a space of a box with the dimensions 10 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm so 1 ml of water is equal to 1 g and occupies the space of 1 cm^3

Add bay leafs, pepper corns, crushed garlic and skins. Fresh dill was recommended but as I did not have any I am using dill weed as well as dill seed (I have read that most of the flavour coming from dill pickles comes from the seed of the herb, not the traditional green weed).

Thats it thats all…..well for a couple weeks. The bag on top you see is filled with brine and placed over top of the container to seal any air from getting to the pickles and effecting the fermentation and causing mould. Brine is used in case a leak is sprung for any reason it will not dilute the solution.

Excited to see how this turns out, and will post updates as well as taste tests.