Gartopf Fermented Pickles

This is my 10L Gartopf fermenting crock. I've been using these now for several years after doing research and learning that these are the traditional vessels used for making sauerkraut and pickles in Germany and Austria.  I'm sure any old ceramic crock will do and I am antiquing around town in order to locate some of the awesome local crocks from Red Wing, but until then, these are my go-tos. They are sturdy, steady and quite heavy so keep that in mind if you do decide to start pickling this way. 

The nice thing about these crocks is that their lids are specially designed to let the gases escape and of course, since they are covered, bacteria can't get in.  The deep well on the outside is filled with water once the lid is in place and a little hole or gasket that sits above the water line releases any excess gas while the fermentation is in full swing. 

Fatalii, Red Congos, Purira, Punjab, White Habanero
Jalapeno Chili Peppers

If I had to guess, I would say this was around 7 or 8 lbs of homegrown very fresh peppers, picked from our pepper plants that same day.  From here you add the fresh peppers to the crock above and I admit this one is a little full so they will have to be pressed down somewhat so that the stone weights, which the vessels come with, will fit in and keep the peppers submerged in the pickling brine. This is extremely important if you do not want your peppers to rot. That can happen when the peppers are allowed to float on top of the brine and then, you run the risk of spoiling the whole batch.

We put the stones in top, then pour the pickling liquid in so that it covers the stones completely. Put the lid on top and wait about six weeks for the fermentation to stop. The vessel will start "burping" almost immediately so if you smell something funny, don't blame your neighbor, they didn't do it, honest. :)

The standard pickling brine I use for cucumber pickles and pickled peppers is the following:

• 2 cups warm water, not hot
• 2 tbsp white vinegar (I love fancy, but not here, this needs to be standard white vinegar)
• 1 tbsp kosher salt

Repeat this exact measurement as many times as you need to completely cover the stones and peppers. My 10L needs about 6 repeats and 5L about 5. Don't ask me why, doesn't make sense to me why you don't need twice as much for the 10L but I have repeated this enough times to know that you need one more batch more than the 5L, usually.

Shocked? So was I.  But this is the perfect ratio for creating a natural pickling brine that isn't overloaded with vinegar or salt. It will work, trust me. The pickle flavor or the acid you are looking for will be there, I assure you, but it will develop naturally and allow you to store these pickles without hot packing BUT you will need to refrigerate them temporarily to stop the fermentation process. I learned this the hard way when a bottle of recent hot sauce nearly exploded at the kitchen table because we forgot to put it back in the refrigerator just after bottling it.  We put our hot sauce in medicinal dripper bottles because the dropper is the perfect way to distribute really, really hot sauce in moderation. Well, the rubber dropper on top turned into a big round bulbous balloon that was funny at first.

In an attempt to alleviate the pressure, hubby wanted to put it in the fridge. Due to recent events in which other things blew up my fridge, I was a little wary of this idea and insisted he put it outside where temperatures were already quite nippy.  Well, as you might expect during the day, the temps climbed and we forgot to take it back in. It alerted us by exploding with such a force that it literally shot hot sauce to the soffits of our roof, much to my dismay. Alas, putting it in the fridge may have been more prudent but don't tell him that.... :)

After these are done, we take them out of the brine then run it all through a juicer and the hot sauce will surprise you. Of course, you can also pack them into jars to brighten the day when the mood strikes if pickled peppers is more your thing. Just be careful and do your homework so you know exactly how to process fermented food as I'm still a novice (no? really??) myself. Experiment but arm yourself with a bit of google research so I don't lead you astray. But, above all, have fun!