"Cucumbers fermented in salt brine without added herbs or spices are called salt stock.They may be stored in the brine for several months and then made into sour or sweet pickles." I am curious about this statement from the Wisconsin booklet. They give no further specific information. I have an old canning book from the 1950's that also alluded to doing something like this. The reason I ask is that everyone raves about the wonderful taste of salt fermented pickles. I have tried making them several times using conventional directions like the dill pickle recipe in the Wisconsin booklet, and we found them very very salty. My old canning book talks about "desalting" the salt stock, them placing the cucumbers in a flavored/herbed brine (like something with dill) to finish the pickle. Anyone have more specific directions? Would this get me the taste of fermented pickles without the extremely salty taste? Our previous fermented pickles had a good taste and a pleasing crunch, but they were just so so so salty that we couldn't eat them. Sharon

Ball BLue Book is a basic, and does cover pickles of all types, as well as relishes. Its not a complex process to make pickles. I make vinegar based and half sour fermented salt brine types. Sweets usually call for dill, celery, and mustard seed as spices. Sweet mixed, call for a little ginger, clove, allspice, cinnamon, bay leaf, mustard seed, celery seed, and dill seed. Relishes are also fairly simple and use almost the same items, but minced cukes, and onions. There are not many 'don'ts' as far as I am concerned, but one definate 'do' is to taste the pickling brine prior to adding it to cukes. Also, pickling cukes are used, and should be VERY FRESH, like just picked from your garden. Using store bought cukes result in a softer pickle in some cases. To help the cukes to retain some crispness after a long term of canning, the use of Ball Pickle Crisp is a great help. It helps to buffer the acidic vinegar so it will not soften the cukes as quickly. Canning, and processing is done usually in a water bath, for the barest minimums in time indictated in recipes. Processing longer in high heat can only help to soften an otherwise crisp pickle. Pickles are made either by a raw pack of cukes in jars, or a salt brine soak overnight to remove some of the excess water inside the cukes. The latter can make a very salty pickle, unless the brine is made with less added salt, and the cukes are rinsed well. You can pickle peppers, onions, beets, carrots, cauliflower, and several other items like stringbeans, garlic cloves, and a host of other favorite combinations that are posted in these threads. Pickle making might be called a 'science' to an inexperienced beginner, but after a few batches and maybe a possible failure, the 'science' turns into common sense.

I'd guess the age was the principal factor. Cucumbers have such a high water content they become unsuitable for canning very quickly. Two other factors are not trimming off the blossoming end (which contains softening enzymes) and over-scrubbing the cucumbers which damages the skin and can allow spoilage organisms to enter. Cucumbers need to be washed very gently. Overcooking might soften the pickles a bit, but not to the degree you mention. The bad flavor and downright mushiness tells me they were spoiled and excessive cooking just won't do that. I'm glad you're not giving up. It is a learning curve. One reason I buy cucumbers from a local grower is I can get a large amount picked in the morning and process everything that day. Unless you have a very large garden, that can be hard to manage with your own cukes. Carol

Alton Brown (Good Eats) also had a show that lised the meaurement of salt to water. 5.5 ounces of PICKLING salt to 1 gallon of water. Its very close to my tastiung method, and the amount in the link. You do not add any further salt initially, unless the brine has lost it due to dilution of the brine caused by unfresh pickling cukes, expelling too much water. The info link provided above is also useful for half sour pickles. But I wouldn't go as far as the highest salt to water ratio in a final brine as it may be a bit too salty for most people.