Pickling Beets , Watermelon Rinds, Sausage Links, And More...

I have been practicing the art of preserving by pickling and fermenting fruits and vegetables. You can pickle or ferment almost anything. Eating foods preserved by these methods is beneficial for health, particularly gut and immune health. 

I am only going to write about pickling in this post. Keep an eye out for a future post on fermenting. I  make small batches, so no canning is involved. I use a sweet brine for pickling. I use different vegetables and spices to change the flavors. Omit sugar for regular brine. 

Basic Sweet Brine

1 C Water

1 C Vinegar 

1 C Sugar ( I have used 1/2 C of sugar and it has worked just as well)

1 Tbs Salt

1/2 Tsp Spices

Simmer on medium heat in a saucepan until salt and sugar are dissolved stirring constantly. Let cool. Pour brine over prepared fruits or vegetables until covered. Press down to remove excess air and add more brine if needed. Seal and place in the refrigerator for at least four days before using. This makes enough brine for about a quart and a half of preserves. I may double or triple the recipe depending on the size of the batch I am doing. Only use glass jars or crocks for pickling and fermenting. 

These are my pictures from different pickling preserves that I have made over time using the same sweet brine recipe with different ingredients and spices. Some common spices that I use are pepper flakes, pickling spice, cilantro, garlic, coriander, ginger, peppercorns and hot sauce. These spices are just some of the ones that we have tried so far. 

I made eggrolls with the extra ingredients. The pictures are below.

I bought the beets from Misfits Market in my last order.

Wear gloves when processing beets or you will have stained hands.

I cooked the beets until they were just fork tender.

I used a pickling spice.

I can't remember where I bought this. I think it was through Wal-Mart, but not from Wal-Mart. 

The beets are steaming. I cooled the beets off until they were warm before continuing with the recipe.

I cut them in random pieces, but consistent sizes.

With the same brine I pickled some beef sausages. I added about 1/2 cup of hot sauce to the jar.

These guys are addicting. Serve with crackers.

Beautiful colors. Save the beet juice for pickling eggs. See my egg pickling post.

I had a  very small amount of brine leftover from a batch of pickled watermelon rinds, so I pickled some beef sausages that I had in the fridge.

I think that we already ate one at this point.

Here are the eggrolls that I made from the batch above.

I found the before picture of the beets.

I eat the preserves on salad instead of dressing and with almost every meal.

I found an "end of the season" watermelon. 

I bagged up the sweet red center and we ate bowls of it for days.

This was not an easy chore.

This was the perfect watermelon. It had a very thin rind.

Be sure and leave some red on the rind.

This is a gallon jar that we re-purposed. The nuts were awesome!

Peppercorns, coriander seeds and red pepper flakes. 

There is always something to pickle in the fridge with the leftover brine. If not make a tangy salad dressing, marinade or save it for your next pickling adventure.

Enjoy,

Mrs. Smith