>>513 Related question: how can you tell when pickled food has gone bad? I have snapple bottles filled with hot sauce I made, which is basically pickled pepper puree, and I've been eating the opened one for a little over a year now.

>>518 Depends on a variety of things. Did you boil the bottles and caps to kill any germs? How much vinegar and salt did you use? Do you refrigerate after use? Pickles w/ a vacuum seal in your situation ought to be fine, but in normal snapple bottles it's more risky. The only way to tell aside from taste is if you feel sick afterwards I suppose.

>>519 >Did you boil the bottles and caps to kill any germs? Yes >How much vinegar and salt did you use? No salt and maybe 1.5 parts vinegar to 1 part peppers after cooking them down. >he only way to tell aside from taste is if you feel sick afterwards I suppose. No definitive because they are pretty intense peppers. I did share a bottle with coworkers that had been open for about 6 months and got good reviews but no reports of sickness. >Do you refrigerate after use? I refrigerate right after bottling actually.

>>513 I tend to just assume any pickled food is going to be fine: that's the fucking reason pickling was invented and you're keeping it in a fridge on top of the pickling. Kimchi I'd possibly be a bit warier of.

>>521 >1.5 parts vinegar to 1 part peppers Quick search online says 2/3 vinegar to 1/3 water for a safe acidic solution. Bump it up by 0.5 and I guess you'd be fine.

>>513 Does brining fresh olives count as pickling, or merely processing? I'm Currently doing that now using the freshwater soak method to leech out the bitterness.

>>518 >Related question: how can you tell when pickled food has gone bad? With canning you can get botulism if there is not enough acidity. If you did not can, or canned with adequate acidity, if they smell and taste fine they should be safe to eat.

>>729 Doesn't pickling specifically require an acid? Brining would tehnically be salting.

>>731 >Doesn't pickling specifically require an acid? Brining would tehnically be salting. When you pickle with just salt you get lactic acid fermentation, providing acidity. This is how all picking was done traditionally. Using vinegar for pickling only started with canning. Canning kills all bacteria instead of using it to your advantage as with fermented pickles. Vinegar is used instead of fermenting because it is more easily industrialized. Canning is used because it makes it completely shelf stable. Fermented pickles taste better, and don't have the harshness of the vinegar.

>>732 Neat. Genuinely didn't know that. >Fermented pickles taste better, and don't have the harshness of the vinegar. But I like the harshness.

>>734 >But I like the harshness. With fermented pickles you get a more complex taste from the fermentation. It is not that I dislike vinegar, but it is overpowering in pickles. Try making sauerkraut. You can make a small batch in a mason jar. All you need is cabbage and salt. It tastes completely different than the vinegar stuff.

>>735 >Try making sauerkraut. You can make a small batch in a mason jar. All you need is cabbage and salt. It tastes completely different than the vinegar stuff. I'll take a shot at it next time I actually have cabbage in. How long does it take to ferment and how careful do I need to be with keeping the jar clean beforehand? Also what salt to cabbage ratio? I know I could google a recipe but more often than not that'll just turn up hundreds of contradictory links.

>>736 >I'll take a shot at it next time I actually have cabbage in. How long does it take to ferment and how careful do I need to be with keeping the jar clean beforehand? Also what salt to cabbage ratio? I know I could google a recipe but more often than not that'll just turn up hundreds of contradictory links. How long you let it ferment depends on temperature, amount of salt, and personal preference. Keep tasting and see when you like it. Somewhere around 1-3 weeks for a jar sized batch. Put it in the fridge when you think it is ready. You don't need to be careful with cleaning the jar. I use 2% salt by weight. It is best that the salt does not have any additives.