• Food scale - Really the one thing you cannot do without. Everything we do will be measured by weight. 

• Non-Chlorinated Water - Chlorine kills bacteria, and for this situation we want the bacteria. If you're on city water either use bottled water or fill cup with water and let it sit out overnight to let the chlorine dissipate. 

• Non-Iodized Salt - Make sure to get sale without iodine in it. The iodine will give your pickles a weird taste. You also don't need to break out the fancy pink salt or anything like that. Just some natural sea salt will be find. 

• Fermentation vessel - You have wiggle room here. I used the glass jar in the pic. You could really use any food-grade material that will allow you to submerge your vegetables. You could also use an old salsa or sauce jar. 

• Fermentation weight - For me, this is the glass disk on the left side of the pic. You just need something that will hold the food below the waterline. You can also use a ziplock back. Put some water in one corner of the bag, then lower it into the jar to hold the food down. The CO2 will be able to escape around the sides of the bag. 

• Lid with vent - The lactobacillus bacteria will release CO2 during this process. We need a way for that gas to escape. I'm using the blue silicone lid in the bottom left of the pic. There are a few options out there. If you use a regular mason jar lid, just be sure that gas can escape or that you "burp" the jar regularly. If gases build up too much your vessel may explode. 

• Bowl - We need to dissolve our salt in water. While we could do that in the jar, there is a risk of bruising our vegetables since we need to mix the water really well. As you'll see in the process pics below, I mix my salt and water in a separate bowl then pour the water back in. 

Whatever you are using to ferment in, put that on the scale. Zero out (tare) the scale. Personally, I like to switch my scale from pounds/ounces to grams. It makes for easier math in a later step where we create our salt brine. More about that in a bit. 

Put everything in your jar: Vegetables, spices, herbs, etc. Once the jar is full, add enough water to cover your vegetables. Remember to leave room for your fermentation weight! The reading on the scale should include everything that's in the jar, just not the jar itself. 

It's just a little math, I promise. We need to create our brine. Start off with making a 2.5% brine. If you want a stronger pickle, next time try bumping it up to 3% or even 3.5%. We do this based on the weight in the last step. In this example, the vegetables, herbs, and water came out to be 730 grams, and I want a 2.5% brine. So...

730 * .025 = 18.25g of salt. I'm going to just do 18g since my scale doesn't do decimal points for grams. Again, take the weight of everything in the jar and multiply it by your desired brine percentage. 

_____ * .025 = Weight of salt. 

Now, pour the water out of the jar into a bowl, put the bowl on the scale, and zero it out. Add your salt until you reach the desired amount. 

We needed 18g of salt to get our 2.5% brine for this project, and here it is. I added the salt and then stirred until it was fully dissolved. 

Pour your 2.5% salt brine back into the jar, add in your fermentation weight, then make sure everything is below the water line. That last part is very important! Anything above the water risks mold. Once everything is below the water line put on your lid. That's it!

Over the next few days CO2 bubbles will start to form and the water will get cloudy. Cloudy water is totally normal and expected. 

Around the 3-4 day mark, take a piece out and test it. If you like the taste, congrats! You're done. Otherwise, let it keep fermenting and test again after another day or two. The pickle taste get stronger and stronger. I like mine around a week old. 

Once you are happy with the taste, move to the fridge. You can use a regular jar lid at this point as fermentation will slow when it's cold. These will store for at least six months. 

There are a couple things that can cause your ferment to not turn out correctly. Some are harmless, and others are not. 

There are two criteria when determining the issue: color and texture. If what you see is any color other than white, you have mold. That's the end of the story for that ferment. There is no fixing mold, and mold does carry health risks. Don't chance it, throw it out, clean everything really well, and start over.
If what you see is all white, then you need to look at the texture. If it is flat, you have kahm yeast. While the yeast is harmless, it will give your ferment a weird flavor. If you catch it early enough, you can scoop it out with a spoon. However, prevention is MUCH easier. Prevent mold and yeast by making sure everything is clean, you're using fresh produce, and everything stays under water. 

The top picture to the left shows mold. Not only is it fuzzy instead of flat, there is a green color in the middle. Remember, any color other than white and you have mold. 

The bottom image shows advanced kahm yeast. This one is probably past the point of saving. Howver, notice how it is flat and totally white.