naturally fermented watermelon pickles are:

[snugglekitty]

1) Possible.
2) Delicious.

I could not find a single recipe online or in a book for naturally fermented watermelon pickles. I wanted to try making watermelon pickles, but I also wanted the health benefits of naturally fermented food! I persisted in believing they were possible. With a little help from The Joy of Pickling and a lot of help from mrpet, I have created a batch of these wonderfully sweet, tangy treats.



I used the seasoning list from The Joy of Pickling for Gingery Watermelon Pickles, except for the white vinegar, but I didn't use the recipe.

Rind of one large watermelon.
1 lemon
1 1/2 inch of fresh ginger.
2 cinnamon sticks, broken
1/8 c sugar
Other spices as specified in recipe
1 c live brine from a previous batch of pickles

So, first you prepare the rind. This goes great with bringing chopped watermelon to a barbecue or picnic. You cut the green stuff and the pink stuff off, so that only the white stuff (sometimes referred to as the watermelon's "dignity") remains. Warning - this is a time-consuming process! It will go much faster with a sharp knife, some peppy music, and a helper. Actually, I used two knives - a chopping knife for cutting the watermelon into pieces, and a slicing knife for removing the rind. You may wish to take a break after this step - if you put the rind in a Ziploc bag, it should refrigerate safely for a day or so.

Next, you should cook down the rind in a pot on the stove. Stir every few minutes until the rind is translucent. It will also shrink down a lot and give off tons of water. Now, put it in your pickle press with brine. Don't add any seasonings or live brine yet! The reason is, as I discovered, that these babies are going to give off a TON of water in the first 24 hours, and it could wind up getting diluted. After the first 24 hours, remove one to two cups of brine as needed, and replace with live brine. Add seasonings and sugar. Note: the lemon and live bring are VERY important because watermelons are not very acidic.



A few days later, you will have delicious watermelon pickles! Yum! I'm taking mine out tonight. They are sour and sweet and chewy!

Comments

[veek.livejournal.com]

Wait, why remove the green part? You can pickle that too!

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

In essence, because I wanted to keep as much of the recipe the same as in the book as possible, because I knew I had very little idea of what I was doing. :) In the future, I would be more confident about trying different things.

I am still curious about what you told me about pickling whole slices of watermelon. Don't they fall apart from compression or under hot vinegar?

[veek.livejournal.com]

Dunno! I've never actually done it, just eaten the stuff. And I'm not sure I've eaten it pickled in vinegar, much less hot vinegar -- it was probably brined.

[artemis44.livejournal.com]

Oh my goodness, I had pickled watermelon rind at my (swedish) family reunion in Minnesota one year as a child, and I have LOVED it ever since! I've bought it in the specialty aisle of stores, but it's always too sweet, too syrupy... still good, but not what I remembered from my family's big buffet table (er, smorgasbord, I suppose)

Of course, I am not a pickler, so this recipe is beyond me at the moment, but maybe someday I'll give it a try and carry on the family tradition! :)

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

It was actually very easy! I think you could manage it, er, once you have a little more free time on your hands. :)

Very interesting

[elkor.livejournal.com]

From your entries, pickled veggies seem to taste pretty damn.... well, tasty! Almost enough to tempt me to give it a shot myself.

But, I need another home-brew project like I need a new closet.

Which is what I'd need to take up another homebrew project.

Re: Very interesting

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

Heh! I'm amused that my pickling is tempting others. :) However, you may be able to find brined pickles in your area that you do not make yourself. A place like Whole Foods or Bread and Circus would have them. They seem to also be available at some delis and ethnic restaurants.

[bluepapercup]

Wow these sound delicious! I just ate a watermelon last night (sadly I threw away the rind) but I might have to take this project on later in the summer!!

[queen-of-wands.livejournal.com]

Now I am sad that I have composted watermelon rind. But not too sad, since I expect we'll eat more watermelon this summer.

I have a pickling question. You seem to be doing lots of research so maybe you can answer it or tell me what resource can? My household is trying to preserve our summer abundance for the leaner months. We made jam and heat treated the canning jars so it will last all year. I lacto-fermented some turnips and then just moved the jar into the fridge. It wasn't a very large jar and I figured it would get eaten up by the end of the summer. I currently have a bunch of sauerkraut fermenting on the counter. What I'm wondering about is whether wild fermentation makes sense if I want to preserve a quantity of food for fall or winter (or even spring). Can I heat treat jars of lacto-fermented veggies? If I heat treat them have I ruined their extra-goodness and I may as well have taken the short cut of just pickling them in vinegar and heat treating the jars and having the whole project done in an evening instead of several days? If I don't heat treat jars can I expect my pickles to last any more than several weeks in my fridge?

It seems like the preserving books I have and the Wild Fermentation book are making such totally different assumptions about goals in pickling that between them I still can't figure this one out.

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

This is a good question, and I'm sorry I couldn't get back to you sooner. My understanding is that heat kills the bacteria (that's why we use it in preserving) which ends some but not all of the awesomeness. I believe that eating the dead bacteria still has some health benefits, though I'm not sure where I read that. Sorry I don't have a more concrete answer, but my impression is that heat processing doesn't make live pickling the wrong answer.