I am a fan of most any kind of pickle, but especially refrigerator pickles. Since it is asparagus season, I bought a bundle of about 2.50 pounds. I quickly found that I like these and should have bought 6 pounds and 4-quart canning jars(I quite like both Ball and Mason jars). The photo attached dos not give the asparagus credit but it is great on salad, with breakfast and potato salad. If you try the pickles, please let me know what you think and how you make them your own.
I recommend gathering the ingredients and your canning jars before you do anything with the asparagus. It makes prep and finishing the pickles easier and assures that you have enough ingredients to make several jars of pickles. I find that they will keep and stay crisp about 2 – 3 weeks while in the refrigerator.
Now the recipe:
2.5 – 3 Pounds fresh asparagus
4 Cups vinegar – I use 2 cups white wine vinegar and 2 cups apple cider vinegar. I prefer a slightly more acidic flavour, hence the mixed kinds of vinegar.
4 Cups water
4 Teaspoons kosher, non-iodized salt
4 Teaspoons honey 4 Tablespoons of sugar is an adequate substitution if you want the pickles to be overly sweet.
Brine:
1/2 Teaspoon cracked or hand ground black pepper
1/2 Teaspoon cracked or hand ground allspice
4 bay leaf
1/2 Teaspoon fennel seeds
1/4 Teaspoon cumin seed
2-4 sprigs fresh thyme for each jar
2 garlic cloves peeled and split for each jar
I like a pinch of dried basil for each jar
I combine the ingredients in a medium saucepan. I bring the mixture to a very low simmer for 10 minutes or until it reaches 200 degrees. Take it off the heat and let it cool until it reaches 100 degrees.
Most recipes recommend blanching the asparagus first. I find that I tend to over-cook the asparagus when I blanch it. I prefer to wash it thoroughly, while trimming the woody ends off and then packing the asparagus spears tops up in the quart jars, with two cloves of the garlic and two stems of thyme in each.
Now that you have the brine cooled and the jars packed, the brine can be added to the jars, sealed and put in the refrigerator. I recommend two days before you sample the pickles. For my taste, they are ready at about day 4 and get better until they are gone, which they always are in about ten days.
Here are my refrigerator pickles, let me know what you think of them.
DL
