“Crossing Delancey” Christmas Day Screening

What you’ll need:

• Gallon glass jar
• 3lbs of Kirby cucumbers
• Fresh Flowering Dillweed
• Fresh Dill
• 2 liters of cold water
• 85grams of kosher salt
• 6 cloves of peeled garlic
• 3 teaspoons of whole coriander seeds
• 3 teaspoons of black peppercorn
• 5 bay leaves
• 5 whole cloves
• 2 slices of lemon
• Optional: Fennel stalks, fennel seeds, ginger, caraway seeds, mustard seeds, juniper seeds, anything you like!

Here’s what you do:

1. Run your gallon glass jar through the dishwasher at high heat twice to sterilize it. You can also boil it.
2. Wash your cucumbers and soak in an ice bath for 30minutes
3. In a saucepan, pour in 2 liters of water and add in all your kosher salt, bay leaves, cloves, black peppercorn, coriander seeds, and garlic. Bring to a quick boil and then turn off heat. Leave to cool off until your brine reaches room temperature. Make sure to dissolve all the salt by stirring the mixture.
4. In your glass jar we are going to start layering the pickles. Start by putting your flowering dillweed and fresh dill on the bottom followed by some cucumbers. Repeat this step until all the cucumbers are in the jar.
5. Carefully ladle or pour you brine into the jar until its filled all the way up. Tip: give your jar a strong yet careful shaking to make sure all the air bubbles rise to the top. Tip: save some extra brine for later.
6. Place your two lemon slices on top of the brine. Make sure your cucumbers are packed in tight and can remain submerged in the brine.
7. Close lid tightly and leave at room temperature to ferment (70-75 degrees is ideal).
8. After 3-5 days, open your jar, remove the lemons and anything that came to the top (i.e foam). Tip: if you noticed that your brine level has dropped a bit, just add in some of the leftover brine you saved from earlier.
9. Close lid and put in the fridge for about 7 days.
10. Eat and enjoy.