Red Jicama Pickles

[CulturedCascadian]

It's been some time since I've made a batch of pickles, but the spirit moved me last week since I had everything on hand to try a new experiment and I'm happy to report it came out spectacularly. Thought I'd share.

I had a fair amount of beet juice left over from another recipe, as well as a jicama root that I had no plans for, so here's what I came up with.

1 jicama, peeled and sliced into sticks
Beet juice
Salt enough to make it a brine
2 tbls. vinegar
Pickling spice
2-3 tbls neutrally-flavored brine from another ferment
1 tsp sugar

Put the pickling spice, salt, and vinegar in the beet juice, bring it to a boil, let it come down to room temperature, and strain it.

Into the mason jar with the bacteria-rich brine from another ferment, the sugar, the jicama sticks, and finally the beet juice fresh brine over all. Seal it and wait a few days.

After three days on the kitchen counter, in this very mild weather, it is fizzing like champagne. Having tasted it yesterday, I love it!

Something about the firm spongey texture of the jicama root manages to trap the carbonation within the pickles themselves, so when you bite into and chew them there is a distinct sensation of fizz. The brine has permeated the vegetable completely, as it's gone from white to red all the way through. Delicious!

This is a very fast ferment and the small amount of vinegar lends it just enough tang right at the outset that you can start enjoying them quickly. For my next batch, I'll omit it in favor of straight-up lactic acid and a bit more time on the counter.

[JohnDulleck]

Sounds really delicious! And the internal fizz is intriguing!

As I don't have any beet juice available to me, I would probably do this as a 2 step ferment. First, make a small batch of beet kvass to use as both the beet juice and starter, and then follow your recipe for the rest.

I look forward to trying this one, thanks!