On 9/14/2010 3:02 PM, Beti wrote:
> My garden didn't produce enough cucumbers at one time to make a full
> canner load of pickles so I just made a few jars each of dill, bread
> and butter and sweet pickles and put them in the fridge to develop. I
> used fresh-pack recipes from BBB and SETP rather than fermented. The
> flavor is mostly okay after a month or so but a good number of them
> seem to have a bitter aftertaste. Not spoiled but just bitter.
>
> A friend mentioned that he doesn't like pickling cucumbers for fresh
> eating since the peel is bitter. I also read on a gardening site that
> too little water can make cucumbers bitter. This seems like the
> mostly likely explanation.

I've had the same problem with drought affected cukes, the skins get
tough and bitter tasting, even when raw, invariably they don't make good
pickles.
>
> Has anyone has similar results?
>
> And what's the difference between fermented and fresh-pack? I mean
> flavor- and texture-wise? If I've even ever eaten them, I didn't know
> it. Are store-bought pickles more likely to be fermented? I
> understand the two different processes but I could quite work up the
> nerve to try fermented this year - got a little squicked at the "skim
> the scum off the top" part! :-)
>
> Thanks!
>
> Beti

Just as you wrote it, fermented are actually put through a brined
fermentation process, fresh-pack are put up raw. As for store-bought
pickles, some are fermented, some are fresh-pack, the label will tell
you which they are. I don't ferment pickles because, in my climate, they
will go off every time and that has been my experience.

Boy, if you were a little squicked at the "skim the scum" part you would
go wild fermenting hot chiles for hot sauce. <G> A lot of the folks that
read this newsgroup buy their pickles but many of us do grow our own and
weather will nearly always affect your product. That's why I built a
special watering system for our small veggie garden, this was a bad
drought year for us. I put up several jars of fresh-pack pickles that
came out okay, thank goodness. Keep trying Beti, sooner or later
everything will click. One note, if the freshly harvested cukes have a
bitter taste it will carry over into the pickle.