Erf. This has never happened to me before. Blue garlic? Yah. Squishy
cukes? Check. Holes in cukes? Roger, dodger.

But something happened to this jar of salt-brined pickles. Fermented as
normal, within 3 days, yesterday was day 4. Got up this morning to find
two of 'em had risen above brine and some of the brine was gone. Unless
the cats had taken off their gloves again...

Anyway, on the two cukes that had risen above brine and slightly dried
there's some whitish-grey spots and on the brine surface itself some
blue-grey.

I would figure between the saline environment and the lactic acid
formation mold couldn't occur and indeed it never has. So I'm puzzled
about two things:

how this could have happened, and do I have to throw out the whole jar?

B/

Brian Mailman ) writes:

> Anyway, on the two cukes that had risen above brine and slightly dried
> there's some whitish-grey spots and on the brine surface itself some
> blue-grey.

if the mold is on and above the surface it probably needs oxygen to
survive. what's below the surface is probably okay. I'd scoop the mould
off the surface and either clean or discard the spotted cukes and see what
happens. mabye also add more salt or vinegar to the solution.


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Brian Mailman ) writes:

> Anyway, on the two cukes that had risen above brine and slightly dried
> there's some whitish-grey spots and on the brine surface itself some
> blue-grey.

if the mold is on and above the surface it probably needs oxygen to
survive. what's below the surface is probably okay. I'd scoop the mould
off the surface and either clean or discard the spotted cukes and see what
happens. mabye also add more salt or vinegar to the solution.


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William R. Watt wrote:

> Brian Mailman ) writes:
>
>> Anyway, on the two cukes that had risen above brine and slightly dried
>> there's some whitish-grey spots and on the brine surface itself some
>> blue-grey.
>
> if the mold is on and above the surface it probably needs oxygen to
> survive. what's below the surface is probably okay. I'd scoop the mould
> off the surface and either clean or discard the spotted cukes and see what
> happens. mabye also add more salt or vinegar to the solution.

I'd have to add vinegar before more vinegar ... anyway, what I did
was what you said, scoop of the mold and see if it regrew. It didn't.
Brine tastes fine, cukes are not slimy/slippery.

Emergency over, I think. Was just weird.

B/