Sous Vide Flavor-Packed Pickles Recipe | Sur La Table (2024)

Ingredients

  • Fruits or vegetables, any, as needed
  • Brine, see options below, as needed
  • Seasonings, any, as needed

  • Savory Pickling Brine:
  • 400g Vinegar, white wine
  • 400g Water
  • 80g Sugar, granulated
  • 20g Salt

  • Sweet Pickling Brine:
  • 400g Vinegar, white wine
  • 400g Water
  • 265g Sugar, granulated

Procedure

This recipe was designed for use with the Joule Sous Vide by Chef Steps.

Set water to 140°F / 60°C

Inspect and clean your jars: As any canner worth his handmade raspberry preserves will tell you, it’s important to inspect your jars before you go a-pickling. If you see any of the following issues, you need new jars: cracks or chips in the glass, bent or warped lids, food residue or anything else on the lids—you want those clean, chipped or banged-up rubber on the lid

Pick your brine: Broadly speaking, you want to use a savory brine for vegetables and a sweet one for fruit.

Prep ingredients: Peel or chop away rinds, stems, or any other parts of the future pickles that you don’t want to eat. Rinse fresh herbs.

Put it all in a jar: Transfer fruits and veggies, along with any seasonings, to your jars, taking care not to overfill them. The food and seasonings should be able to float around freely. Food should reach no higher than about 0.75 in (2 cm) below the lid. Add brine, stopping when the liquid level is about half an inch (1 cm) from the top of the jar.

Close jars until "fingertip tight": Place the lid on the jar. Twist the lid until "fingertip tight," meaning just barely closed and still possible to open with your fingertips. To close the jars fingertip tight, place the lid on top of the jar, then twist the band to tighten using just your fingertips. When you begin to feel resistance, twist once in the opposite direction, then once more in the original direction to tighten. Closing the jars until fingertip tight means that air will be able to escape from the jars when you submerge them in water. If you close them too tightly, the trapped air will press against the glass and could crack or break your jars.

Cook for 2½ hours: Lower jars into the heated water carefully. Walk away! Joule will watch over your fruits and veggies, so you can go pickle your liver at the bar while they pasteurize.

Rest at room temp: After two and a half hours, remove your pickles from the water and allow them to rest overnight on the counter. CAUTION: Do not submerge the jars in ice water for rapid chilling—they may well shatter if you do.

Pucker up!: You can now start chomping on yo’ pickles or store them in a clean, cool, dark place for up to six months.

By ChefSteps

Ingredients

  • Fruits or vegetables, any, as needed
  • Brine, see options below, as needed
  • Seasonings, any, as needed

  • Savory Pickling Brine:
  • 400g Vinegar, white wine
  • 400g Water
  • 80g Sugar, granulated
  • 20g Salt

  • Sweet Pickling Brine:
  • 400g Vinegar, white wine
  • 400g Water
  • 265g Sugar, granulated

Procedure

This recipe was designed for use with the Joule Sous Vide by Chef Steps.

Set water to 140°F / 60°C

Inspect and clean your jars: As any canner worth his handmade raspberry preserves will tell you, it’s important to inspect your jars before you go a-pickling. If you see any of the following issues, you need new jars: cracks or chips in the glass, bent or warped lids, food residue or anything else on the lids—you want those clean, chipped or banged-up rubber on the lid

Pick your brine: Broadly speaking, you want to use a savory brine for vegetables and a sweet one for fruit.

Prep ingredients: Peel or chop away rinds, stems, or any other parts of the future pickles that you don’t want to eat. Rinse fresh herbs.

Put it all in a jar: Transfer fruits and veggies, along with any seasonings, to your jars, taking care not to overfill them. The food and seasonings should be able to float around freely. Food should reach no higher than about 0.75 in (2 cm) below the lid. Add brine, stopping when the liquid level is about half an inch (1 cm) from the top of the jar.

Close jars until "fingertip tight": Place the lid on the jar. Twist the lid until "fingertip tight," meaning just barely closed and still possible to open with your fingertips. To close the jars fingertip tight, place the lid on top of the jar, then twist the band to tighten using just your fingertips. When you begin to feel resistance, twist once in the opposite direction, then once more in the original direction to tighten. Closing the jars until fingertip tight means that air will be able to escape from the jars when you submerge them in water. If you close them too tightly, the trapped air will press against the glass and could crack or break your jars.

Cook for 2½ hours: Lower jars into the heated water carefully. Walk away! Joule will watch over your fruits and veggies, so you can go pickle your liver at the bar while they pasteurize.

Rest at room temp: After two and a half hours, remove your pickles from the water and allow them to rest overnight on the counter. CAUTION: Do not submerge the jars in ice water for rapid chilling—they may well shatter if you do.

Pucker up!: You can now start chomping on yo’ pickles or store them in a clean, cool, dark place for up to six months.

Sous Vide Flavor-Packed Pickles Recipe | Sur La Table (2024)

FAQs

Do sous vide pickles need to be refrigerated? ›

Since the process of cooking will essentially pasteurize your pickles they are safe to store in the pantry until use.

How to make pickles without botulism? ›

Making sure enough vinegar is added to the cucumbers is important to make safe pickles; Clostridium botulinum can grow in improperly canned, pickled foods with a pH higher than 4.6. It is critical to use scientifically tested recipes for making pickles to ensure their safety.

How to hotpack pickles? ›

For a Hot Pack

Add cucumbers and heat slowly until vinegar mixture returns to boil. Stir occasionally to make sure vinegar mixture heats evenly. Fill sterile jars with cucumbers and add hot pickling syrup, leaving ½ inch of headspace.

Can I use a sous vide for canning? ›

Different vegetables have different water contents, different densities, and therefore different needs for canning. While it seems that sous-vide canning is safe enough for most high-acid cucumber pickles, it may not work as well for pickled carrots or green beans.

What happens if pickles are not refrigerated? ›

Like most other foods, pickles should be left out on the counter for no more than two hours. Despite being preserved in brine, bacteria can still form in the pickle jar. Even in two hours, pickles' texture can start to change. Warm temperatures cause pickles to soften and lose their crunchy texture.

What temperature is sous vide canning? ›

Anywhere from 140 degrees for two hours, to 190 degrees for thirty minutes.

How do you know if homemade pickles have botulism? ›

You cannot see, smell, or taste botulinum toxin – but taking even a small taste of food containing this toxin can be deadly.
  1. The container spurts liquid or foam when you open it.
  2. The food inside is discolored, moldy, or smells bad.
Jun 6, 2019

What temperature kills botulism toxin? ›

2. Botulism spores die at 250 F. 3. Botulisum toxin that is the cause of the disease dies at 185 F (below boiling) or boiling for 10min.

Can botulism be killed by cooking? ›

How can botulism be prevented? Only cooking or boiling food destroys botulinum toxin. Freezing does not destroy the toxin. If you prepare or eat traditionally prepared Alaska Native foods, the food safety tips below may decrease your risk of botulism.

What is the difference between hot pack and cold pack pickles? ›

“Raw Pack” is used interchangeably with “Cold Pack” and refers to putting uncooked food into a jar to which a hot liquid is added. “Hot Pack” means food is cooked to some degree before it is put into jars for processing. “Hot Pack” may require less processing time, since the food is already partially cooked.

What kind of vinegar is best for pickles? ›

Most pickle recipes call for distilled white vinegar. This is the clear, colorless vinegar made by fermenting grains. It has a mellow aroma, tart acid flavor and does not affect the color of light-colored vegetables or fruits.

What is the difference between hot pack and raw pack pickles? ›

Recommendations: Which to choose, raw pack or hot pack

Use the hot-pack method, especially with acid foods to be processed in boiling water rather than a pressure canning method. The Raw pack method is fine for pickles and for vegetables to be processed in a Pressure Canner.

What should not be sous vide? ›

Produce that no longer looks completely fresh or already smells strange is, of course, no longer suitable for the sous vide procedure. This particularly applies to fish and meat that is cooked at relatively low temperatures.

Is there a limit to how long you can sous vide? ›

So long as you're cooking at above 130°F, there are no real health risks associated with prolonged sous vide cooking. You will, however, eventually notice a difference in texture. For best results, I don't recommend cooking any longer than the maximum recommended time for each cut and temperature range.

How long can pickles sit unrefrigerated? ›

Despite what you may have heard, pickles in a jar do indeed go bad. According to Can It Go Bad?, an unopened jar of unrefrigerated pickles can sit on a room-temperature shelf out of direct sunlight for 2 years. Once opened, the pickles can spoil, but this process is slower than with other perishable foods.

Can you refrigerate food after sous vide? ›

Foods cooked sous vide and refrigerated in the sealed bags they were cooked in have a longer shelf life than foods that were cooked and transferred to a different container. You can refrigerate cooked, properly cooled foods in their unopened sous vide bags up to 10 days.

Do kosher pickles have to be refrigerated? ›

Our Kosher Dills, Dill Relish and Sauerkraut are naturally fermented products and cured in salt water brine using a lacto-fermentation process. While salt brine will keep food safe for consumption for a little while without refrigeration, the cold keeps the crunch!

Can pickles last unrefrigerated? ›

First of all, let's address another subject — unopened pickles and how long they last. When canned and sealed properly, an unopened jar sitting on a pantry shelf, basem*nt, dry place or anywhere at room temperature will last for 2 years or beyond.

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