Monday, December 17, 2012

Innuendo Pickle, Decanting Report

[edited for details]
Hola, Pickleers!  PEB n me just finished decanting the crock we set a'fermentin' last Monday. The kitchen smells heavenly, with a nice crispy earthy celery flavor added to the usual aromas (every time I stuck my nose in the crock tonight, I got that pleasing addition to the usual flavor profile of garlic, peppers, onions, and happy lil' buggies).

Before we get started on the after action report, it's really worth recounting our conversation tonight. He wanted to know what I was going to do with my share (add whole olives and call it a side dish or chop it up with olives and secret ingredients and call it tapenade) and what I thought of his projected use. He likes to keep a batch of giardiniera or escabeche going for months, throwing in olives, capers, banana peppers, and whatever else he comes across that fits. And he observed that the brine would change and age but inevitably develop a funk over time, above and beyond the fun crowding-in of flavors from all the stuff he'd added in.

What he's looking for is a way to enjoy what he's got with what he wants to add. The trick is knowing the limits of what's added. Olives are already fermented and I think capers are too, so they're okay with this treatment. Since it's fermented, our escabeche can last in the fridge for a couple years. Adding other ferment-preserved stuff doesn't change that any. If you want to add anything that isn't fermented, though, you'll want to 1. Start a new jar and keep your source material uncontaminated, and 2. Remember that adding non-fermented (i.e. perishable) items changes the amount of time this batch will keep from years to days, as in no more than 14 or 21- the salt, lactic acid, and vinegar will all act as decay retardants, so you can go beyond the recommended refrigeration period of 4-7 days but raw veggies (the banana peppers, for instance) will still go bad eventually.

So, we wound up with four gallons of well fermented Escabeche. The celery turned out great; I'd been afraid of slime like we'd gotten from the okra and nopales but, much to my pleasure, it turned out just as crisp as when we'd put it in. There was a bit of room left in the crock to work with (heh, it's labelled for three gallons), so, if I had a Genie, I'd wish another almost pound of  red bell peppers in there. The rest of the recipe/ratios are spot on- after continued tasting, there's a bit too much salt and garlic and could stand some more carrots, at least in my opinion. We got a bunch of pretty green through blue garlic cloves with this batch, say, ain't we supposed to be changing the name of this blog?

There was no moldy/mildewy growth above the waterline this time, none! I'm going to chalk that one up to minimizing airspace for it to grow in and carefully wiping down the crock walls (PB has gotten real good at this) and then inoculating them and the sealing bags with vinegar. This is a tiny detail in terms of product loss but it's a nice detail all the same, I'm glad we're progressing here.

The hybridized method I described in the last post turned out great! I think this is now my favorite method- the crock, oversized, foodsafe bags ("poly bags" about $25 for a case of 1000, if you've got access through a restaurant), the custom-cut cardboard helping the plate fill the space, and the jug of water weight. I double bagged, since they're thin and they jusssst fit this crock. With the bag in place, there's no need for a towel cover to keep the bugs out and a lot more leeway (with cardboard) in fitting a plate. And I've been given the go-ahead from the boss to add a box of these special bags to a regular stock order at work, so I'll soon have a thousand of them. Anybody want any?

In terms of timing, as it turned out, this was a five day ferment that worked out fine going through to seven days. With seasonal cheer and related cooking, the temperature in the fermenting cabinet (it's right next to the stove/oven) got up to 76 or so on the weekend. The crock was really ponging (as the Aussies say) Saturday and Sunday night, which tells us that we'd had a good, thorough ferment. This had me concerned, but it was good smells, not a putrefacient funk. We couldn't decant it then, so I opened the cabinet for ventilation and cranked up the A/C. Totally non-sustainable, I know, but it kinda put the brakes on the ferment.

Oh, Ranger Roo made a really good comment on the last post. You'll have to ask her if she's right...

Thursday, December 13, 2012

The Innuendo Pickle, or 11 Dec '12 Giardiniera/Escabeche


The Good Mr. Bertolino, ask him for a limerick!
Thanks to our beloved Ferment Fellows, we've enjoyed another great Pickle Party! We got together on Patrick's behalf, he's been itching for this specific batch for a while. We fine-tuned the recipe tonight, as well as our techniques.

We're still learning to use the mandolin, though the addition of a kevlar glove to the kit surely adds a warm and secure feeling!. The pepperoncini were not firm enough ("that's what she said!"), so next time we'll freeze them the night before. Likewise, pre-frozen, the julienne setting could be good for processing the sweet bell peppers.

Here's what we bought --> and then used (I was fine-tuning as I filled the crock in layers):
From the Kitchenaid Slicer

  • 3 lbs. --> 2 lbs. of cauliflower
  • 3 lbs. --> 2 lbs. of celery
  • 15 pods --> 12 pods of garlic
  • about 6 lbs. of carrots
  • 1.5 lbs. of cocktail onions
  • 1.5 lbs. of red onions, though next time I'll wager we want 1 lb. and 2 lbs, respectively
  • 1 lb. each of : sweet red bell, pepperoncini, and jalapeno (de-seeded) peppers
  • Somehow we forgot the Oregano!!
  • 3 cups of sea salt
  • 3 cups of vinegar
  • a bit less than 3 cups of water
The Kitchenaid Stand Mixer's Slicer Attachment rocked through the carrots, producing something like a thick potato chip. It might've done the same with the cocktail onions, had we had the foresight. We'll remember this the next time, surely saving many tears. This attachment will work for the celery, too.


The Pounder is a Mixer, Too!
The Gods Must Be Crazy! Pounding down all the cut veggies in the crock, with the salt and vinegar inoculant  worked as well as it's supposed to. This step mixes as it goes, but more importantly, it breaks down cell walls, allowing the salt and inoculant entry and allowing the water inside to mix into the brine outside. That makes for both a faster and a more complete ferment but it also leaves fewer places for the bad buggies to get a foothold. The new detail was the pounder, a glass Mexican Coke bottle. Though it was a bit too short, it's a great kraut-pounder. We usually omit this step, as most of the time we're either chopping everything down in the food processor or packing it into jars, which are usually too hard to pound in. We need to include this step more though!

Jug. Plate, Cardboard, Plastic Bags, Brine
Hybridized technique: The early Sally Fallon method of using olive oil as an anaerobic cap soon gave way to the weighted and water-filled sandwich baggie technique when we fermented in jars. This held down the floaters more and kept a better oxygen-barrier. In the crocks, we've worked with and without plates that fit the specific crocks well. With the plate, we don't have to worry about floaters. Without, we've had to be more creative (such as the last crock pickle, where we used gallon ziplock bags filled with water). Both of these techniques left a problem though- room for mildew/mold in lots of airspace left in the top of the crock, above the brine (so it didn't endanger the pickles) but below the towel (so it's messy). So last time we put in a few layers of cling-wrap. This worked well but still didn't seal as well as I'd like. This time, we used a double bag of the food-safe Sysco bags made for commercial food-service use. Above that, we put two layers of custom-cut cardboard to hold the goodies down, then [an under-sized but close plate] and most of a gallon of water. We burped as much air as possible and will fine-tune the weight to keep just enough positive-pressure so that enough fluid fills the space between the bags and crock walls to push out/prevent the moldy/mildewy faction.

Going forward:  I'm trying to procure more of the food service poly bags, I like this technique. It's food safe plastic, so I'm not as bothered by it as I am with clingwrap. It certainly makes a much better anaerobic seal while keeping room for mold/mildew to a minimum, so it's facilitating a cleaner and more thorough ferment.

Perhaps one of the lasting sticky parts of each and all of these Pickle Parties is the Schedule of Operations that everyone can consult without having me constantly quarterbacking every move; it always seems elementary to me, but then again, I'm one of the only of us trained in kitchens. So, here's what I need to chisel in writing in our permanent pickle room:

1.) Wash all produce, set to dry
2.) Peel all garlic. Preferred technique: 
  • Rough un-leaving and de-stemming
  • Cut stem-ends off and pound
  • Peel and sort/discard
3.) Peel Onions. Chop onions, Kitchenaid Slicer preferred! De-stem all other produce.
4.) Slice in Kitchenaid: Carrots, Onions, Japs, Celery
5.) Hand-Slice: Peppers
6.) Start cleaning the tools

Oh, and that interesting, almost potato chip texture the Kitchenaid slicer made of the carrots? That got us to thinking, what if we took some of those chips and marinated them (salt, pepper, and vinegar; lime and chile; lemon, pepper, and butter; and what, uh, mustard?) and then, with high heat, either bake or stir fry them. It seems like, if we could quickly remove all the moisture, we'd end up with a crunchy, savory, salty treat. To get the texture I'm thinking of, if we stir fried them, it'd have to be with very little oil. Sweet Potatoes, beets, and radishes might work well with this treatment, too.

In conclusion, this should be a dynamite batch. It's being kept at a constant 71-72 degree temperature in its own cabinet and has been off-gassing since the second day (hour 25+), so it's responding well to us giving it everything it needs. At this temp, we'll let it go for seven days. I think Patrick is going to throw some olives and capers in there once its done. I'm looking forward to chopping it into mixed olives for tapenade, as well as just eating it on its own. I'm a little leery, just a bit, of how the celery will turn out, but the good Mr. Katz assures me (through his books) that it will be alright.

Happy pickling, y'all, we'd wish you were here but that would leave less for us to enjoy, now, wouldn't it!

Monday, December 10, 2012

Fine Tuning the Last Power Mix

So, the last Power Mix came out too hot (and still a bit bitter, still trying to puzzle that one out). So we came back a week later and fermented a couple pounds of just sweet red, yellow, and orange bell peppers. Then we cut those into the Power Mix, at varying ratios. This really chilled things out.

I use a 2:1 mix of Power Mix to Sweet Bell Mix in my tapenades, whereas a 1:2 mix of Power to Sweet works better for a straight condiment. We've reserved a bit of the Sweet Pepper Mix and lots of the hot Power Mix for custom batches, so we're ready for lots of creativity to come!

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

POWER PLAYERS: Using the Power Mix in Standards and Staples


We use the Power Mix as the backbone of all our sauces, condiments, and many side dishes. It's a living condiment, so, while the spices will carry through in cooking, it's more powerful to enjoy the living enzymes and bacteria, in symbiosis with your intestinal flora & fauna, by avoiding adding it to anything that's still steaming (transition point of water to vapor phase, 118 degrees F). Since it's just garlic, onion, and peppers, (and vinegar, yum!), it's a natural and specific flavor/spice addition to basic meal components. 

When we're not using the Power Mix as a straight and un-adulturated condiment (ground down to a fine slurry in the Quisen-thingie, with or without extra oil and/or vinegar), we're using it as the spicy/umami component in other condiments and side dishes. 

Here are a few of the Lewis Casa standards:

- Guacamole: use the Power Mix instead of the garlic, onion, and peppers, mixed into avocado and diced tomatoes with lime juice. We use at least a tablespoon Power for each avocado and small lime.

-  Hummous: with garbanzo beans, lemon (or lime), tahini (sesame butter), olive oil, and comino. Start by adding the Power instead of the garlic and then add in more from there, according to your taste. This latest batch, being pepper-spicy heavy, gets things hot quick. So we're cutting the overt heat on this latest batch of hummous with yogurt and extra olive oil.

- Johnny Tapenade: greek kalamata and green olives, carrots, celery, parsley  olive oil, vinegar, and Power Mix. Since the olives and Power Mix are already cured, and the carrot is pretty hardy over time (with these other ingredients), I just put these together for the basic batch. Then I can chop in the parsley and celery when folks come over. Or add chili powder or oregano to take it in a different direction. Like many dishes, subbing in balsamic vinegar or tamari or fish sauce, et al. are fun variations.

Now, moving forward with the backbone concept, I'm starting to structure our fridge with Power Standard elements, the individual components that we mix to make our condiments. We've done this before but it's easy to be tempted into big  batches by the ceramic crocks. While established recipes like Escabeche are great in the big ol' crocks, flexibility ends up offering more utility with our Power Players. The first are the Three Sisters of the Power Mix- sweet peppers, hot peppers, and garlic & onion. Fermenting them separately allows us to custom-blend mixes as we go, helping us past some of the limitations that we get like with this latest batch of all-in-one Power Mix. Here they are:

1) Garlic/Onion Mix: While we usually use six pounds of garlic to seven pounds of onions, we like it when the garlic flavor power just overtakes the onion on the flavor profile

2) Sweet red, yellow, and orange Bell Peppers

3) Hot Jalapeno (seeded) and Serrano Peppers

- Ginger Carrots: spears with ground ginger. If you layer it from the bottom, a fun flavor gradient develops. This stuff is a great as a sauce on its own but mixes in well, too. Shoot for a 1:3 ginger to carrot ratio and use whey as an inoculant.

- Beet/Carrot/Root Kvass: Kvass is a bracing tonic for the immune system and guts, full of electrolytes, and so good for us drinkers, too. With the high sugar content of beets, we ferment it like a chutney, for just a couple or few days (drain and reserve most, then fill the jar back up with water for a second ferment). Adding carrots and root veggies like parsnips, turnips, and rutabaga brings a wider, happier side to the flavor profile. Here's more details: http://houston-cultures.blogspot.com/search?q=kvass

- Root Slaw: Cabbages, root vegetables (carrots, radishes, beets, etc.), Power Mix (or garlic, onion, and peppers), and fun tidbits like apples and seaweeds. The famed and widely-fabled Peanutbutter Mix is the bulls-eye on this one but this is a perennial Fall and Winter standard. Lately, we've been craving a batch that's grated or julienned, instead of chopped, making it a proper slaw.  

Now, after all that, there are a few new Standards to post: 

Power Aioli: a great mayo substitute, aioli is egg yolks, olive oil, lemon, and garlic all carefully mixed into an emulsion, to create the mayo consistency that makes it such a great spread. We start with the Power Mix in the quisen-thingie (instead of the garlic) and egg yolk, blend them first on the slowest setting, gradually getting higher as the yolk starts to emulsify. Then add in the citrus and oil slowly, drop by drop. It takes patience but the spreadable consistency makes it worth it! Now, this is a living food but, because the egg has some shelf life very much worth paying attention to, it isn't a great fridge Staple- it needs to be made to order, like the herbal version of the Johnny Tapenade.

Power Sauces: a few structural bits and then the flavoring component:
- Power Mix (throw it in the Quisen-Thingie and grind it down to a liquid)
- Acid (living cider vinegar, balsamic vinegar, lime or lemon juice) and/or Tamari, Bragg's Aminos,  Worsterchestershire, etc.
- Olive Oil emulsion or oil emulsion-diluted cheese or other fat
- And then, the Flavor Star options: 
  - Cheeses: parmesan, gruyere, goat, blue cheese, gorgonzola, chevre, etc.
  - Bacon, baconfat, or brazing drippings or, for bar-be-que or basting,  citrus and honey or maple syrup
  - Herb Blends (rough-cracked pepper mixes, Italian, curry, etc.)
  - Ginger Carrot, this is a fun way to take what's already bangin' to the next level with the Power Mix, vinegar, and oil options.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Orxata, Horchata, Sweetened Ricemilk from Mexico


Orxata, now commonly spelled "horchata" (say "or-chata") is a traditional sweetened ricemilk from Mexico. Here in Houston, we've been buying it at some of the kiosk shops in Fiesta stores. Lots of Mexican restaurants sell it, too. My old favorite taqueria, Tepatitlan 2000 on N. Main, sells it but don't buy it there- their version is without a doubt the worst we've ever tasted; it had the cheapest, worst ingredients. They had to have been using artificially-flavored cinnamon candy or syrup, the really shitty, cheap kind. So, here's the recipe:

- 1 cup of rice
- about or less than 1 cup of sweetener
- about or less than 1 cup of milk product
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 3 cups of hot water & 2 cups of cold
- about or less than 1tsp vanilla
- about or less than 1 cup nuts or seeds

~-~  note: this is a "to taste" kind of recipe, experiment with the ratios ~-~

CHOP: A few handfuls of cashews (makes a creamy texture), almonds, or other nuts or seeds. Mexicans sometimes use Morro seeds (a kind of melon). Pecans or macademia nuts should also add a creamy texture and their own flavor. 

ADD: to the blender with the nuts about a cup of sugar. White is traditional but we used brown sugar, half a cup 1st, then 3/4s a cup. You can add cacao or cocoa here if you want, too- we used half a cup of powdered cacao. Set this aside in a jar, sealed- you'll use it tomorrow. 

ROUGH CHOP: 1 cup of rice. White rice is traditional but we used brown rice. And it's just fine!

MIX: the rice with 3 cups of hot water, drop a cinnamon stick in there, and pop it in the fridge to... 

STEEP: for 12 hours. 
And these two in this order makes clean-up a bit simpler...

COOKED RICE VARIATION: With 1 cup of cooked rice (and the deeper I dig into this, the more I see folks using brown rice) to 4 cups of cold water. After trying it out and asking a few Mexicans familiar with making their own, I'm disinclined to go through this step.

After steeping the rice and cinnamon overnight, it's time to 
STRAIN and MIX: with the sugar/nut stuff + 2 cups cold water and the vanilla. Now's also the time to mix in the milk products. We've experimented with yogurt and goat's milk. Any other kind works- sweetened & condensed, almond, sheep, hemp, plain old moo juice, hell, even buttermilk- whatever you like.

EXPERIMENTAL: Since this is a cinnamon and vanilla-flavored drink, it seems like some of Cinnamon's good friends fit in here, like white pepper, clove, cardamom, and nutmeg, so rocked a batch with these extra. We boiles the cardamom and clove whole in a bit of the strained mix and then mixed it back in- yum! 

I'm trying to find out if this was once fermented, like so many traditional dishes and drinks that are no longer. I can't see why it wasn't at some point- anything that we set out to steep for a while was once commonly, or at least sometimes, fermented. In Japan, Koji, a controlled-mold product, led to Tempeh, a fermented rice product. Down this path, miso, soy sauce, sake, pickles, and amazake are formed. Amazake is a sweet rice porridge, seems like a close relative to a fermented ricemilk, eh? More on this, later...


https://www.google.com/search?q=how+is+ricemilk+made&aq=f&sugexp=chrome,mod=11&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
http://nomilk.com/ricemilk.txt
http://www.veganreader.com/2009/05/17/how-to-make-rice-milk-and-stop-supporting-rice-dream/
http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/nutrition/healthy-eating/what-is-rice-milk-and-is-rice-milk-good-for-you.html#b
http://pumpkinhaus.blogspot.com/2012/02/make-rice-milk.html

Yum yum!

Our House-Warming Inaugural Pickle Party


House Lewis has finally fermented our first batch of pickles in our own kitchen! We can now host, not just instigate pickle parties, with a dedicated curing cabinet in a temperature controlled environment and a nice, big workspace. And just as cool, since it's our own space, we can do this whenever we want! Ahh, central A/C and culinary freedom!

Everyone's store of fermented goodies has been running low lately since May was the last time we were able to pickle. Since the Power Mix is the backbone of so many of the other things we like to make, fermented or not, that was the first objective. This inaugural batch was a deviation from previous ratios in that we backed off on the garlic and wanted to cut the hot peppers a bit and go heavy on the sweet bell peppers. We kinda missed that mark, however- we're still perfecting ratios and techniques. We didn't de-seed the jalapenos (or banana peppers added in by Ranger Roo and Tapon, many thanks!) and used too many serranos, so things turned out spicy! Here's what we did, in pounds:

- 5 red, yellow, and orange bell peppers
- almost 3 jalapenos, not seeded
- almost 4 serranos
- 6 garlic
- 7 onion

This yielded a little over three gallons, just a couple inches from the top of the crock. And it turned out HOT!

So, the next one would look like this, if we just made a straight batch (more on this in a later post):

- 5 sweet bells
- 2 japs, seeded
- 2 serr
- 6 gar
- 7 onion

Heh, my sweet lady has been bravely and assiduously spicing up her diet since hooking up with me but it's still a poignant thing to watch her make that "too spicy" face! So, our latest batches of guacamole are getting some fresh veggies along with the Power Mix, to temper the heat. And Power Mix hummous gets a little yogurt, which also cuts the heat whilst allying itself nicely with the creamy side of the sesame tahini.

In the neat way that things go full circle, we learned this last time how to use a plastic anaerobic barrier in the 3 gallon ceramic crock to seal the beautiful little buggies in for their ferment time. We've used this technique to seal glass mason jars before but we've lost (in the move, I'm sure) the special plate that goes with the crock (AND filled it a little overfull) and so had to improvise. Things turned out great, as mentioned above. Where we usually use the plate to hold the fermenting goodies under the surface of the brine, less brine and a layer of plastic formed the essential anaerobic barrier this time. This hybrid technique had the added bonus, in addition to cutting the addition of extra brine, of also cutting out the headspace above the liquid layer, leaving no room at all for opportunistic molds to enter the picture. The stuff is harmless and confined to the surface and headspace, with everything we care about taking place below the waterline but it's still nice to not have to skim the stuff off after fermentation!

Happy fermenting!

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Living on Earth: Talking Fermentation

Stop! Look! Listen!

http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.html?programID=12-P13-00020&segmentID=6

Action shot from the Living On Earth site.
A great interview about the history of fermented vegetables on  Living On Earth. Thanks KUHF!

I loved how they took on bacteria's bad reputation head-on (minute 3:12). Also well spoken call to action for fermentation as a way to move away from the industrialization of our food systems.

Now go listen to the article!



Go- I'm busy, plotting the next adventure of the Pickleers.
This show inspired me to try some new combinations...

Saturday, April 28, 2012

The Fabled and Storied Peanutbutter Cabbage Mix RECIPE


Pickleers, we've recently uncovered the notes we took when assembling the famed Peanutbutter kraut mix. This particular batch outshone all other cabbage mixes by many long ways, it was truly spectacular. Subsequent attempts at reproducing such a gastronomic delight fell flat, and woefully so. Such as the pickle party we threw at Brooke's apartment, the one that left her place terribly cabbage-funked. The product was edible but only for the dedicated cabbage fans. 

Part of our troubles were likely temperature related- cabbage seems to like cooler pickling temperatures. And cabbage seems to bring its own inoculants to the party but one of the things we did different with the Peanutbutter mix was to add a couple commercial culture starters (like these: http://products.mercola.com/body-ecology/culture-starter.htm). We fermented this batch in a ceramic crock and a few glass jars, in December 2008, and let it ferment for a week (7 days). Here's the recipe! 

- purple cabbage (2 small heads), 7 lbs. 
- green cabbage (4 medium heads), 15 lbs. 
- beets, golden and red, 5 lbs.
- broccoli, 2 stems
- carrots, 4 lbs.
- onions, 4 lbs.
- red kale, 1 bunch
- dried seaweed, 3 cups (rehydrate it in brine)
- celery, 1 bunch
- mixed greens (a share from the Gunderman Farm)
- gala apples, 2
- ginger, 1/2 lb.
- garlic, 1 head
- commercial culture starters, 2
- sea salt 4 Tbs per gallon
- yogurt whey and vinegar, 1 cup per gallon
Grate everything and mix it up, we used a big, plastic storage tub. Yields 5 gallons. Refrigerate after decanting into jars, should last a couple years and get better every day!

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Blue Garlic

Fermented garlic can turn blue!  And it's perfectly fine, not an indicator of a ferment gone wrong.  We were pretty surprised the first time this happened, to say the least!  We first saw this happen in a batch of carrot escabeche.  We set up the batch to pickle just as we always have, nothing out of the ordinary or out of protocol.  When we were examining the finished product, however, we were all surprised to see, among the orange carrots, red and green peppers, and purple onions, cloves of garlic ranging from a mild aqua through blue-green to out and out blue.  An internet search quickly revealed that many other folks were getting similar results and that a relatively simple explanation was involved.  The Chinese even make a jade-colored garlic for their Lada celebration, so there's a specific and controllable chemical reaction at work here.

Garlic contains sulfur and certain amino acids that, together, can create blue pigments.  Reaction with copper (or other metals) and acid (such as that created by the lactobacilli) can facilitate this reaction and release these pigments. We were setting up an acidic environment that led to this color-producing reaction but cooking garlic with vinegar or lemon juice in a copper pan yields similar results.  The way we process our garlic bruises it, so there isn't a uniform color change, rather the bruised parts undergo a deeper pigmentation release as the acid is able to penetrate deeper into the garlic.  I'm starting to use this color change as an indicator of a good ferment, as it shows that our desired acid environment was achieved.  And, in addition to allowing the fermentation that we desire, this acidic condition is also keeping botulinum nasties from setting up shop.  Blue garlic means no botulism!

Here are a few good links:
http://sallystrove.hubpages.com/hub/Why-Does-Garlic-Turn-Blue-and-Is-Blue-Garlic-Safe-To-Eat
http://whatscookingamerica.net/Q-A/bluegarlic.htm
http://www.actahort.org/members/showpdf?booknrarnr=841_66

Happy pickling!