"Michigan Kim Chi": Fun with Food Safety, 19th-Century Style!

Kind readers may remember that 2 Saturdays ago I decided to try a settler-era method of food preservation: the dill crock. The clean crock was filled with raw veggies and a brine solution, and weighted down with a plate upon which sat a gallon jug of water. The crock sat on our kitchen counter for 2 weeks, at room temperature.

I was a little frightened of this craft. What if I opened it up and found a big, black, slimy....errrghhhh!!! What if I got sick from eating something that had sat around for 2 weeks?

Before opening the crock today, I felt a little better when I found out that this exact same method of vegetable preservation was used by 19th-century Michigan settlers. [Um, Dusty, these were the same folks who used the open-kettle canning method; just a thought. --ed.] Here is an excerpt from U. P. Hedrick's "The Land of the Crooked Tree." The book is "an exuberant recall of pioneer life on the northern tip of the lower peninsula of Michigan, begun when the author's family migrated there in 1874."Here's the crock sitting on the counter. Time to take off the bag and peek inside.










When I took off the bag, I saw the brine was pink!--probably from the carrots. I leaned in and took a big sniff.

WHOA NELLIE! It smelled TERRIBLE, like angry mold. Oh, God. Did I just waste a whole crock's worth of nice vegetables? Gahh! I gingerly lifted out he submerged plate with a spoon, dreading what I might see.


Wow. Looks good! The fresh-looking veggies are floating in brine.

Then I got aholt of myself a bit more. I noticed that it was the scum around the edge, on the lip of the crock, that smelled so bad. I carefully wiped it off with a clean sponge. Hm. That was better! The scum is a natural part of the process. It forms on the surface of the brine, but because of the brine, does not penetrate to the veggies safely down below. I did skim it off a couple of times over the two weeks with a spoon, and also with a coffee filter, neither of which worked too well--but for true pioneer types you don't have to.

Now comes the true test. Tasty delight or hospital visit? "Honey!" I called sweetly. "Would you like to try those pickles?" I scooped up a few with a strainer and rinsed them briefly under the tap.

"Mmm!" my husband said. "These are good! Can I have a few more?" I scooped and rinsed a few more. Hubby scooted off to enjoy his bowl of mixed pickles while reading.

I observed him quietly from the kitchen door for a scientific amount of time. Skin color: normal. Respiration: normal. Palpitations, palsy, clutching of throat: none.

I approached sweetie's bowl and gingerly picked up one cauliflower floret. I examined its light pinkness. It looked fine. Bite.

Oh boy. This is GOOD. Salty and crisp, with just a tinge of hot pepper at the end and a richness of garlic and dill. Tried a carrot. Crispy and salty-sweet. Tried a garlic clove. Oh my, was that nummy: mild, garlicky, and crunchy-juicy. This was the real deal--the mixed pickles I'd loved so much as a kid.

So now we have a whole crockful of them chilling in the fridge, ready as a cool, crisp, salty snack or side dish at any time. What a time saver! And a money saver...AND it satisfies the Hundred-Year Rule!

It's also really empowering to me. I feel great making, not buying, food, and the list of foods we make is becoming substantial:

1. All our bread and cookies, &c.
2. Yoghurt (gallon at a time)
3. Farmer's cheese with herbs
4. Mixed pickles
5. All soups, gravies, sauces, and stocks--no canned soup or gravy packets here!

The "Crooked Tree" book also had a description of making sauerkraut that is similar to the dill crock. With cabbage at 50 cents a pound, I am now excited to try this next, once I get a new crock, likely from Value World. In the meantime, hooray for mixed pickles and for the pioneers who made 'em and et 'em long ago!

Historical Project: Pickling Vegetables

Dusty D loves food--salty, savory food. And we have a "hundred- year- rule" in the house--we don't eat anything that wasn't eaten a hundred years ago. Why do we have this silly rule?

One reason is economy. Dusty D loves to cook and likes to think I can save lots of money by cooking everything from scratch.

Two is for health reasons. Neither of us feel as good when eating anything processed, even a store-bought cookie, much less a TV dinner (that's out, violates 100-year rule) or cereal (at $4 a pound, or, meat prices, I'll have a nice steak for breakfast instead of a sad little bowl of flakes, thankee) or whatever.

Bratwurst is processed--but they sure were eating sausage 100 years ago. That's in! Beer? Good heavens, the Egyptians made it. In! Whole chicken? Yep, I can make that baby stretch throughout an entire week, including lunches. Chicken nuggets? Nope. And so on. But we're not total sticklers--we do buy sugar for instance. Michigan Made Beet Sugar, I hasten to add. But I do make all our bread and the yoghurt we have every day for breakfast.

OK, all that said, while filing the other day I found a neat handout that local apiatrix Lisa Bashert had given me on how to pickle veggies. My mouth started watering, remembering the Tony Packo pickled vegetables I'd eaten as a child growing up near Toledo. And he made it sound so easy--and I had lots of dill growing in the garden! My sweetie got so interested he made a special trip for garlic and then I was off to the races.

I cleaned and chopped garlic (6 bulbs), carrots (6), a head of cauliflower, a handful of radishes, a big white onion, and grabbed a handful of dill from the garden. Here's the first layer in the crock pit crock.

Here's the crock filled with beautiful vegetables, layered with dill. I had to gently shake the crock to help the vegetables settle into a tightly- packed mass. Sprinkled a pinch of chili seeds on top.

The brine is 3/4 unit of salt per 10 units of water, so I added 3/4 cup of salt to a pitcher and added 10 cups of water.

The recipe also includes 1/4 cup of vinegar per gallon, so in went 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar, plus a sploosh--the crock volume is a bit over a gallon.

I filled the crock almost up to the top and got my cleaned plate. I positioned the plate right on top of the veggies and weighed it with a washed gallon jar fulled with water. Added the last bit of brine to bring it right up to the lip of the crock, making sure every vegetable is perfectly covered.
Covered the whole thing loosely with a plastic bag to keep dust out and there we go. It should be ready in 2 weeks...but we're already planning to start another crock next week. We'll see how it goes--it could be a complete disaster, or a source of wonderful healthy snacks, side dishes, and lunch tidbits.

So the only thing to remember is:

3/4 units salt per 10 units water for general brine, plus 1/4 cup vinegar per gallon of veggies.

Below are scans of the original flier if you'd like to try this too. Wish me luck!