Pickled Radishes

Radishes.  With butter and salt.  Oh my.

I just had too many.

Yesterday morning I pulled all my radishes out.  I needed to replant anyway, and there were at least half that weren’t ever going to become radishes, just getting stringy and odd. So, pickle them I must.

I used David Lebovitz’s recipe for a place to start for ratios.  To a pot I added 2 cups each water and white vinegar, 1 tablespoon honey, 1 tablespoon peppercorns and 2 tablespoons salt.  I think, on the salt.  I pinched it in.  We had coarse sea salt. That was set to boil.

The nice thing about having a garden is that I’ve got stuff.  Like two hot Hungarian peppers that needed to be picked and a bunch of dill that needed trimming.  So, armed thusly, I cleaned the radishes of hairy roots and dirt, peeled some garlic, (5 cloves) and began to pack the jar.

I like to use as much of an herb as possible, so I dropped the stalks of dill onto the bottom of the jar.  Seems to me like they can only add to the flavor and I left them big enough that I won’t accidentally eat one if the texture gets ookie.

The peppers got halved and seeded.  I’m not sure how hot they are, but pickled peppers will always be good for something.

And there are the sliced radishes, about 1/4 inch thick.  Or so.  Not exact.

And so the packing begins.  BTW – I’ve turned off the brine already.  Boiled over vinegar and pepper smell isn’t my favorite.

This continued until the jar was filled.  Then I poured the brining liquid over it.

Now it waits, lurking in my refrigerator.  I can’t wait to taste them!  Already by the time it was cool enough to refrigerate the liquid had turned a lovely pink.