Half/full sour
Posted:
Sat Oct 06, 2018 6:56 pmby Shrolfe
What does this really mean? I usually ferment my cucumbers until the interior is completely translucent. The are edible earlier when the inferior has not yet turned translucent but I prefer them to be fully translucent.
The info I have seen online has been unclear about what this means.
Re: Half/full sour
Posted:
Mon Oct 08, 2018 8:00 amby Christopher Weeks
These terms do not have unquestioned authoritative meanings.
Typically, you'll see two different distinctions. One is the salinity of the brine and the other is the length of fermentation. In that first case, people will say that half-sours are fermented in 3-3.5% brine and full sour (or Kosher dill) are pickled in 5% brine. In the other case, half sours are fermented just a few days before refrigeration and full-sours are fermented 2-4 weeks.
I say, do what you like and call them what you like, within that framework. I personally only eat 'half-sours' when I have a batch fermenting to the full-sour state and I just can't keep my grimy mitts out of them, so I eat them along the way. :-)