Pickle Recipes - Fennel Pickles

This is a large recipe but you can always cut it down.

3-4 Handfuls of grape leaves
15 pounds of pickling cucumbers
4 tablespoons peppercorns (I prefer black, but use what you have)
2 tablespoons whole allspice
Zest of 4 lemons
1/2 cup fennel seeds
16 fennel fronds
1 large bunch of parsley
1 cup white wine vinegar
2 gallons water
1 1/2 cup salt

Lay half the leaves in the bottom of your pickling crock. Wash your cucumbers. Layer the cucumers in the crock with teh pepper, allspice, lemon zest, fennel and parsley. Add the vinegar to the water and dissolve the salt to make your brine. Cover the cucumbers with the brine. Spread the remaining grape leaves on top. Weight the cucumbers down to keep them submerged. You can use a plastic bag filled with leftover brine or with a plate topped with a clean weight. Cover the crock with a cloth and store it at room temperature.

You will see bubbles forming in the brine within 3 days. If white scum forms on top of the birn, skim it off once per day and clean off your weights. The pickles will be ready in 2 to 3 weeks when the bubbles have stopped forming and the pickles are sour and pickle green throughout.

Once fermentation is complete, strain off the brine into a non-reactive pot. Bring the brine to a boil and then simmer it for 5 minutes. Skim of the scum that forms. Then let it cool. Rinse the pickles in cold water and drain them.

If you are going to store the pickles in the fridge, pack them into jars and cover them with the cooled brine. You can add fresh spices if you want.

If you are going to can them, pack the pickles into jars, cover them with hot brine (leaving 1/2 inch of headspace) and boiling-water bath them for 10 minues for pints or 15 minutes for quarts.