Baby pinecones found while on my run yesterday and had to go back with a bag... I'll make a mugolio with it, fermented pinecone syrup. This was 22 oz which was packed in 32 oz turbinado sugar (swipe). I'll follow up when it's ready to process and filter but it needs to macerate a couple months first. Now is high time for your baby pinecones!

Homegrown cucumber pickles, updated from my last post when they were new. Fermented pickles (as opposed to vinegar pickled) will get cloudy like this from all the lactic-acid-producing bacteria that eventually populate the jar. I enjoyed a couple as half sours (3-4 days in) but my real love is the full sour you need to develop with time. A week at room temp (go longer and risk mushiness) and then at least a few weeks in the fridge. For my classic recipe and all my tips and tricks, see the link in my bio Linktree.

🥒🧄🔥First jar of the season! Just a quart but so much more to come. You can swipe to see my first little bushel of cukes so far this season, a mix of gherkins, national pickling, and Boston pickling. My classic fermented (sour dill) pickle recipe is linked in bio! It's also in the #insaneinthebrinecookbook along with many other of my pickle recipes. And as always, look out for some brand new recipes on the blog this summer.

Olive • roasted garlic • rosemary sourdough loaf <swipe>. My last post showed the black salt cured olives I made last fall and I promised this week I'd show something I put them in. This bread was absolutely loaded with flavor. You can see the turkey & provolone sandwich I made with some of it along with other photos. (Check out Rate My Sandwich linked in my bio btw where you can post your own sexy sandwiches.) I can't wait to include this bread recipe in the next #insaneinthebrinecookbook

These are some of the beautiful black California Sevillano jumbo olives I cured last November. They were cured in straight salt so I can't snack on them indefinitely like I can with other olive styles, but they're amazing in pasta & meat dishes, made into olive cream cheese, and more. I can't wait to show you what I did with them today, but that'll be a post for next week. All the recipes are coming, including for making black and green olives.

13-month organic soy miso paste ready to go! My easy method for miso paste in the IITB cookbook linked in bio! Such dank miso - it started out just as white as this chestnut miso. I started this cherry/hickory wood smoked chestnut miso I've been dreaming of. The chestnuts were delicious but kind of dry to make a reasonable paste so the water level reflects that: 1 lb chestnuts 3/4 cup water (170g) 200g koji rice 80g salt (10g was reserved for sprinkling on top) Let's revisit this in a year!

I have a lot to learn but I haven't been able to stop practicing my sourdough loaves the last several weeks and I'm hooked. Here's a couple of my most recent. If you want to check out the sourdough starter that got me going from @culturesforhealth , the link is in my bio (scroll down a few to the sourdough starter link).

Easy recipe to my classic dill cured/smoked salmon: Lay out a very long piece of plastic wrap in a large glass baking dish, it should be double the length to fold it over the fish later. Calculate salt and sugar (or brown sugar) as 25% of salmon's weight. You can go lower or zero sugar if preferred. Optional cracked black pepper at 2% of salmon's weight. Mix the seasonings and lay out half of the mixture on the plastic wrap and then place the salmon skin side down on it. Add a generous amount of dill to cover the flesh (facing up) and then coat with the remainder of the seasoning. Wrap over tightly with the plastic wrap. Place a long weighted item (I always use a case of sodas) on top of the salmon to press it down. Flip every 8-12 hours. I normally do around 36 hours but this was almost 48... It'll just be saltier which I can't complain about. Wash everything off, pat dry well with paper towel and let stand in a wire rack in the fridge overnight. It's delicious and ready to eat at that point but I always prefer to take the next step of cold smoking it for a couple hours. This was 1/2 maple and 1/2 pecan. Then allow another overnight in fridge on a wire rack to air out. Then slice with a very sharp, long knife, starting with the thinner side of the fish, at about a 45° angle. Use a long back and forth motion. If you'd like my recipe for everything-bagel seasoned cured salmon, the recipe is in the cookbook linked in bio! Don't forget the salmon skin makes the best damn salmon bacon, and even the sweet n salty liquid extracted from the salmon during curing can be used to make an unbelievable cream sauce. That recipe is in the cookbook!

🍍🌶️🔥Ginger-spice and everything nice pickled pineapple. Highly addictive! Good for snacking, pizza, barbecue, cocktails and much more. If you have the #insaneinthebrinecookbook (linked in bio), just follow the guidance for sugar & spice & everything nice pickled melon and swap out for pineapple. You won't be disappointed!

Baby pinecones found while on my run yesterday and had to go back with a bag... I'll make a mugolio with it, fermented pinecone syrup. This was 22 oz which was packed in 32 oz turbinado sugar (swipe). I'll follow up when it's ready to process and filter but it needs to macerate a couple months first. Now is high time for your baby pinecones!

Homegrown cucumber pickles, updated from my last post when they were new. Fermented pickles (as opposed to vinegar pickled) will get cloudy like this from all the lactic-acid-producing bacteria that eventually populate the jar. I enjoyed a couple as half sours (3-4 days in) but my real love is the full sour you need to develop with time. A week at room temp (go longer and risk mushiness) and then at least a few weeks in the fridge. For my classic recipe and all my tips and tricks, see the link in my bio Linktree.

🥒🧄🔥First jar of the season! Just a quart but so much more to come. You can swipe to see my first little bushel of cukes so far this season, a mix of gherkins, national pickling, and Boston pickling. My classic fermented (sour dill) pickle recipe is linked in bio! It's also in the #insaneinthebrinecookbook along with many other of my pickle recipes. And as always, look out for some brand new recipes on the blog this summer.

Olive • roasted garlic • rosemary sourdough loaf <swipe>. My last post showed the black salt cured olives I made last fall and I promised this week I'd show something I put them in. This bread was absolutely loaded with flavor. You can see the turkey & provolone sandwich I made with some of it along with other photos. (Check out Rate My Sandwich linked in my bio btw where you can post your own sexy sandwiches.) I can't wait to include this bread recipe in the next #insaneinthebrinecookbook

These are some of the beautiful black California Sevillano jumbo olives I cured last November. They were cured in straight salt so I can't snack on them indefinitely like I can with other olive styles, but they're amazing in pasta & meat dishes, made into olive cream cheese, and more. I can't wait to show you what I did with them today, but that'll be a post for next week. All the recipes are coming, including for making black and green olives.

13-month organic soy miso paste ready to go! My easy method for miso paste in the IITB cookbook linked in bio! Such dank miso - it started out just as white as this chestnut miso. I started this cherry/hickory wood smoked chestnut miso I've been dreaming of. The chestnuts were delicious but kind of dry to make a reasonable paste so the water level reflects that: 1 lb chestnuts 3/4 cup water (170g) 200g koji rice 80g salt (10g was reserved for sprinkling on top) Let's revisit this in a year!

I have a lot to learn but I haven't been able to stop practicing my sourdough loaves the last several weeks and I'm hooked. Here's a couple of my most recent. If you want to check out the sourdough starter that got me going from @culturesforhealth , the link is in my bio (scroll down a few to the sourdough starter link).

Easy recipe to my classic dill cured/smoked salmon: Lay out a very long piece of plastic wrap in a large glass baking dish, it should be double the length to fold it over the fish later. Calculate salt and sugar (or brown sugar) as 25% of salmon's weight. You can go lower or zero sugar if preferred. Optional cracked black pepper at 2% of salmon's weight. Mix the seasonings and lay out half of the mixture on the plastic wrap and then place the salmon skin side down on it. Add a generous amount of dill to cover the flesh (facing up) and then coat with the remainder of the seasoning. Wrap over tightly with the plastic wrap. Place a long weighted item (I always use a case of sodas) on top of the salmon to press it down. Flip every 8-12 hours. I normally do around 36 hours but this was almost 48... It'll just be saltier which I can't complain about. Wash everything off, pat dry well with paper towel and let stand in a wire rack in the fridge overnight. It's delicious and ready to eat at that point but I always prefer to take the next step of cold smoking it for a couple hours. This was 1/2 maple and 1/2 pecan. Then allow another overnight in fridge on a wire rack to air out. Then slice with a very sharp, long knife, starting with the thinner side of the fish, at about a 45° angle. Use a long back and forth motion. If you'd like my recipe for everything-bagel seasoned cured salmon, the recipe is in the cookbook linked in bio! Don't forget the salmon skin makes the best damn salmon bacon, and even the sweet n salty liquid extracted from the salmon during curing can be used to make an unbelievable cream sauce. That recipe is in the cookbook!

🍍🌶️🔥Ginger-spice and everything nice pickled pineapple. Highly addictive! Good for snacking, pizza, barbecue, cocktails and much more. If you have the #insaneinthebrinecookbook (linked in bio), just follow the guidance for sugar & spice & everything nice pickled melon and swap out for pineapple. You won't be disappointed!