Fermented Pickles

Prep: 20 minutes

Total: 336 hours 20 minutes

Jump to Recipe Rate Recipe

Fermented Bloody Mary Pickles

We’ve all heard of putting pickles in a Bloody Mary, but why not put Bloody Mary ingredients in some pickles?! These pickles are fermented for 10-14 days, and are full of probiotics!

Choosing Quality Cucumbers for Fermentation

I suggest using one of three cucumber varieties when making these fermented Bloody Mary pickles. First, English cucumbers, the long cucumbers normally sold tightly wrapped in plastic, work well. The second is pickling cucumbers; these are the shorter, bumpy, lighter-green cucumbers. Third is the Persian cucumber (my favorite), also known as teeny tiny or cocktail cucumbers.

Do not use slicing cucumbers for fermentation. These are very smooth, dark green cucumbers. They’re usually fat and long. Most slicing cucumbers will turn into a soggy mess through the fermentation process. Slicing cucumbers are also normally wax-coated, which disrupts the fermentation process.

Here’s my checklist for choosing good cucumbers:

Density: The cucumber should feel heavy, like it is hydrated and has turgor pressure. It should not feel hollow, like yellow squash, if you tap your finger against it.
Check for surface mold: Look for indentations and soft spots in the cucumbers. You do not want to buy a squishy cucumber. Cucumbers near molding will have dark, small, circular indentations or black “pocks” on the surface.
Small is Better: The bigger the diameter of the cucumber, the soggier your pickles will be. For English cucumbers, look for a smaller-diameter cucumber. If you are buying pickling cucumbers, go for the smaller, daintier ones. If you can find cocktail cucumbers, they will work fantastically.
Color: Pickling cucumbers should be predominantly green with streaks of yellowish-green. English cucumbers should be a solid medium green color.

someone using a ripple cutter and wooden cutting board to chop small diameter green pickling cucumbers, the main ingredient in Bloody Mary Pickles.

Crisp, Fermented Pickles

How you slice cucumbers impacts how your Bloody Mary pickles will hold up during fermentation. You should always remove the ends of cucumbers and not include the ends in the fermentation. The blossom end of cucumbers contains enzymes that can soften the cucumbers. I would say just remove the blossom end, but I never know which end is the blossom, so I remove both.

There are two slicing techniques I’ve found work best with all my fermented pickle recipe tests: pickle chips. and pickle spears. For pickle chips, I find that ripple-cut pickles hold up better than straight-sliced pickles. You can get a cheap and simple ripple cutter by clicking here.

For pickle spears or halves, which tend to hold up even better than pickle chip slices, I just cut those with a regular knife.

Worcestershire sauce and crushed garlic cloves in the bottom of a mason jar, the first ingredients added to the jar to make Blooody Mary Pickles.

Preventing Sogginess in Fermented Pickles

To help prevent sogginess, I always start with cold cucumbers and a total salt concentration of 3.5%. The most important thing you can do to keep your fermented pickles crisp is to use at least 3.5% total salt. That’s what my recipe calls for, so just follow it as written. (p.s. 3.5% total salt means 3.5% of the total weight of all water and cucumbers added! Cucumbers are 95-98% water, so I always account for the water inside the vegetable too!)

I occasionally add bay leaves, sencha green tea, or grape leaves for tannins. However, I find that added tannins don’t change the results if you’ve got that proper salt concentration of 3.5%. If you have frequent sogginess problems, you can try adding calcium chloride salt to pickles (sometimes called pickle crisp), which is very effective at keeping them crunchy.

Don’t forget, as mentioned above, how you slice your cucumber matters. Stick to ripple cuts or spears/halves for the best results.

If you still end up with pickles that just aren’t as crisp as you’d like, use them to make delicious Fermented Pickle de Gallo!

What Should My Bloody Mary Pickles Look Like and Smell Like?

As always, I tracked these Bloody Mary pickles through the whole fermentation process, so I can tell you all about the sensory cues to watch for as they ferment! This timeline is for pickles fermented at 72-78 degrees F. The process will be slower in colder conditions and faster in warmer conditions.

24 – 72 hours: All contents in the jar should be submerged beneath the brine. The brine will be pretty clear, but will start to get a bit murky, and you’ll see little bubbles forming in between the pickle slices. There won’t be a ton of bubbles until about day 4, though. (This is stage one of fermentation, and there’s not much going on that you can see)

72 hours – 7 days: After 72 hours, you should start to see lots of bubbles. You need to burp the jar if you are using a rust-proof mason jar lid (as I recommend). Cucumbers in this stage should change color from vibrant green to pale olive. You will also notice the brine becomes very cloudy. Leuconostoc bacteria begin to thrive, producing lots of carbon dioxide and acetic acid. You can open the jar whenever to ensure everything is submerged and the lid stays clean. If anything is floating to the surface, scoop it out with a clean spoon. If the lid looks dirty at all, wash it with hot, soapy water, then place it back on the jar.

7 – 12 days: Bubbles in the brine will decrease as the ferment leaves stage two and enters stage three of fermentation. The brine will be quite cloudy and start to develop a pleasantly sour smell. You’ll probably start to see sediment at the bottom of the jar, and the bubbles will stop completely. Lactobacillus species are most abundant.

12 – 14 days: Lactobacillus makes up the majority or all of the microbial population now. They produce copious amounts of lactic acid, making the Bloody Mary pickles smell even more pleasantly sour. At this time, you can smell, taste, and refrigerate! The pickles should have a pH of 4 or below. They are now super probiotic and well preserved.

someone gently placing a glass disc shaped fermentation weight in a mason jar filled with bloody mary pickle ingredients

What if my Bloody Mary pickles are too salty?

If these fermented pickles are too salty for your taste buds, it’s an easy fix! Pour off half the brine into an empty jar and top off the pickles with apple cider vinegar. Shake to combine. This will dilute the saltiness and add a lovely vinegar flavor. And don’t worry, vinegar does not kill the acid-tolerant probiotic microbes in the pickles. Be sure to save the brine to make my probiotic pickled garlic or probiotic pickled onions.

Things You May Need:

32 Oz Mason Jars

A kitchen scale top down showing the dual scale platforms and digital measurement screen

Kitchenaid Dual Platform Scale

Glass fermentation weights product picture

Wide Mouth Fermentation Weights

a yellow, orange, blue and green plastic lid product image

Regular Mouth Rust Proof Mason Jar Lids

Plastic pH Test Strips (pH 0-14)

Australian Sea Salt

Kaitlynn Fenley Food Microbiologist and Fermentation Specialist

Kaitlynn is a Food Microbiologist and FSPCA-certified fermentation specialist. An alumna of the LSU College of Science, she combines her academic background in microbiology with her Cajun heritage to create safe and delicious recipes.

See Full Bio