Choosing Quality Cucumbers for Fermentation

The type of cucumber you use for fermentation is extremely important! I suggest using one of three types of cucumbers for my honey mustard pickles recipe.

First, English cucumbers, the long cucumbers normally sold tightly wrapped in plastic, work well. The second is pickling cucumbers; they are shorter, bumpy, lighter green cucumbers. Third is the Persian cucumber (my favorite), also sold as “teeny tiny” or “cocktail” cucumbers.

Do not use slicing cucumbers for fermentation. These are very smooth, dark green cucumbers, usually fat and long. Most slicing cucumbers will turn into a soggy mess during 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. If you tap your finger against it, it should not feel hollow, like yellow squash. You don’t want a cucumber that bends without snapping.
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 one with a smaller diameter. If you buy pickling cucumbers, go for the smaller, dainty ones. If you can find cocktail cucumbers, they will work fantastically.
Color: Pickling cucumbers should be predominantly green with streaks of yellowish-green, and English cucumbers should be a solid medium green.

A person cutting up some green cucumbers on a cutting board.

Keeping Fermented Honey Mustard Pickles Crisp

How you slice cucumbers impacts how these honey mustard pickles will hold up during fermentation. You should always remove the ends of cucumbers, especially the blossom ends, and do not include the ends in the fermentation. The blossom ends of cucumbers contain enzymes that can soften the cucumbers.

I also recommend two slicing techniques when fermenting these honey mustard pickles: ripple-cut chips or spears. For pickle chips, a ripple-cut pickle holds up better than a straight-sliced pickle. You can get a cheap and simple ripple cutter by clicking here. I also suggest fermenting pickle spears or halves, which hold up even better than pickle chip slices. Spears and halves can be cut with a regular knife.

Hands pouring cut up cucumbers into a mason jar.

Preventing Sogginess

To help prevent sogginess, start with cold cucumbers and a 3.5% total salt concentration (that’s the salt concentration used in the recipe). Using at least 3.5% total salt is the most important thing you can do to keep your fermented honey mustard pickles crisp. This slightly higher salt better controls the fermentation environment and prevents the microbes that cause a soggy texture, while promoting the growth of lactobacillus.

You can also add bay leaves, sencha green tea, and grape leaves for tannins. Even with tannins, I recommend using 3.5% salt, because in my recipe experiments, tannins have not prevented the microbes that cause soggy textures.

As mentioned above, how you slice your cucumber also matters. For the best results, stick to ripple cuts or spears/halves. If you still have pickles that are not as crisp as you want them to be, use them to make some delicious Fermented Pickle de Gallo!

A woman pouring honey mustard on a jar of pickles

Honey Mustard Pickles Fermentation Timeline

As always, I tracked these 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, maybe kind of yellowish-cloudy from the mustard, but it will start to get a bit murkier, 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 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.

Things You May Need:

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

Australian Sea Salt

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

Regular Mouth Rust Proof Mason Jar Lids

32 Oz Mason Jars

Plastic pH Test Strips (pH 0-14)

Fermented Pickles

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