Bookworm Breaks Hearts

Guys, I have been avoiding this post for a while but I know it must happen.

The pickles were a failure.  This is hard to write, and clearly my most emotional post to date.  Here are the reasons the pickles are a failure.

Cute Cukes Betray Bookworm.

1. Taste – You can eat one of these pickles.  However, it will be tough to finish.  And you will make an um, expressive, face as you swallow it.  There may be some moments in the chewing process where you think “ok, I can do this” and then immediately you think about how vinegar is also used to clean floors. 

I blame this squarely on the recipe, which didn’t allow enough vinegar to cover the cukes, so I added more.  Perhaps I should have added more of the other ingredients as well, but I needed guidance from the cookbook since that is why you buy them.  This was a major strike against following a recipe in a book versus a recipe online with community feedback and handy-dandy performance stars.

2. Texture – I like my pickles crispy.  Super crispy.  These were soft and there are a few possible reasons for this.  It could be that we couldn’t find Pickling Cucumbers and went with two other kinds, one of which I chose based on cuteness. It could be that we didn’t read the “read this section first before you start anything” section, which included a section on “firming agents.”

Mama Bookworm was really counting on these pickles, and is now really struggling to come up with ideas for Christmas gifts.  I just assumed that this small-batch-local-pickle-venture would be on the wish list of everyone I know.  Perhaps next time I try a new recipe I won’t do it with 12 pounds of vegetables.