While visiting ‘The Shindig’, a homesteading expo located in Newton Country Arkansas, I stopped by a booth that claimed to be selling “Pickled Frog Balls” (actually Pickled Brussels Sprouts). This pickle with a strange name caught my eye, and when I gave it a taste, I knew I had to try fermenting it. Lets give this recipe a shot!
All items used to seal this ferment are included in the Perfect Pickler Vegetable Fermentation Kit. While it is absolutely not necessary to use a kit when fermenting produce, it can be a great help when ensuring the ferment is properly sealed.
Recipe makes 1 quart:
Ingredients for Fermented Frog Balls:
- 1/2 pound of Brussels Sprouts, the (frog balls).
- 2 cups of filtered water.
- 1 tablespoon of Pure Sea Salt.
- 1 tablespoon of sugar.
- 2-4 cloves of smashed garlic.
- 1 teaspoon of Pickling Spice.
- 1/2 teaspoon of dill weed.
- 1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes.
Directions for Fermented Frog Balls:
- Add your sugar, smashed garlic, Pickling Spice, dill, and red pepper flakes to the bottom of your jar. Then fill with your Brussels Sprouts, and make sure they are packed no higher than 2 inches from the jar lip.
- Make your salt-water brine by adding 1 tablespoon of salt to 2 cups of filtered water. Stir well until dissolved.
- Pour your brine over the Brussels Sprouts, making sure to cover the sprouts completely, while filling to about 1 inch from the jar lip.
- You will need some sort of weight to put on the sprouts to make sure they stay submerged under the brine. We sell a Stainless Steel Cup on our website for this purpose. Just be sure to place whatever object you use on the vegetables so that they are fully submerged.
- Now screw on a Fermenter Lid, we include this in our kit, and allows for the gasses to escape the jar during fermentation when paired with our Clearview Airlock in the next step. Keep in mind you can use a regular mason jar lid, but you will have to loosen the lid to let out the pressure every day.
- Now if using a fermenter lid, take your Clearview Airlock included in our kit and fill it with water to the max line. It doesn’t matter what water you use, as this will not be getting in the ferment. After you fill the airlock, insert it in the fermenter lid. This will keep an airtight seal while allowing the gasses produced by the fermentation process to escape.
After four days your ferment will be complete! To check if your ferment is working correctly, just see if air is bubbling through the water in the airlock. These are the gasses escaping from the ferment, and is evidence of proper lacto-fermentation!
If you enjoyed this recipe, be sure to check out our many more on our website perfectpickler.com. Also be sure to check out our Fermentation Kit if you want to make vegetable fermentation super easy and painless!
