Brine-pickled garlic scapes, a near-perfect example of waste-not, want-not thinking, makes excellent use of a seemingly obscure food – one cherished only by gardeners and only the most enthusiastic of farmers market goers: the humble garlic scape.
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pickled garlic scape recipe
Choose just the tenderest and youngest flowers for these pickled garlic scapes, leaving the scape’s woody stem for use in a naturally probiotic, fermented relish or to use fresh. These pickled scapes are strongly flavored and deeply robust with garlic flavor. You can always add spices to the mixture as well, dill and bay do nicely, but garlic lovers will revel in the simple combination of scape, salt and starter.
Servings: 1 quart (8 Servings)
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Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons finely ground real salt
- 1 quart garlic scapes
Instructions
- Stir sea salt into one quart fresh, filtered and dechlorinated water until the salt and starter culture are dissolved into the water completely.
- Pack your crock full of trimmed garlic scapes.
- Pour the mixture of water, salt and starter over the scapes, ensuring that they’re completely covered by the brine.
- Ferment at room temperature for at least a week, preferably two or even three or four (fermentation is not an exact science), until the scapes achieve a level of sourness that suits you.
- Once the scapes have pickled to your liking, remove them to the refrigerator or a cool cellar for storage.
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Sally says
can you use the brine from the kimchi for this?
Jenny says
If you like.
Kim says
When complete you do add a lid for the fermenting time or do you just put a cloth over top of it?
Katie says
I'm sure somewhere you define what you mean by a crock, or have a link to one/some. What exactly is a crock? Could it be a pickling jar? I'm not sure what to use to make these. I appreciate any additional information you may provide. Thank you.
Sharon Hanna says
Can you use kombucha as the "starter"? thank you
Jenny says
No, I don't recommend it.
Dana says
Great post!
farmer james says
Pickled garlic is insanely delicious. Scapes have always been a great add in with stirfries in our home. I may add some to the pickled okra next time.
Carrie says
You should make a trip to Portland, Oregon one of these days, you will love our food culture. These ARE in grocery stores here (along with pretty much everything else you could want), for about a month in the early summers. Most people around here put them on the grill, they make a lovely accompaniment to steak. I will definitely try fermenting them next year though!
jonathan fancoeur says
thanks for posting. I'm a little confused. The third ingredient "1 quart garlic scapes", should it read "1 quart of water"? Later in the recipe you say to fill the crock with the scabes. This means, depending on the crock, it may need more or less than 1 quart of garlic scabes. I'm using a gallong size crock.
I seems to me that the ratios of brine ingredients should be more important than the ratio of brine to scabes. So I'm making the brine searate and pouring it in to fill all the air spaces between my crock and the scabes that are inside. I can't tell how much brine i'll need until i pour it in, so I'm making more than I think will be necessary.
Larissa ~ Prodigal Pieces says
Thank you!! I just pulled my garlic and was trying to figure out a good recipe to preserve them. Waste not, want not!! :o)
Allen Armstrong says
I think this would work with whole garlic! I have some kimchi juice I'll use for the starter. Uhoh! Starting to sound real good to me!!
Tammy Schack says
I've grown garlic for several years and had no idea you could use these tops called scapes (new to me also) to ferment. I am also a newby at fermenting/culturing, so this is all so exciting to me! Thanks for information I haven't seen anywhere else. I'll be doing this today!
Becki says
This is a great recipe and timely as I planted garlic for the first time this year. I am wondering though, if in point #2, so you mean "fitted with an air lock" instead of carboy? A carboy is a multi gallon glass container.