Recipe Box: Pickling Spice Blend

Spice blends…from your grocery store shelves to a bulk herb market, there’s a nearly endless variation of piquant, pungent, salty, savory, or sweet blends out there to choose from. If you do a lot of pickling, you might already have a favorite spice blend on hand. But have you ever considered mixing your own spice blend, making it just the way you like it?

Until this fall, I’ve never needed a pickling spice blend. Now that I’m a huge fan of fermentation, a tasty spice blend is always in my cabinet, ready to roll!  I got brave and made my own pickling spice blend when I made my Fermented Radishes from the Nourished Kitchen book, and the rest of it went into my Apple & Daikon Radish Sauerkraut.

It is so easy to make. Just add your spices together, and grind them in a mortar and pestle or with a grinder before adding to your ferment.

Please note that my amounts listed are rough estimates, as I tend to do things by feel and forget to measure. *ahem*

Pickling Spice Blend

This recipe made a few tablespoons worth of spice blend, which was perfect for two quart batches. Scale it up as needed for your recipe!

2 Bay leaves, crumbled

1 Tbsp mustard seeds

1 tsp peppercorns

1 Tbsp allspice

2 cinnamon sticks, roughly crushed

1 tsp coriander

1/2 tsp fennel seeds

1 tsp dried ginger

1/2 tsp anise seeds

Need more inspiration?

Pickling Spices Recipes from Oodlekadoodle Primatives

Pantry Basics: Pickling Spice from The Kitchn