Vegetable by vegetable, and what is published for each one

A vegetable entry in this section tells you what a named publication actually prints for that vegetable, and it stops where publication stops. Each entry checks the same points, so an empty box has the same meaning everywhere. The template below this text lists the vegetable pages that exist. This body explains how to read those pages, what a complete entry contains, and why fermentation is published for some vegetables and not for others.

How to read a vegetable entry in this manual

Each entry separates the fermented method from the vinegar method. The fermented method relies on bacteria that form acid in the jar during curing at room temperature. The vinegar method adds acid ready made in the form of vinegar, and the jar is then heat processed. Sources describe these as different techniques, not as options you can exchange. An entry can therefore publish a full vinegar procedure while its fermentation box stays empty.

You read an entry from the raw material to the jar. The entry names the vegetable form that the recipe tested, the salt as printed, the acid as printed, the room temperature period for curing where fermentation is published, the heat process where canning is published, and the headspace as printed. Where a point was not published, the entry says nothing is published for that point.

What each entry always checks, from salt to processing schedule

Salt is checked first because its role changes. In fermented cucumbers and in sauerkraut, salt draws juice and supports curing. In many vinegar packs, salt is present only in small amount in the covering liquid, or it is used for a short soak and then drained or rinsed, and safety rests on the vinegar as printed and on heat. The entry keeps those roles apart and says when the source does not explain a role.

Acid, temperature, time, headspace and the processing schedule are checked next. Acid means either acid formed during curing or vinegar added ready made at the strength printed in the recipe, with no change in kind or strength. Temperature and time mean the curing room condition where fermentation is published and the boil or simmer before packing where the recipe prints one. Headspace means the empty space printed for the jar size. The processing schedule means the heat process printed for the jar size with adjustment for height above sea level. You follow the schedule as printed for your jar size and your height band.

Why some boxes stay empty and what empty means

An empty box means no accepted source consulted for this manual published a procedure for that point, not that the procedure is unsafe or safe. The manual forbids filling the gap by analogy from another vegetable. A pepper soak cannot serve for beans, a cabbage cure cannot serve for beets, and a cucumber cure cannot serve for cauliflower. Where the index of the national guide contains no entry for a vegetable as a pickle or as a ferment, and where no extension source consulted prints one, the vegetable page says nothing is published.

A note on coverage matters here. During the review used here, some extension sites could not be opened directly, so a statement that nothing is published means nothing was found in the sources actually consulted. It does not claim that no publication exists elsewhere. Penn State warns in the same sense that research based procedures for fermented vegetables cover sauerkraut and fermented pickles.

Fermented packs and vinegar packs are different techniques

Sources group brined products in families. The national guide and Clemson describe them in closely related terms:

• Fermented or brined pickles, where color and flavor change during curing and acidity rises as lactic acid bacteria grow, as printed by the national guide and by Oregon State.
• Fresh pack or quick process pickles, which are not fermented and which receive vinegar ready made to prevent bacterial growth, as printed by the national guide and by Oregon State.
• Fruit pickles, prepared by heating fruit in seasoned syrup acidified with vinegar or bottled lemon juice.
• Relishes, made from chopped vegetables cooked with seasoning and vinegar.

In the national canon, lactic fermentation exists only for cucumber as fermented dill pickles and for cabbage as sauerkraut. All other vegetable recipes listed in that canon are vinegar packs acidified with vinegar at the printed strength. Penn State states the same limit: "only research-based recipes for fermented vegetables include procedures for sauerkraut and fermented pickles."

Published status by vegetable at a glance

The table below summarizes type only. It does not replace the recipe. For amounts, room conditions, headspace and heat, open the vegetable entry itself.

Two special cases need care. Kimchi is the only refrigerated fermentation outside sauerkraut and fermented pickles in this file, and Clemson publishes no heat process for it, so it is never a room temperature canned food. Green tomato kosher style dill looks salty on paper, yet the source prints it as a boiled vinegar brine with heat, not as a fermentation.

This page does not print amounts of salt, strengths of vinegar, curing room conditions, curing periods, headspace values, processing times, altitude bands, or keeping periods. It does not explain how to seal jars, how to check seals, or how to put roots up under pressure. For those points, open the vegetable entry itself and use only the figure printed there for your jar size.

Sources of the figures on this page

• National Center for Home Food Preservation, University of Georgia, General Information on Pickling, adapted from the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning, revised 2015, reviewed February 2018. The four classes of pickled product, the 5 percent vinegar requirement, and the prohibition on altering proportions.
• Oregon State University Extension Service, Pickling Vegetables, PNW 355, by Jeanne Brandt, revised July 2019, reviewed 2024. Equipment, water, salt and vinegar, the fermentation procedures and seventeen tested recipes.