How to make Turkish pickles (turşu): brine ratio, fermenting time and spoilage signs

October is pickling season in Türkiye: cucumbers, cabbage, peppers and carrots are plentiful and cheap. But "turşu" (the Turkish word for pickles) is really two different jobs. Salt-brine pickles sit in salted water and get their sourness from the lactic acid that forms inside the jar; vinegar pickles do not ferment at all and get their sourness straight from the vinegar.

This guide covers the difference between the two, how many grams of salt go into each litre of brine, which salt to use, how to keep the vegetables under the brine, what temperature to hold and how many weeks to wait, and how to tell when a jar has gone bad. The ratios and temperatures are not arbitrary: salt level and acidity decide the safety of a pickle just as much as its taste. Knowing the signs of spoilage matters as much as knowing the recipe.

1. Decide whether you are making salt-brine or vinegar pickles In salt-brine pickling you put the vegetables in salted water and let the bacteria turn the vegetables' own sugars into lactic acid; the sourness comes from that acid and the pickles take weeks to be ready. In vinegar pickling there is no fermentation to wait for: the sourness comes straight from the acid in the vinegar and the jar is edible in a day or two. When official fermented recipes do include vinegar, the amount is tiny — roughly 60 millilitres to 1.9 litres of water; add more than that and you are no longer making a fermented pickle, you are making a vinegar one. Use the salt-brine method for long-keeping sour pickles and for sauerkraut-style cabbage; vinegar is more practical for small jars you will eat quickly.
2. Choose the right vegetables For cucumbers, use a pickling variety; slicing or salad cucumbers give poorer results. Do not buy wax-coated cucumbers — the coating stops the brine from soaking in. Everything should be fresh, firm and free of bruises and soft spots; process the vegetables as soon as possible after harvest and keep them refrigerated if they have to wait. Put vegetables of similar size in the same jar: large pieces take longer to ferment than small ones. Cabbage, peppers and carrots are pickled by the same method.
3. Prepare the jars and the fermenting container Wash the jars in hot soapy water and rinse them thoroughly, or run them through the dishwasher. If you want to sterilise them, keep the jars hot in the dishwasher, in a sink of hot water, or in a warm oven set to about 82 °C. For the fermenting container use a glass jar, a stone crock, a glass bowl or a food-grade plastic container; stay away from iron, copper, brass and chipped enamelware containers and spoons. Allow roughly 4 litres of capacity for every 2.3 kg of vegetables, and do not fill the container to the brim.
4. Wash the vegetables, trim the blossom ends, shred the cabbage Wash everything well under cold running water. Cut about 1.5 millimetres off the blossom end of each cucumber — the end opposite the stem — and throw that slice away, leaving 6 millimetres of stem attached. This tiny trim saves the texture of the whole jar: the blossom end is where the enzymes that break down pectin and cellulose, and therefore soften pickles, are concentrated. For cabbage, remove the outer leaves, cut the head into quarters, remove the core and shred it about 2 millimetres thick, roughly the thickness of a coin. Pierce peppers in a few places with a fork so the brine can get inside, and cut carrots into sticks.
5. Measure the brine In salt-brine pickling the salt level is a safety matter before it is a taste matter: use 50-80 grams of salt per litre of water, that is 5-8 percent. Pushing the salt up to 10-15 percent slows fermentation down or stops it starting at all, and softens the pickles; cutting the salt below the recommended level is also wrong, because salt is what favours the useful bacteria and holds back the unwanted ones. Use additive-free pickling salt or additive-free rock salt: the anti-caking agents in table salt and iodised salt can cloud the brine and discolour the pickles. Dissolve the salt completely in the water before pouring it into the jar. If you are making vinegar pickles, use vinegar labelled 5 percent acidity, never homemade vinegar whose acidity is unknown, never reduce or dilute the vinegar a recipe calls for, and keep the jar in the refrigerator rather than on a shelf unless you have properly processed it in a boiling-water canner.
6. Fill the jar and keep the vegetables under the brine Put half the spices in the bottom of the container, pack the vegetables on top and scatter the rest of the spices over them. Pour in enough brine to cover the vegetables completely, leaving no air pockets. To hold the vegetables 2.5-5 centimetres below the surface, lay a glass or non-metallic plate on top and weigh it down with a small water-filled glass jar or a water-filled food-grade zip-top bag. The rule is blunt: anything left above the brine will grow mould.
7. Hold it at the right temperature Put the container somewhere cool, dark and steady in temperature — not on a sunny stretch of kitchen counter. The ideal range for fermentation is 18-20 °C. At 21-24 °C cucumber pickles and sauerkraut-style cabbage finish in about 3-4 weeks; at 13-18 °C the same job takes 5-6 weeks. Above 27 °C the pickles go soft, and if the temperature drops well below 18 °C the lactic acid forms late, so the protective acid is missing and unwanted microorganisms can grow — below about 15-16 °C fermenting cabbage may not get going at all.
8. Check the jar two or three times a week Open the container two or three times a week and promptly remove any film or scum from the surface. A thin, flat, white-to-grey or pink film is usually yeast; take it off and the pickles underneath are unaffected, but if the film sits there for a long time it gives mould a foothold and softens the pickles. Bubbling and gas in the first days are normal: in tightly closed containers, open the lid periodically to let the carbon dioxide out. If the brine level has dropped, top it up with brine mixed at the same ratio. If the cabbage's own juice does not cover it, add boiled and cooled brine made with about 1.5 tablespoons of salt per litre of water.
9. Recognise when it is done, seal it and store it Fermentation is finished when the bubbling stops; the cucumbers turn from green to yellow, and if you cut one open that colour has worked its way from the outside in. At that point close the container tightly so no air gets in. Fully fermented pickles keep in their own brine in the refrigerator for about 4-6 months, on the condition that you keep removing any surface film and mould; tightly covered sauerkraut-style cabbage also keeps for several months in the refrigerator. If you processed the jars properly in a boiling-water canner, store them in a cool, dark, dry place between 10 and 21 °C, away from sunlight and damp, and use them within a year. Every jar goes into the refrigerator once it is opened.
10. Know the signs of spoilage and throw the jar out without hesitating Fuzzy growth in green, blue, brown or black is mould, and mould means the fermentation has failed: throw the whole jar out, do not skim it and eat the rest. A putrid or sharply unpleasant smell is the same signal of a failed fermentation. Discard pickles that have gone soft or slimy or that smell bad. In a sealed or canned jar, a swollen lid, a broken seal, liquid spurting out as you open it, air bubbles rising inside the jar, foaming, an unnatural colour and dried food streaks at the top of the jar are all spoilage signs. With any of these, do not taste-test — discard the jar.

⚠ This guide is general information. Yudum cannot be held responsible for the outcome of following it; for official procedures always rely on the institution's own statement. Steps and fees change over time.

🎯 Related content

How to Add Salt and Rinse Aid to a Dishwasher and Set the Water Hardness Where the salt reservoir and the rinse aid dispenser are, how to fill them, how to find out your tap water hardness and how to set the machine's… What Temperature Should Your Fridge Be? Safe Food Storage, Shelf by Shelf The real temperature inside a home fridge is usually higher than people assume. Following Turkey's Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry food safety… How to Safely Thaw Frozen Meat and Chicken Leaving frozen mince on the kitchen counter is one of the most common habits in Turkish kitchens, yet every food safety authority treats it as… How to make Turkish coffee The secret of the foam is not in boiling it, it is in not boiling it. And in cold water.