Csalamádé

Directions

1. Wash, shred, ribbon and slice vegetables as pictured.
2. If you don’t have a big enough bowl; which I did not, scour your sink and disinfect it thoroughly, including sink stopper, rinse sink thoroughly. Stop sink and dump all cut vegetables into sink.
3. Add 7 ounces of sea salt. Mix well and let sit for another two hours. Mix well every thirty minutes or so.
4. Squeeze all excess liquid from vegetables and add squeezed vegetables to a large bowl.
5. Wash 9 1 quart size, wide mouth, mason jars and 1 pint and a half size wide mouth mason, along with 10 new 2-piece lids, dry and fill the jars with shredded mixed vegetables.
6. Pour brine into each jar until it is almost to the top of the jar. Cap each jar and close lids tight.
(You will have about 2 1/2 cups of brine left. Cover and keep till later. You may need to top one or two of the bottles the next day if the csalamàdè has lost liquid and vegetables are not submerged in liquid. If you have to do that, those bottles will go directly into the fridge.)
7. Go through them one last time just before placing them into pot on stove to ensure they are all closed tight.
8. Place a dish towel at the bottom of your pot, carefully place jars in pot allowing a little space in between. Fill pot with water to just below the neck of the bottle. (See picture where I’m pointing at the spot, of pictures are available;-)
9. Soak another clean dish towel, squeeze excess water pot and drape over bottle tops submerging all the ends I the water.
10. Bring water to a slow boil and turn flame down to the lowest setting allowing a very slow gentle boil for approximately 30 minutes.
11. Turn off burner and allow pots of covered csalamàdè to completely cool. Leave on stove till next morning.
12. When removing jars from water bath, inspect each bottle. If liquid is not covering vegetables, jar will need to be opened and more brine added from the 2 1/2 ish cups left. Any bottle that has had the seal broken needs to go straight into the fridge.