Gurkentopf 5.0 Liter Pickling and Fermenting Pot by Nik Schmitt

I received this pot as a gift and finally just made my first pickles! After one week we tested them and my kids said they were better than Bubbies. At $10 per jar I take that as a compliment. I used 3lb of 2-3” Adams cucumbers with horseradish leaves over the cucumbers and under the weight for crunch. The pot does not come with weights but I was gifted a set so I used them. The lid’s water reservoir needed refilled every couple of days which was fine because I was checking brine levels anyway. I did not lose any brine so the pot seems to be well sealed. Kitchen temperature contributed to reservoir evaporation so that will vary season to season and location to location. Once I develop a schedule I will put the pot in the cool basement and will not need to fill it as often.Pouring out the brine when jarring the pickles was a bit tricky because the pot is so heavy when full. I just put a large measuring bowl in the sink, poured the brine into that and filled the jars with the measuring bowl. I lost very little brine doing it that way.The wooden tongs that come with the pot are a bit large and stiff, but I have small hands. I was surprised to find a cordial recipe rather than a pickle one included. There were no further recipes or instructions so I had to find my own crock pickle recipe to use. The cordial recipe was given to a friend to translate from German to English though I doubt I will use it.Cleaning the pot was easy though you do need to be careful to clean up under the reservoir on the inside. I recommend hand drying so water does not pool in that spot.I really like this 5L pot. It looks lovely on the counter and functioned as it should. It was packaged very well with no broken bits or blemishes. I look forward to many batches of fermented goodness in the coming years.

I'm new to fermenting so my strategy was, if I failed my cucumbers, at least this jar was going to a darling addition to my kitchen! And it certainly is. Couple things I would mention: The tongs broke upon first use. Secondly, the recipe that comes with the jar is in German. Thank God for Google translator. The translation provided below is no use to my cucumbers, but I found one online, and they turned out perfectly!Excellent packaging for this, as well as the other two fermenting crocks I purchased from this company."General: It is the rum all fruits that ripen from early spring to autumn and submit them one at a time in an earthenware pot with lid. Not suitable are: apple, black currants, blueberries or blackberries Only absolutely flawless, ripe fruit should be used! A layer of fruit needed about six weeks to mature Before Replenish is stirred with a clean spoon. Have fun setting and grating.Preparation:With strawberries, the first summer fruits, our Rumtoph beginsThey are washed, dried and placed in a bowl.Then half the weight of the fruit is filled in sugar. The whole we can pull through a good hour and then everything comes to rum.We pour as much 54% strength Rum fact that the fruits are covered finger's breadth.That means about a 0.7 ltr bottle on a pound of fruit and half a pound of sugar.Then we move the pot and set it to a cool spot. In between we look occasionally if there is enough liquid in the pot, because the rum is supposed to be always circled over the fruit.He does not do it, we pour of rum.Once the next season fruits are there, we do the same as with the strawberries, but with the difference that now we need a pound of fruit and sugar only about 0.2 liters Rum."