Pickles

Having previously mentioned somewhere in my Journal that I love crisp, vinegar-less brine-fermented pickles with lots of dill and garlic, I thought I'd share with you that I made a small batch a couple weeks ago, following a recipe from a Hungarian cookbook, and they were perfect.
Doubled the recipe last Thursday, just decanted them and this batch was disappointing. Some are downright nasty.
Going to get more makings tomorrow and try, try again. The recipe is simple: toast a couple slices of yeast bread. Stick half a slice on the bottom of each quart/litre jar, put in fresh dill, peppercorns, crushed garlic and bay leaf, then stuff in little pickling cucumbers, top with another half slice of toast and fill with salted water that you had boiled. Cover with a screen or cheesecloth or a small plate, leave on windowsill for 5-6 days.
I'm not sure what went wrong with this batch. One problem may be that the weather was unseasonably cold for the last week. Another was that many of the cukes looked a little dirty, so I scrubbed them a bit with plastic wool, which removed the skin in those places. Another was that phonemonkey put a whole piece of toast in the bottom and top of each jar instead of half a slice, so the microorganisms may have been overfed. It's a real pity, because the first batch were the best pickles I have ever had. I hope that, if I repeat the original process exactly, I can make a better batch than this lot.