Adventures in Pickling!!!
I took a break from soldering the other day and ran out to pick the kiddo's up from school....Yes, I turned the pickle pot OFF! I also ran by Wally World, otherwise known as Wal-mart, to pick up a few office folders and supplies. While I was there, I saw just the right size crock pot for pickling (pictured above)...not too big...not too small, but JUSTTTTTTTTTT right!!...(why do I feel like Goldilocks right now?) Best news of all...it was only 10 BUCKS!!!
(Side note for all non-metalsmiths that might be reading this...Metalsmiths and jewelers use pickle to clean their metal after they solder it)
Anyway, to make a long story short, we came home and unloaded the car. I went up to my studio with my new pickle pot in hand...and as God was my witness, the bottom of my old pickle pot had eroded and there was acid ALL OVER MY STUDIO!!!!!! Talk about a great time to have a new pickle pot!!! I was in "freak out" mode to clean up the mess...and I was certainly glad that I was using CITRIC ACID as my pickle, or it would have been a LOT nastier to clean up!!!
After my mess was cleaned up, I filled my new crock pot up with water and mixed in the citric acid. All was good in the world...until...
Moving on to today...
My old crock pot had holes in the top of the lid...so if I did ever accidentally leave it on, it would not blow up or do anything weird. Well, my new one doesn't have the holes...and I did forget to turn it off!!!! I had unknowingly left it on "high" all night. When I went up stairs it smelled really strange, but I thought it was the creamer in the coffee that I had spilled up there the night before. But, boy was it strong !!! When I did finally realize that the stuff in my crock pot was orange and bubbly...I thought, "Oh great, I am gonna die from these stupid fumes, just like my husband said." (He is always teasing me) To make another long story short, I poured some pool hth Alkalinity Plus (also known as sodium bicarbonate) into my vat of orange brew and neutralized it. Now it's this nasty dark brown color...(see picture above)
I just finished cleaning up my new crock pot. I don't think it's damaged. However, now I have another problem... I am in the middle of a project and I am out of pickle. So my "stand by" pickle is: vinegar and table salt. ( TIP: 1 Tablespoon of salt to every cup of white vinegar) The Problem???...I am out of table salt too! (Frustration sets in!!!!!)
I do have Kosher salt and Sea salt. So I flipped a coin and I am going to pray that the Sea salt works. I am heating that up right now.
On a bad note...my throat does hurt a little:-(...breathing too many bad fumes????
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