How to know when pickles are pickled correctly

Question

I've made a small batch of pickled Japanese Turnip (the small white ones) based on this recipe.

• 1 cup vinegar, such as white, apple cider, or rice
• 1 cup water
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt or 2 teaspoons pickling salt
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar (optional)

I did not add other aromatic ingredients but I added a teaspoon or so of pepper flakes.

I boiled the mixture and pour it over the sliced turnips; covered and put in the fridge for a couple of days; in that case I did not intend to keep them longer, so no bottling or canning.

They were good, but overwhelmingly vinegary (at least compared to commercial pickles)

Question:

How can I know if the pickles were pickled correctly; I only tasted the vinegar, a little bit of the pepper flakes, but not much of the turnip.

Answer 1

"How can I know if the pickles were pickled correctly": Based on whether they taste good to you. With refrigerator pickles like this, you don't need to worry about them fermenting incorrectly or growing the wrong kind of microorganisms. If you think they're too vinegary, reduce the vinegar content.

FWIW, a 1:1 ratio of water to vinegar is much stronger than I like... I prefer something closer to 3:1 or 4:1. Keep in mind what you'll be using them for, and in particular how diluted they'll be: If you'll be popping one in your mouth, you'll probably want a less vinegary brine than if you intend to distribute slivers of them around a sandwich.