Filaments in Pickled Vegetables

[JungMann]

I recently made vegetable escabeche by battering eggplants, squash and peppers with egg and seasoned flour, frying them in olive oil and then preserving them in a brine of 1.5 water : 1 vinegar (6% acidity) with olive oil on top. After 2 weeks in the refrigerator, I opened the jar to find translucent threadlike fibers on some of the vegetables. The pickles taste and smell normal, but I am concerned the fibrous material might not be from the vegetables and might be pathogenic. Does anyone have a guess as to what might be happening and whether the pickles are safe to eat?

[pikawicca]

Sounds like a fungus -- not necessarily unsafe, but it will eventually lead to spoilage.

[DeppityDawg]

Sounds like mold to me, too, if the filaments appear on the exposed surfaces of the vegetables not submerged in the liquid. I'd remove and discard the top layer and eat the rest ASAP.

[JungMann]

When I saw the filaments, I immediately thought hyphae. The strands are long and individual, so I don't think it is mold. I don't know of a fungus that seems to colonize egg batters and endures low pH, so I'm not totally convinced, which is how I excused eating the escabeche again for dinner last night. I did remove the top layer of vegetables as a precaution. Some of the vegetables submerged in the brine had a bit of the filament (particularly the red pepper), but there was no off flavor. If anything, the vegetables tasted even better after having marinated in the brine for so long.

[lcool]

the egg batter,maybe?albumen?,egg white threads?some sort of thing going on with the proteins separating?
I know I've seen white,cloudy.lumpy stuff in pickled pigs feet and never in herring.

[guilty]

Not having seen the "translucent threads," I'd say eat it if it smells and tastes OK and has been in the fridge. My guess is that the breading is starting to come off, and the gluten/egg is making the particles stick together--but again, I haven't seen this stuff, and you're the one eating it.

[acgold7]

Did you do this following an established recipe from an authoritative canning guide? I'd be concerned that there wasn't enough acid to do this without pressure canning. Translucent threads sound scary. I'd toss it. Botulism is tasteless and odorless.

[JungMann]

The technique was something I saw on "From Spain With Love," not from a canning guide. I processed an earlier batch and thought maybe the vegetable fibers unraveled during the hot water bath so I didn't process this batch and still ended up with strands in the pickles.

I don't think C. botulinum produces translucent threads. To be on the safe side, I should likely toss out the batch (even though it tastes so good!) but I'd like to know scientifically what is causing this threading.

[scubadoo97]

Botulism growth is inhibited below a pH of 4.7. I would guess a ratio of 1.5 water : 1 vinegar would be sufficient to inhibit botulism spores from growing