Authors: Kelly Carrolata
Pickled: From Curing Lemons to Fermenting Cabbage, the Gourmand's Ultimate Guide to the World of Pickling (2 page)
HOW
TO
PICKLE
C
risp pickled vegetables, nuanced preserved fruits, and piquant relishes and chutneys: these once-humble pickles have become the foundation of a new generation of home DIY enthusiasts and gourmet chefs alike, a culinary art form that is as at home in the pantry as it is in a four-star restaurant. As high-end as pickled ingredients have come to be, pickling itself has been refined over thousands of years and is not a difficult process, once you have a firm grasp of a few basic techniques! In this section, you’ll get a brief history of pickling as a preservation method, and then you’ll learn the four primary styles of pickles, general steps for safely preserving your produce, and how to go about canning or jarring your pickles for long-term storage and enjoyment. If you’re ever unclear or unsure about how to handle a recipe, the helpful guidelines presented here should offer everything you need to safely and consistently create deliciously upscale pickles. And once you’ve got the culinary basics under your belt, the recipes will be a breeze!
When you pickle, you are not only creating a vibrant, gourmet ingredient, but you are also reenacting a process that has been practiced and perfected over many thousands of years, by cultures all over the planet. Pickling has been around, in one form or another, for more than 4,000 years. The first archaeological evidence of pickles comes from ancient Mesopotamia and the Tigris River valley, from nearly 3,000
B.C.E
. From then, they never faded out of fashion, with pickles appearing in the writings of Aristotle and in the Bible. They were also associated with famous leaders such as Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, both of whom believed pickles possessed semi-miraculous qualities as an aid to spiritual and physical well-being. Pickles were a widely enjoyed snack during the Middle Ages in Europe, and they quickly became among the most popular preserving methods for sailors, both because pickles would stay fresh for the duration of the voyage, and because they helped prevent scurvy. Amerigo Vespucci, the namesake of America, was a pickle merchant before he was an explorer and mapmaker. Pickles became such a large part of popular culture that even Christopher Columbus grew cucumbers in the Caribbean for the express purpose of making pickles. Think of that the next time you’re toiling in your garden with a stubborn cucumber plant!
In the mid-eighteenth century, Napoleon Bonaparte offered a $250,000 bounty for anyone who could work out a technique to safely preserve pickles and other foods for his armies over long durations. In response, Nicholas Appert discovered that food wouldn’t spoil if it was placed in an airtight jar and then boiled, thus giving birth to the modern invention of canning, and allowing for a variety of nonfermented pickles to be stored for longer periods of time. For the past two centuries, the technology of pickling has remained pretty much the same, even as the taste and prevalence of pickles changed. Today, pickles are a full-blown obsession among chefs, growers, and foodies alike—“Pickle Day” is now a yearly celebration, and the average American consumes nine pounds of pickles annually. It’s hard to blame us, though: Pickles are piquant, healthy, long-lasting, and, best of all, they’re easy to make and even easier to cook with. And because pickling methods have been refined for thousands of years, it’s easy, once the basics are learned, to focus on experimenting with more and more inventive and memorable pickle flavors. Gourmet restaurants all over the country now employ pickled ingredients in a variety of delicious dishes, and it’s never been easier for at-home chefs to do the same.
Making a pickle is so deceptively simple that you won’t believe the incredible changes that happen in your vegetables—until you taste them, that is! Basically, pickling is the process of preserving food by making it acidic, which helps prevent the growth of bacteria and delays spoilage. Usually, you’ll submerge your food in a brine that’s made either with just salt and water, or with vinegar. You’ll probably also want to add some layers of flavor to your pickles, so most brines also get a healthy dose of dill, garlic, allspice, clove, or other spices. From here, you’ll sometimes want to can your pickled vegetables for long-term storage, but other times you might want to eat them straight away, tossing them into a composed salad or topping a sandwich with them.
The beauty of pickling is that knowing just a few simple techniques like fermenting, brining, and canning gives you a world of culinary options for your pickles. For instance, the same item can usually be pickled in at least four different ways, all of which we’ll be exploring here! The first typical technique is fresh-pack (also known as quick-process), which utilizes vinegar of at least 5 percent strength to create the acidic medium for your pickles. These types of pickles are the quickest, easiest, and safest to create, and they make up the bulk of the recipes in this book. If you’re feeling more traditional, you could opt for fermentation, generally used for sauerkraut, kimchi, and old-fashioned dill pickles. In fermented pickles, the acid is created by natural lactobacteria (a good bacteria) that form while your pickle sits under a salty brine. The third general pickling method is that of the fruit pickle, which is generally topped with a boiling sugar-vinegar syrup that will give your pickles a complex sweet-sour flavor, perfect for upscale desserts or avant-garde savory courses. The last common pickle technique is chutney and relish, whereby fruits or vegetables are generally chopped and then cooked down in a strong vinegar solution. Chutneys and relishes are delectable sides to strongly flavored ethnic cuisines, especially Indian and Malaysian.
No matter what type of pickle you want to serve (and preserve), always start with garden-fresh fruits or vegetables, fresh spices, and clean water. Try to get your produce at a trustworthy farmers’ market, or grow it yourself if you’ve got a green thumb. If you’re harvesting your own fruits and vegetables, do so early in the morning and refrigerate them immediately, before preparing all your pickling equipment. And whichever type of pickle you want to make, be sure that you follow your recipe to the letter—ratios of salt and acid are very important to safety in pickling, and this isn’t the time for experimentation! If something is too tart for your taste buds, add a pinch of sugar or a dollop of honey to mellow it out, but don’t dilute the vinegar or brine.
These pickles have the most cachet among DIYers, because they’re the most traditional of all pickles, and they last the longest in storage. They can also be the most intimidating, though, since most cooks don’t have experience with home fermentation. Don’t let that dissuade you—the deep and complex flavors that fermentation produces are a culinary payoff that’s well worth the attention you’ll need to give to your pickles.
To ferment a traditional pickle, you’ll need to whip up some basic pickling brine at a ratio of 1 quart water to
1
⁄
2
cup pickling salt—and don’t be afraid to add some classic spices like dill and garlic to your taste. The container that you choose to ferment in is important—it should be either earthenware or food-safe plastic or glass, and it should be large or deep enough that the vegetables remain under the brine throughout the fermenting period, since any exposure to air can introduce harmful bacteria to your pickles. If you’re finding that your vegetables keep floating to the top of the container, you’ll need to weigh them down with a heavy plate, or get creative and use a zip-topped bag filled with rocks or some other implement, depending on the size and shape of your container. In all cases, the brine should cover the pickles by at least 1 inch. Your entire crock or jar should then be covered in either a loose lid, or a breathable barrier like a coffee filter or some tea towels.
At room temperature, it takes about a month for a whole cucumber pickle to be completely fermented, with other vegetables clocking in at slightly less time. Don’t just put your pickles in the fermenting crock and then forget about them, though! You should check your fermenting pickles every day to make sure that they’re fully submerged. Over time, you’ll likely notice mold on the surface of your mixture—this is normal, and you can remove it with a clean, washed spoon when you notice it. It may seem strange to you to intentionally let bacteria grow on and near your food, but the strong, sour taste that denotes a good pickle needs fermentation to really develop. As for doneness, the best and only test is to remove one of your vegetables and inspect it. It should taste crisp and fresh, but distinctly soured in that delightful pickle way. It should
not
be slimy, moldy, or foul-smelling; those signs indicate that something has gone very wrong. If you have any questions about the mixture, throw it out. It’s better to start over than to eat a bad pickle!
After you decide that your pickles have hit the taste that you’re looking for, you can either rinse them and then jar them for a few weeks in a fresh mixture of 3 parts of good quality vinegar (5 percent acidity) with 1 part filtered water, or you can process and can them to preserve them for up to a year. If you choose to can them, you’ll need to remove and rinse your pickles, strain and boil the brine they’re fermenting in, and then can them using the instructions later in this section.