Pickling in Your Home
Pickling in Your Home Pickling in Your Home
While most of us get our pickles from the grocery aisle and never really think about what kind variety there is out there, this is quite a shame, because pickles are easy, and with a little bit of thought, can be interesting and unique as well as delicious! There was a time when pickling was one of the best ways to preserve food, but with better shipping available, it fell out of favor. Today, you will mostly find pickles in the form of cucumbers that have been made into bread and butter slices or mixed with dill, but the truth is, there are many different types of pickles that you might be interested in.
There are many different kinds of pickles out there. Fresh-pack pickles only need to be cured for a few hours in a vinegar solution before they are ready to eat, and as you can see, they are quite simple to make. Fermented pickles are soaked in brine for a month and are quite a bit stronger. Fruit pickles use whole or sliced fruit that have been simmered in a syrup of some sort, while relishes are made from chopped vegetables that have been cooked in a vinegar solution.
To get started making pickles, take a look at a simple recipe. Wash some cucumbers and slice them down to about three to four inch chunks before soaking them in a brine solution that is roughly1 cup of salt to 2 gallons of water for about 12 hours. Then drain them and put the pickles into a jar, adding spices like mustard seed or dill before covering them with a boiling solution of one and a half quarts vinegar, half a cup of salt, one-fourth a cup of sugar, two quarts of water and two teaspoons of pickling spice.
With this basic recipe, you can see that pickles that are ready to eat are quite easy to come by, but you’ll find that it can get simpler yet. In many Asian countries, the large white radish known as the daikon is often pickled. Unlike the European radish, the daikon is quite mild and even a little sweet. To pickle a daikon, simply sprinkle cut slices of daikon with salt for an hour before gently rinsing them clean. Then cover them white vinegar or rice vinegar for a few hours and you’ll find that they are quite ready to eat. Depending on your taste, you can add a little bit of sugar or pepper to the mixture.
Pickling in general is a largely intuitive process, and you’ll find that with just a little bit of practice, you can make some excellent pickles that all of your friends and family can enjoy.
