Types of Pickles
For centuries people have pickled food in order to preserve it. While our ancestors pickled many different kinds of foods, including meat, fish and fruits, cucumbers are the most common pickled food in America today. The term pickle is derived from the Dutch word pekel, meaning brine. In the U.S. and Canada, the word pickle alone almost always refers to a pickled cucumber (other types of pickles will be described as "pickled onion," "pickled cauliflower," etc.), except when it is used figuratively. Our word comes from the Middle English “pekille.”
History of Food Preservation
Pickling began 4000 years ago using cucumbers native to India. This was used as a way to preserve food for out-of-season use and for long journeys, especially by sea. Salt pork and salt beef were common staples for sailors before the days of steam engines. Although the process was invented to preserve foods, pickles are also made and eaten because people enjoy the resulting flavors. Pickling may also improve the nutritional value of food by introducing B vitamins produced by bacteria.
Fermentation can also transform inedible—even poisonous—foods into delicious, healthful ones. Many communities across Africa and South America wash, grind, and ferment the toxic, cyanide-containing cassava tuber to produce flour. Neolithic peoples in Europe fermented nettles, cardoons, and new growths of willow trees to make sour soups.
Many cultures have historically fermented foods by burying them underground, producing a rotted, yet edible delicacy. The Chinese buried eggs; Islandic communities interred shark meat in the sand; Scandinavians fermented fish in the ground, along with cheese and a traditional liquor; the Scottish buried kegs of butter in peat bogs, slowly fermenting it for seven years before eating it; the Inuit people still bury whale and seagull meat.
South Pacific Fermentation Pits
In the Pacific Islands, where a warm, humid climate causes rapid food spoilage, native communities have preserved fruit in fermentation pits for two millennia. The chambers are dug in well-drained locations and lined with banana leaves as a protective barrier against the soil. The pits were especially useful for accruing surplus food for ceremonies and natural catastrophes. If a hurricane were to take down a community's fruit trees, local people would quickly harvest and store the fruit to prevent spoilage. So important were storage pits in Fiji that before a man could propose to a woman, her parents would inspect his storage pits to make sure he was good marriage material.
South Pacific pit fermentations are an ancient method of preserving starchy vegetables without the addition of salt. The raw materials undergo an acid fermentation within the pit, to produce a paste with good keeping qualities. Pit fermentations are also used in other parts of the world – for example in Ethiopia, where the false banana (Ensete ventricosum) is fermented in a pit to produce a pulp known as kocho.
Foods preserved in pits can last for years without deterioration, therefore pits provide a good, reliable cheap means of storage. Root crops and bananas are peeled before being placed in the pit, while breadfruit are scraped and pierced. Food is left to ferment for three to six weeks, after which time it becomes soft, has a strong odour and a paste-like consistency. During fermentation, carbon dioxide builds up in the pit, creating an anaerobic atmosphere. As a result of bacterial activity, the temperature rises much higher than the ambient temperature. The pH of the fruit within the pit decreases from 6.7 to 3.7 within about four weeks. Inoculation of the fruit in the pit with lactic acid bacteria greatly speeds up the process. The fermented paste can be left in the pit and removed as required. Usually, it is removed and replaced with a second batch of fresh food to ferment. The fermented food is washed and fibrous material removed. It is then dried in the sun for several hours to remove the volatile odours, and pounded into a paste. Grated coconut or coconut cream and sugar may be added and the mixture is wrapped in banana leaves and either baked or boiled (Steinkraus, 1996).
Pickling Terms & Methods
Pickles are divided into two main categories: fresh-pack and fermented. Fresh-pack pickles are made using an acidified brine, while fermented pickles use a salt-water brine and make use of bacteria and yeast present in the environment to turn them sour during fermentation. Once pickled, all are ready to eat immediately, but the pickling process is more extensive for fermented pickles, which are made in the traditional way. There are also Refrigerated Pickles, quick and easy, but their shelf life is shorter, and they must be refrigerated. Refrigerator Pickles are the crispiest, followed by Fresh Pack, with the least crispy being Fermented Pickles.
Brine The pickling liquid. Originally, the brine was salt water; vinegar was subsequently added. (Polish-style pickles use salt water only, no vinegar.) The brine can be seasoned with any variety of herbs and spices. Pickle brine should never be thrown out. It can be used as a marinade, in salad dressing or cole slaw, to make dirty martinis, to re-pickle other vegetables, etc.
Vinegar - Distilled white vinegar does not affect the colour or taste of the items you are pickling. It is especially preferred by those who are planning to run their preserves in shows and contests, and those who are pickling fish. You will probably definitely want distilled white vinegar when pickling cauliflower, and if you like your pickled eggs and onions white, with those. Apple cider vinegar can, combined with the spices in the mix, add an interesting fruity flavour, but it can stain certain food items being pickled with its brown colour.
Salt - Don't use iodized salt or table salt as a pickling ingredient. Anti-caking ingredients in both of those salts will make your brine cloudy, and iodine in iodized salt will discolour the items you are pickling, and when pickling fish, iodized salt may give the fish a bitter flavour. You need to use a pure salt: pickling salt, kosher salt or dairy salt. Don't alter the amount of salt in recipes -- it's there for a reason, which is health safety, and as a side point, too little salt may cause the item you are pickling to go soft and slimy. Salt draws water out of the vegetable, making the pickle more firm. Too much salt causes shriveling.
Fermented Pickles Fresh sauerkraut and the pickles you buy from a pickle barrel are fermented in barrels or vats. Moroccan pickled limes and lemons, umeboshi in Japan, are also fermented. A brine forms as the water comes out into the salt. The process creates the right pH to encourage bacteria (Lactobacillaceae) to turn sugars to lactic acid. This acid both gives the produce a desirable sour tang and preserves the food items, and in eating the sugars, they deprive bad bacteria of a potential food source. It takes time and careful control over the temperature and the bacteria that do the fermentation. The ideal room temperature for fermentation to encourage the lactic acid bacteria to grow is 70 to 75 F (21 to 24 C.). It can be done at home, but it's tricky.
Salt, in raising the salinity of the environment, helps lactic-acid producing bacteria because they thrive in it. This gives them the winning edge in the race against time to see whether they or bad bacteria will win out in the fight to colonize the items you are pickling (too much salt, though, can hinder the good bacteria as well, so that they won't produce enough lactic acid, allowing bad bacteria that don't mind that level of salt in). The vessel that you are doing the fermenting in needs to be kept covered, to deprive it of a fresh supply of oxygen which the bad bacteria like.
You need to remove the scum daily, as it can lower the acidity levels, and keep the food items covered in brine at all times. Fermenting time varies by the food item being pickled. Sauerkraut and dill pickles are about 3 weeks. Once fermented, the food items are removed from the brine, rinsed to get excess salt off them, then packed in jars with a pickling solution.
Fresh Packed Pickles/Water Bath Method In order to store pickles at room temp, pickles must be pasteurized. The jars are sterilized before filling, the pickles are usually packed with a salt brine, vinegar, and spice mix, they are packed in special bottles with special lids, and then they are submerged in boiling water for a precise time. The contents are not only pickled but cooked, which changes their flavor and texture. This is how grandma stored veggies in the basement for the winter. If canned and properly stored, they will last for up to a year.
Processing the sealed jars of pickled items in a hot water bath does two things: it kills all organisms that could cause the items to spoil, and when the jar cools, it creates a vacuum seal. Essentially, it pasteurizes the jars. It destroys bacteria, moulds and yeasts, as well as enzymes that could affect the quality in terms of colour, texture and flavour.
You can skip the processing step for most of these pickles, and just keep the jars in the fridge. See Refrigerator Pickles below.
Method used by some for pickled cucumber spears and slices and peppers, both of which end to get mushy from being cooked in the water bath. It is only used with vinegar brines where PH is 4.0 or lower. This person's grandmother said, that so long as the jar seals it is safe.--(again for vinegar brines only). This person would then store on the pantry shelf as any other canned good.
Here is how I can/process peppers
1. Clean peppers
2. Put all jars, lids, bands in pot and bring to boil + 1 extra lid
3. Cut pepper rings or slits in whole peppers (so brine can reach inside)
4. Pull jar, lid and band out of boiling water and put on clean towel
5. Pack jar full of peppers
6. pour boiling brine over peppers
7. put the "extra lid" and band on and shake jar really good--this will get the brine inside the peppers and remove air pockets
8. take lid off and fill with brine to 1/2" from top
9. put a new lid and band on a set aside for lids to seal.
Repeat as neededAnother person commented:
I should check the ph of my brine next time I do a batch of peppers.....my method is as follows....
Brine....
3 cups vinegar and I use the 7% acidic pickling vinegar
1 cup water
1/4 sugar
1.I bring to a boil and let simmer
2.Boil jars and rings 15 minutes
3.Soak lids with the rubber seal in warm water
4.Rinse and slice peppers into rings
5.Spoon peppers into jar,fill with simmering brine and gently use a spoon to squeeze out any trapped air.
6.top with more peppers and brine leaving a 1/4 head space and seal.
Store in a cool dark shelf until needed.
Refrigerator Pickles This method is simple. You simply pack the pickles in a bottle with a brine and store them in the fridge for a few days and eat. Some are ready in 24 hours. They keep for 2 months or so in the fridge. The fermentation takes place in the refrigerator. When the proper time necessary has passed, the pickles are ready to eat
Firming Agents Firming Agents are ingredients added to make the items being pickled come out less soft. They were used a great deal in the past, but now items such as alum, lime (the mineral) and grape leaves are no longer required. They were more useful back in the old days, when vinegar would have been homemade, and probably not of a high enough acid content on a regular, reliable basis to crisp up the food -- now that we have 5% vinegar, that high acidity is enough to reliably do the firming.
Lime is a tricky firming agent to use. You soak food items in a lime and water solution before starting pickling. But, if you don't get all excess lime out after the soaking, you risk serving your family and your guests jars of pickled botulism. After the pickles are soaked in a lime solution, you have to rinse the pickles in running water, then soak them in fresh water for an hour, then repeat the rinsing and fresh water soaking two more times.
Alum used to be added to fermentation style pickles. Any recipes calling for it are old; food safety people are now trying to steer home canners towards modern recipes, with modern procedures, that don't call for it or need it. One of the procedures suggested instead is crisping cucumbers in ice water for about 5 hours prior to starting. Alum doesn't work as a firming agent with the quick process method.
Some older recipes call for adding a grape leaf to each jar of pickles. Grape leaves have something in them that inhibits the enzymes which would make pickles soft. The same purpose can be achieved by trimming off the blossom ends of cucumbers, where those enzymes are likely to be.
Types of Pickles
Banana Peppers Long, shiny and yellow, pickled banana peppers are a popular garnish for burgers, crab cakes, pizzas and salads. They are available in hot and mild varieties, whole and rings.
Barrel Fermented Pickles made in a classic large, wooden pickle barrel (or more modern container), fermented with vinegar, salt and water.
Bread & Butter Pickle A type of sweet pickle with a sweet-and-tangy profile. Cut into thin slices (often with waffle-cut edges) for easy addition to sandwiches, burgers and potato salad, the cucumbers are pickled with onions and chopped bell peppers. They have a distinct, slightly tangy taste.
Cherry Peppers Hot pickled peppers shaped like puffy cherries and are green or bright red in color. They make a popular, edible garnish and are a mainstay of antipasto platters. They add a bit of heat, chopped into casseroles and meatloaf. They are available in both hot and sweet versions, whole and in rings.
Chow-Chow Chow-chow (the hyphen is essential to distinguish it from the dog breed of the same name) is a mustard-pickle relish made from a combination of vegetables. Popular choices include asparagus, beans, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, chayote, green tomato, onions, peas and red tomato. It is less sweet than piccalilli, and may also be spicy. Also see Relish
Cornichon The French word for gherkin. These are not necessarily the West Indian gherkin, but European cucumbers harvested at one to two inches in length. Cornichons pickled in wine vinegar with garlic (and often, pearl onions) are traditionally served with pâté.
Corn Relish - see Relish
Dill Pickle The dill pickle is the most popular variety of cucumber pickle in the U.S. Originally made with fresh dill weed, today dill oil is added by commercial manufacturers (artisan producers will use the fresh herb and often pickling spices—mustard, pepper, garlic, etc.—as well). There are many types of dill pickles: Genuine Dill, Kosher Dill, German Dill, Overnight Dill, Polish Dill. The longer pickles ferment, the darker they become. Compare the color of these dills to the bright green half-sour pickles.
Genuine Dill Pickle Dill pickles made by the slow, “processed” method. Dill weed is added to the tanks during the last stage of fermentation or to the jar after fermentation. These pickles usually have a higher lactic acid flavor; they taste more concentrated and sour than other dill pickles.
Geman-Style Dill Pickle An unfermented style of pickle, which does not use a brine, but pickles the cucumber in vinegar or lemon juice. This creates a less sour flavor.
Kosher Dill Pickle These pickles may or may not be kosher, but the term refers to a “kosher style” flavor profile. This means that a large amount of garlic has been added to the brine at the end of fermentation, giving them a much more robust flavor than regular dill pickles.
Polish Style Dill Pickle A garlicky pickle, similar in flavor profile to the kosher dill pickle.
Dilly Bean Spicy pickled string beans, which are made with hot red chiles, along with garlic, mustard seed and pickling spices.
Fermented or Processed Pickles Here, salt is used to ferment the cucumber: The pickles are covered with brine (salt dissolved in water). Vinegar is usually added to the brine for flavor, and seasonings are added during the final stages of fermentation.
Fresh Packed or Quick Process One of the most common methods for producing commercial, jarred pickles. The pickles are not fermented, but are preserved in jars with vinegar (sometimes with lemon or lime juice) and seasonings. Salt firms the texture and concentrates flavor. After bottling, the pickles are pasteurized, providing a shelf life of about 18 months.
Gherkin A gherkin is not only a pickle of smaller size, but also a particular species of cucumber—the West Indian or Burr cucumber (Cucumis anguria), which produces a somewhat smaller fruit than the garden cucumber (Cucumis sativus). Some gherkins are made from the West Indian cucumber, but most are made from the garden cucumber. And yes, the cucumber is technically a fruit, not a vegetable: its seeds are contained on the inside. Gherkins can be dill or sweet. They are used to garnish appetizers and sandwiches, are served with sausages and pâtés and enjoyed as snacks. Chopped sweet gherkins are added to egg, macaroni, potato, seafood and tuna salads.
Hamburger Relish - see Relish
Indian Relish - see Relish
Kimchi The staple pickle of Korean cuisine is fiery pickled cabbage, heavily seasoned with garlic and chiles and, in some cases, radish juice. While it is most often made with cabbage, it can include (or be made exclusively of) cucumber or daikon.
Lime Pickles & Mango Pickles With the growth in popularity of Indian cuisine, lime pickles and mango pickles are more prominent in American stores. Pickled limes, however, were popular in the America of the 1800s, and are part of the story line of Louisa May Alcott’s book, Little Women.
Overnight Dill Pickle This is a quick preparation in which the fresh cucumbers are placed into the brine, generally without vinegar, for a brief period, about one to two days, under constant refrigeration. The result is a bright green pickle that tastes like a marinated fresh cucumber, much less acidic than a typical pickle. These are akin to “half sours.” These are by far the easiest. When you are done with a jar of pickles, the brine has been diluted a bit, but it is still good. Throw some fresh pickling cucumbers or green tomatoes in the brine for at least one day. Pickling cukes are a special small breed that you can find in many groceries in the summer, and you can quarter them into spears. They will soak up the brine, remain bright green and crunchy, and taste just like store-bought for up to two weeks. Better. You can't keep them for long because the brine isn't full strength, nor do you want to. It is the fresh new flavor that makes them charming. Just don't try to use a brine twice.
Pepperoncini This pickled pepper is a medium-hot chile, grown in Italy. They are also called Tuscan peppers or golden Greek peppers. Pepperoncini are popular in antipastos and Mediterranean-style salads and are sliced into cold rice and pasta dishes. They can be stuffed with mozzarella and other cheese.
Picalilli - see Relish
Pickled Peppers More than 15 varieties of chile peppers are pickled in the same way as cucumbers. They range from mild pepperoncini to banana peppers to the hotter cherry peppers and the very hot pickled jalapeños. They are available whole and in rings, which are used to garnish hors d’oeuvres, salads and sandwiches/burgers.
Pickled Hot Peppers (water bath - Hungarian or Banana Peppers)
Pickled Jalapeños
Pepperoncini - Southern Italian and Greek cuisine
Roasted Red Peppers
Pimento Peppers
Pickled Vegetables Almost any vegetable or fruit can be pickled. Aside from cucumbers, cabbage (sauerkraut) is the most universally found. Some of the more popular pickles include asparagus, beets, carrots, cauliflower, cocktail onions, green tomatoes and okra.
Pickled Beets (water bath)
Pickled Beets and Eggs (refrigerator pickle)
Cauliflower Pickles (water bath)
Dilly Beans (water bath)
Dilled Green Tomatoes (water bath)
Pickled Leeks (water bath - sweet pickle)
Quick Pickled Onions (refrigerator pickle)
Refrigerated Pickle Refrigerated is the most common home-pickling process, utilizing refrigeration plus vinegar to kill bacteria (i.e., acidification). This process yields the shortest shelf life, but bright green pickles that are crisp and crunchy.
Bread and Butter Pickles (refrigerator pickle)
Relish Relish, made from finely cut or chopped pickles, is available in many different flavors. There is sweet pickle relish, one mixed with mustard, chow chow (a relish of pickled vegetables that can include asparagus, beans, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower and peas), corn relish (which can be mixed with bits of pickle), hamburger relish (which is not made with pickles, but red bell peppers, onion, vinegar and seasonings), India relish (tomatoes, onions, red peppers) and piccalilli (an Indian relish made of tomatoes, onions, cabbage, and red and green peppers). All can be used on burgers and hot dogs, to top deviled eggs, on sandwiches, in dips, etc.
Sauerkraut The German word for “sour cabbage,” sauerkraut is is finely sliced, fermented (pickled) cabbage. Its popularity as a hot dog topping in the U.S. descends from its roots as a side dish for pork and sausage dishes—not just in Germany but throughout Middle and Northern Europe. Choucroute garni, a traditional dish of Alsace, is a plate of sauerkraut (called choucroute in French), garnished with sausages and other pork meats.
Sour Pickle Fresh cucumbers are first placed into a seasoned brine which doesn't include vinegar; they are a type of fermented pickle. The containers are then refrigerated, and remain refrigerated when stored and shipped. The longer the cucumbers remain in the brine, the more sour they become. Half-sour pickles are extra crispy and keep their fresh cucumber color.
Half-Sour Pickle Half sours are pickled for a shorter time than sour pickles, and are made with less salt, which allows quicker fermentation. As a result, they keep their fresh, green cucumber color and are the firmest, crispiest pickles. Half sours are ideal sandwich accompaniments, and can be chopped and added to egg, macaroni, potato, seafood and tuna salads.
Making Sour Pickles (fermented pickle)
Sweet Pickle A pickle brined in a sweet mixture of vinegar, sugar and spices. Bread and butter pickles, candied pickles and sweet gherkins are some examples. Also crab apples, watermelon rind, onions, and beans.
Bread and Butter Pickles (refrigerator pickle)
Pickled Watermelon Rind (hot water bath)
Pickled Leeks (hot water bath)
