Culinary Types: Pickling

Sunday, July 19, 2015

Pickled

Hello again.

Yes, it was a long, cold winter. But, once again Restoration Farm is in full swing and bursting with life. And, I am in a constant state of anxiety trying to manage the overwhelming amount of produce I lug home every week. When you join a CSA, the battle over spoilage is constant (why does that seemingly indestructible kale seem to wilt so quickly?) along with a healthy helping of guilt served up whenever that carefully raised local food withers, shrivels or develops a rash.

But now, I have the answer to my seasonal dilemma.

Pickling.

I know certain wags among you will assume I'm drowning my angst by hitting the liquor cabinet, but I’m referring to pickling of the more homespun variety. A simple brine of vinegar, sugar, salt, garlic and spices can pack some amazing flavor, and summer produce just soaks it all in.

Apparently, a penchant for pickling might be a genetic thing. A long time ago, Long Island was a bit of a pickle paradise, with “salting stations” dotting the landscape. HJ Heinz even operated a pickling factory in Hicksville, Long Island in the late 1800s.

Most pickling can be accomplished without using a boiling water canner. These are technically known as “refrigerator pickles.” They aren’t shelf stable, but last about a month in the refrigerator. The only potential downside is the kitchen counters can get a little tacky from all that sugar and vinegar.

I start with two varieties. I slice up the first of the summer zucchini into spears and pickle it in a brine of turmeric and mustard seed. You simply slice up the vegetables (the zucchini needs to sit for about an hour in a salted water bath), simmer the brine a few minutes, cover the vegetables, let the mixture cool and then refrigerate. A clean up note: Clorox Cleanup does a bang up job of removing turmeric stains from the kitchen counter.

The idea of infusing carrots with brine intrigues me, so I get both orange and white carrots to work with. The orange carrots are from Restoration Farm, and the white carrots are from Terry Farm in Orient Point, one of the oldest operating farms on Long Island. The brine is infused with dill.

The zucchini recipe can be found here. My zucchini was various sizes so I chose to cut it all into spears. The carrot recipe can be found here.

I’m thrilled because there’s a ready-to-eat side dish in the refrigerator waiting for me each night so the need to turn on the stove in the summer is negligible. I’m now researching pickled beets, although the recipe I have in mind does require processing in a boiling water canner.

Along with the carrots and zucchini, there’s been another project marinating this past winter. More on that soon, as well as the story of a familiar (although never glimpsed) face from the past with a healthy appetite, who is ready to take a bite out of New York once again.

Thursday, July 31, 2008

In a Pickle

My friend Ms. Zany tells me they pickle everything in her hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania – beans, beets, red peppers and even hard cooked eggs. Some people – who clearly see themselves as slick urbanites – raise an eyebrow when she mentions this, and I assure you, she mentions it fairly frequently. I like Zany. She knows what’s important in life.

Yet, for all my prowess in the kitchen, I’ve never pickled anything. Oh, there is the occasional Saturday night when I … okay…too much information.

Something about sweet, savory, tangy foods with bite resonates deep within. I was said to be such a fan of pickles as a child that I was once given a jar of pickles as a birthday present. Not too tough to shop for. Or maybe I should just pick up and move to western Pennsylvania where I’d clearly fit right in.

When Zany sparks an idea, it usually comes to fruition, and I’ve kind of been on the lookout for something to pickle – at least something that doesn’t have to get up for work the next morning.

So, I do a quick round of the Hallelujah Chorus when I see that the organic Sisters of Sophia Garden are offering pickling cucumbers in this week’s harvest. I gather up my five allotted virgin pickles and head for the kitchen to get started.

Before we get into the details of pickling, here’s a short history of an old and venerable kitchen technique from the Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink. Did you know that pickles are thought to have first been eaten in ancient Mesopotamia, now known as Iraq? It was there that a number of foods were preserved in saltwater brine. The word “pickle” is derived from the Dutch word “pekel” and Dutch colonists brought the technique to North America in the 1600s. The practice was often necessary to preserve foods during long journeys and over lean winter months. Various ethic groups have developed different recipes for pickling, from kosher pickles that come from the Jewish community, to the sweet pickles loved by the English, or the tiny spiced cornichons craved by the French.

The August issue of Cooking Light is my guide, and its “Cooking Class” on Curing & Pickling introduces me to the stress-free method of “refrigerator pickling.” This approach requires no boiling or sterilization, so I forge ahead with a recipe for Bread-and-Butter Pickles. Pickles prepared in this manner must be refrigerated at all times, are perishable, and will usually last up to two-weeks. I discover that the bread-and-butter variety is known for its sweetness and the high sugar content in the pickling brine.

The cucumber slices are tossed with kosher salt and chilled for up to two hours. I then prepare a hot mixture of granulate sugar, brown sugar, white vinegar and cider vinegar, spiked with mustard seed and celery seed, which is poured over the cucumber and sliced onions.

The slices then sit for an hour at room temperature, and must then be covered in an airtight container and refrigerated for 24 hours to allow the flavors to meld and the cucumbers to "pickle."

The results are a crisp and bracing summer snack, the just-picked crunch of the organic garden buoyed by sweet and biting flavors that pop on the palate.