How to Pickle

Pickling has long been used as a way to preserve food, and to give it a whole new dimension in flavor and texture.  While store-bought pickles are convenient, they don’t have the same taste and texture of homemade pickles.  Pickling is easy and the results are delicious, provided you have the right ingredients and tools.

How Pickling Works

Pickling is one of the many ways to ferment foods.  Vegetables, herbs, fruits, and even meat products are soaked in brine or an acidic solution.  The brine or acid then stimulates the substances in the food to produce lactic acid bacteria, which prevents the food from spoiling easily.  Pickling is traditionally used to preserve foods, although many people enjoy the taste, flavor, and texture of pickled foods.

Ingredients

If you’re a beginner to pickling, here’s a simple recipe for pickled cucumbers:

• 5 medium cucumbers, washed and cleaned
• 1/4 cup sea salt
• 1 cup vinegar (sugarcane vinegar works best)
• 1 cup water
• 3/4 cup sugar
• Aromatics (herbs like dill, tarragon, mustard seeds and ginger root help give the pickles a unique flavor)
• Pressure cooker
• Pickling jar

Steps

1. Sterilize the pickling jar.
2. Salt the cucumbers to remove some of the moisture.  The process will take around 2-3 hours depending on the variety of the cucumber.
3. Combine the vinegar, water, sugar and aromatics in a saucepan, and allow the mixture to simmer.  Do not heat the mixture to a rolling boil, because you may risk burning some of the sugar.
4. Add the salted vegetables into the mixture and let them simmer for five minutes.
5. Place the pickles in the pickling jar and seal tightly.
6. Refer to your pressure cooker manual for instructions on how to pressurize and seal jars for pickling.

Pickles can be eaten alone, or as a side dish to other foods like sandwiches or burgers or roasts.  With this simple recipe on how to make cucumber pickles, you’ll never have to buy store-bought pickles again.