Pickling dilemma.

[Ricard with an H]

I rarely buy pickled anything because of this dreadful dilemma, not counting for the open self-service in delis and supermarkets you can't taste-test the contents of a jar of pickled red cabbage. (For example)

I can't see any skill in chopping up a red cabbage and pouring vinegar over it and that is just what most UK sourced pickles amount to.

So, because she knows I like pickle with my cheese my lovely has once again bought me pickled red cabbage to save me the trouble, it's dreadful and for what it is it was a con and expensive.

I don't often travel inland to explore food markets because I hate being conned by the current glut of artisan baking, cookery and food preparation. Is it me ?

Please get me up to speed on what constitutes a tasty pickle, and please tell me if you love neat vinegar poured over your raw vegetable.

I won't even buy common-or-garden Balsamic style vinegar because they are mainly a cheap concoction of high acidity.

What happened to fruits and spices ?

[dan3008]

personally, I always add spices and sugar to my home made pickles... Later I'll dig out my recipe for sweet pickled shallots for you

[Ricard with an H]

Thanks Dan.

Other than German, Polish and other east EU countries I need to avoid pickles or make my own. Even though I have absolutely no experience of pickling I did make some red onion chutney from a red onion glut one year. Probably two years ago and I still have a jar in the fridge.

Same with gherkins, I made the mistake of buying English pickled gherkins. Just gherkins with vinegar and a token gesture of spices, it tasted like gherkins in vinegar.

Clever use of vinegar is an art that I never mastered.

[oldherbaceous]

Afternoon Richard, i remember when i was a boy, an old famers wife used to do pickled onions in a mustard liquid....i remember always refusing them, as i thought they looked quite revolting.....but thinking back now, they were probably delicious. But i don't know how they were done...maybe someone else has done them in that way...

[Primrose]

We pickle gherkins in white vinegar with dill spices to produce what I have always thought of as "kosher" and theyvare nixe but the last lot we made were a little too salty so rsther hard to plough through.
I also pickle red cabbage in white vinegar with various spices. i enjoy it with cheese. My husband can't stand it.
I think the secret of enjoying it as its best is to eat it before it has lost too much of its crunch which means not putting it
into the back of a cupboard and forgetting about it for nine months !
Somebody gave me a bottle of rather nice raspberry vinegar, a couple of teaspoons of which is very soothing for
a sore throat but as I have half a fresh red cabbage currently in the fridge I am rather tempted to use up the rest
of the bottle for pickling the cabbage in to try something different.

I won't buy pickled goods from delicatessen stalls. You never know how many weeks they have been going in and out of bowls
and containers on a daily basis being exposed to bacteria in the air especially if they're on market stalls, however tempting
they may look. I don't know if The vinegar deters the bugs but I'd rather not risk it.

[dan3008]

oK Pickled shallots, Any items in red are where I tend to deviate from the recipe to suit different pickles or personal taste

500ml white wine vinegar Personally, I dont always use white wine viniger, sometimes malt, sometimes distilled, sometimes balsamic (a small amount of balsamic in any of the others to add flavour is actually my favourite)
350g white sugar Irronically, I tend to use brown, or omit sugar all together, I only sweet pickle shallots, if you want more savoury just add a pinch of salt instead
100ml water
6 peppercorns I grind about 1/2 a teaspoon of peppercorns into the mix instead. But that is stronger than just adding the whole peppercorn...
1 star anise I never use at all, but I do add cloves instead for Christmas pickle
12 mustard seeds or 1/2 a teaspoon of mustard powder
2 cloves of garlic, chopped or crushed for best flavour
a few sprigs of time or any other herbs you like, mint adds a nice coolness to the mix, while paprika or coriander add a little bit of heat.

add everything to a pan, and boil (stiring) till the sugar has dissolved, or 3-5 min if you have omitted the sugar, sieve and allow to cool before adding your main ingredient.

Personal opinion only, adding some bits like a few extra garlic cloves, some pepper corns, and maybe even a diced pepper (sweet or hot) to the liquid while cooling or after cooling, add a lot of flavour to the overall mix


my wife just had to remind me about my favourite pickle that I made last year, and we are still eating it (I made a MASSIVE jar)

Pickled Garlic
300ml white wine vinegar
200ml cheap (nasty) distilled vinegar, with about 20 ml balsamic to help mask it
50g sugar (just to add a little bit of sweetness)
100ml water
a handful of mint leaves
2 teaspoons of salt
6 spring onions (I added these after sieving the mix, before leaving it to cool)
Garlic cloves, enough to about 3/4 fill your jar

Personally, I chop the spring onions to about an inch, and 1/2 or quarter the garlic cloves, and then just do as above tastes lovely, and the resulting liquid can be used to cook with after your done.

actually, I just ate one add a small amount of garlic with cheese to a cracker and its delicious or use it in cooking like its meant to be used lol

Afternoon Richard, i remember when i was a boy, an old famers wife used to do pickled onions in a mustard liquid....i remember always refusing them, as i thought they looked quite revolting.....but thinking back now, they were probably delicious. But i don't know how they were done...maybe someone else has done them in that way...

you calling my gran a farmers wife I jest. Unless you grew up in bilsthorp...
anyway, My Gran made mustard pickled onions, and my mum still does some times. Although my gran used an old family recipe (she never told it me before she died) my mum uses this one and they taste good

I don't know if The vinegar deters the bugs but I'd rather not risk it.

Prim, no bacteria, virus, mold or insect is supposed to be able to survive in vinegar... well, thats what my food safety lecturer told us (on my degree we had to do all sorts of food and cooking related stuff, not just nutrition), but I'm with you, I'm not convinced. Besides, I think it makes the pickles taste bad even if they are safe, once I've taken something out the vinegar it doesnt go back in, even if i have to throw it away

[Ricard with an H]

Thanks Dan.

For taking the time to collate some guidance information for me, one other thing I meant to ask was has anyone pickled carrot ?

I noticed that I occasionally eat pickled carrot inside something "store-bought" it seems nice.

As regards acidity, the reason properly fermented sourdough doesn't go mouldy, or goes mouldy less quickly, is the acidity. When I say, "properly fermented" I mean with absolutely no bakers yeast and a real sour tang rather than what I occasionally buy from bakers making something more palletable for the unitiated taste buds. My home made sourdough goes hard like a brick but never mouldy. If you sprinkle course sea salt over and pour olive oil over the hot bread when it comes out of the oven it makes a tasty difference.

Dan, I already emptied the horrible vinegar out of the red cabbage jar and replaced it with some apple-balsamic. If you search you can find some amazing balsamic type vinegars that are less acidic and more fruity but they may not be called Balsamic. My favourite one from an anorack-collection is date-balsamic from Mallorca but made by Germans.

[oldherbaceous]

Afternoon Dan, there's nothing wrong with a farmers wife...

Glad there was a recipe for them, i might get to ty them yet....