Sunday, October 19, 2014

DIY -- pickles

I was born north of the Mason Dixon line and moved south of it when I was 20.
I hear southerners will pickle anything.
Pickling is one of the great ways of keeping your food.
There are three ways to do it.
1.  Salt press.  This is for sauerkraut, lox, and Japanese tsukemono.
2.  Brine bath with spices.  This is for sour pickles, corned beef, and Korean kimchi.
3.  Vinegar marinade.  Most other pickled vegetables.

Pick your favorite vegetable and you can probably find a pickling recipe for it. 
Even vegetables you don't like may taste better pickled. 
"Don't like" beets?  Pickle them! 
And use the vinegar marinade to produce wonderful purple-red pickled eggs.

Use pickling the way our ancestors did: so as not to throw away what they worked so hard to grow.
Example: I found a recipe online for pickling broccoli stems.
I also found one for pickling the florets, but we all have better things to do with those.
When you go to the farmer's market and they don't have just the crowns of the broccoli,
don't fuss.  Buy the whole thing.
Cut off the florets for those other recipes.
Then pickle the stems.

You don't have to can these things and store them on a shelf.
Make small "boutique" jars and put them in your fridge. 
They'll keep up to 6 months in the fridge.

Try it, you'll like it!
© Patricia Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights Reserved

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