What is your favorite thing to pickle?
What is your favorite thing to pickle?
I put some asparagus in vinegar with garlic, red pepper flakes, and pickling spice a couple weeks ago. I just cracked it open, and they're fantastic!
I also started a batch of sauerkraut today with garlic and caraway seeds in a brine. Gonna keep an eye on it and hope it comes out alright. I like that it's a live fermentation, and will hopefully be full of good probiotics.
What's your favorite thing to pickle, and in what?
Eggs. Specifically, beet pickled eggs.
Fuck. Yes. My mother came from Pennsylvania Dutch stock and those were something we had every year. Now my whole family loves them.
Heck yeah, a New Years Eve staple
Cucumbers.
Jalapeños.
Onions. I can't eat them raw without feeling gross after, but pickled red onions aren't overpowering.
Pickled red onions are amazing! Delicious on sandwhiches, and gives my hispanic dishes a dash of bougieness!
Same.
Mustard seed, whole black pepper, serano or Thai chili, whole garlic cloves. Salt. 50/50 vinegar.
Among other things, red onion replacing sauerkraut on a Reuben is amazing
I LOVE pickled carrots with a bunch of habanero in the jar. Spicy pickled carrots are delicious.
Garlic!
Kimchi is delicious. But you can also buy a big jar at Costco for about $10 in the US.
Peaches! 🍑 🥒
Nice! Is that cinnamon stick in there?
Thai red birds eye peppers... those fuckers are spicy (use gloves when handling, no seriously) and the mix of tannins, acid and natural pepper flavors is amazing. I pickle them sliced into 1cm loops so that I can just pull a spoonful out and throw it into a sauce or on top of a meal as a condiment.
I actually first did this during covid because an instacart order for one pepper ended up being misinterpreted as one cup of peppers.
As I've aged I've found myself wanting pickled veggies a lot more for their dietary benefits and the awesome flavor - we have a local polish import store that carries an extremely wide variety of all sorts of pickled things and it's wonderful to have on hand. I love adding sauerkraut to tuna melts, pickled root veggies to salad and generally incorporate them into things I'm cooking.
Beets.
Cauliflower, carrots, & jalapeño (with as much dill & garlic that’ll fit) edit: white vinegar, generic pickling spice, and just a little red pepper flakes. Close to equal parts CC & 1-2 large jalapeño sliced per 800ml jar
I started pickling red grapes. I had never heard of it until I saw a TikTok about it. I have tried two different recipes, one sweet and one salty. I also did a combination of the two. The sweet is my favorite.
Pickled Grapes (Sweet)
Ingredients:
1 1/2 Cups Apple Cider Vinegar
1 Cup Water
1 Cup Sugar
Pickling Spice
1 Quart Washed Red Seedless Grapes
1 Sliced Red OnionDirections:
Dissolve sugar in hot water. Cool water totally. While water is cooling wash your grapes and fill a quart jar, place the onion at the top, then pour in the pickling spice. Once the water is fully cooled, mix in the vinegar and pour over the grapes. Put on your lid and place in the refrigerator for about a week.Oh, that does sound interesting! I might give that a shot soon.
Salmon
Carrots, lemons, red onions, and daikon. Usually in white vinegar, sometimes rice vinegar, depending.
Fiddlehead ferns. But also the old standby cucumbers.
Thanks for asking this, I’ve got some new picking to try!
Meyer lemons, cherries, blueberries, shallots, garlic, eggs, okra, green beans, watermelon.
I hear pickled pigs feet are tasty, but I have yet to try them.
Pickled cherries? That sounds delicious! What spices do you use for them?
Naturally, I didn’t take notes when I made them. I’m pretty sure I stayed mostly in the mulling spices range: allspice, black peppercorns, clove, cardamom. I’m pretty sure I put in a few coriander and mustard seeds too. Could always add in some cinnamon or nutmeg/mace. Also pretty sure I used plain distilled white vinegar, but I bet apple cider vinegar would be an interesting variation.
They made a nice accompaniment to charcuterie and even ice cream.
I really love okra pickled in a sweet and sour brine with chipotle in it. Something about that particular combination is really good.
Okra (besides cucumbers)
Obviously, cukes.
But, beets, eggs, onion, and okra.
All pretty standard vinegar pickles, with a little sweetness added for the beets.
The eggs vary though. Sometimes, they'll get done in the leftover beet pickle juice. Others, there's a hot pepper version that's a family recipe (nothing special, your bog standard pickled eggs with the jalapenos and banana peppers added in), and a bread n butter version that I don't personally like at all, but I'll make for others.
Cukes and I have run out of places to even pickle them (I need to buy a big crock with a waited thing to keep them below the liquid line).
Also okra and I'll probably do some peppers (mostly jalapeños and seranos) depending upon how my harvest is looking.
I want to do some shelf-stable pickles, but waterbath and pressure canning are both unpopular in Japan so any supplies cost an arm and a leg, especially if I have to import them with the duties and weak yen.
Without fermentation: savoury pears and apples. They combo really well with pulled pork and cheeses. Recipe:
- Prepare a brine with two parts vinegar, one part water, seasoning to taste. (I typically use salt, sugar, black pepper, allspice, dill.)
- Peel and dice the fruits, immediately throwing them into the brine to avoid browning.
- Cook the fruits in the brine over low fire, until they hit your preferred texture.
- Jar it while still hot, making sure to not let air in the jars. The jars can be kept at room temperature indefinitely, as long as still closed.
With fermentation: sauerkraut with onions, carrots, bell peppers alongside the cabbage. For seasoning I typically add garlic, a habanero pepper, ginger, black pepper, and dill. Just shred/mince/slice all ingredients together, weight them, and add 2% salt.