Pickled: From Curing Lemons to Fermenting Cabbage, the Gourmand's Ultimate Guide to the World of Pickling (3 page)

Quick-process (also known as fresh-pack) is a faster and generally easier way to pickle than fermentation. It won‘t preserve your food nearly as long as the traditional process, but it’s tasty and time effective. Instead of bacteria causing fermentation, quick-process pickles rely on vinegar to flavor and preserve the vegetables. Generally, you’ll place your produce in a glass jar or food-safe container, and then cover your vegetables with a boiled mixture of vinegar, salt, sugar, and spices. The pickles should then be covered and left at room temperature for approximately 24 hours to allow the flavors to penetrate before being transferred to the refrigerator. Prepared in this way, pickles will last for a few weeks if kept cold. If you’d like to keep your pickles for longer, you’ll need to follow the instructions in the canning section for packing and processing your pickles. If quick-process pickles are canned in a sterile manner, they can last for a few months. A quick note, though: if you ever notice your quick-process pickle solution starting to look cloudy, that’s a signal to toss the pickles. A cloudy solution is acceptable if you are making fermented pickles, but for nonfermented pickles, it can indicate yeast spoilage. Sometimes, using regular salt instead of pickling or canning salt can also cause cloudiness, as can preparing your pickles in a reactive (any container that is not ceramic, glass, stainless steel, or Teflon) container. Even though cloudiness from salt and from a reactive container is not dangerous, it’s usually best to toss cloudy quick-process pickles, in case the off-color is caused by yeast.

Fruit pickles, chutneys, and relishes are all derivatives of the quick-process method of pickling. They are largely unfermented, with the exception of some preserved lemons and limes, and you generally pickle them by covering them in a boiling vinegar-sugar solution. You’ll notice as you make them that fruit pickles will take significantly more sugar and less salt than nonfruit pickles, but it’s very important not to dilute the vinegar with water—vinegar should always remain at a concentration at or above 5 percent. More sugar can offset the sour tang of the vinegar (unless you enjoy pungent flavors), as can substituting a flavored vinegar like apple cider vinegar or rice wine vinegar. Those options also add a subtle taste that will blend well with Asian flavors. Fruits, relishes, and chutneys should always be canned for storage, unless you are planning to eat them within a few days.

Even though these methods cover most of the pickles that you’ll be making, you should treat these overviews primarily as general guidelines. Make sure to check the specific recipe that you’re making for any noteworthy changes to the processes outlined here. In general, the longer you plan on storing the pickle, the more chance that you’ll need to take some additional steps to ensure safe canning.

The most important piece of equipment in your canning adventures is the canner itself, but a lot of people don’t know what type of canner to get, or when to use pressure canning versus a hot water bath. The simple rule of thumb is that all high-acid foods go into a hot-water-bath canner. Everything else (low-acid foods, including all nonpickled vegetables, meat, fish, poultry, and dried beans) must be processed in a pressure canner. High-acid foods are all fruit products and anything pickled with vinegar—this includes pickles, relishes, and vinegar-based sauces. All of the pickles that we cover in this book can be successfully canned with the hot water method, so it should be your default method unless a pickle recipe specifically calls for a different tactic. The hot water bath increases the temperature in the canning jar enough to kill bacteria, and it also pushes out air bubbles as the content expands. As the jars cool, the air pressure creates the seal that makes the lid pop—the final product should look like any other well-sealed jar that you would buy at the grocery store or co-op.

Aside from the canner, you’ll need several other items if you’re going to begin canning your pickles. Now is the time to take an inventory of your canning supplies and equipment and start gathering screwbands, lids, and jars. Check out your local thrift shops and see if you can get a supply of Mason jars cheap. You may have to ask because they don’t always put out jars. Also post a note on your local Freecycle network (
www.freecycle.org
); sometimes you can get canning equipment there, in which case all it costs is the gas to go pick it up. The following list might seem like an unreasonable amount of gear for such a nostalgic practice, but once you have everything you need, you’ll find that it will take just minutes to prep your gourmet pickles for storage.

 
Water-bath canner (you can use a large stockpot with a lid, but any pot used as a water-bath canner must have a rack to keep the jars off the bottom)

 
Canning jars—pints, quarts, and jelly Mason jars

 
Lids and rings

 
Screwbands

 
Large spoons for mixing and stirring

 
Metal soup ladles

 
Sharp paring knives

 
Veggie peelers