Pickling And Relish Pointers

INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

Pickles, relishes, and chutneys are vegetables prepared with brine
(salt and water) or vinegar and some sugar and spices. The vinegar
acts as a preservative, keeping any spoilage organisms from growing.
Sealing pickled foods in jars and processing in a boiling water bath
helps keep them fresh, crisp, and free from mold.  Whole, sliced, or
chunked vegetables cooked in vinegar or a vinegar  sugar syrup, can
become pickles. Chopped or ground combinations  cooked with vinegar,
sugar, and spices become relishes. Chutneys are  highly spiced fruit
and/or vegetable combinations.  The old fashioned dill pickles and
sauerkraut are actually fermented  in brine, rather than cooked in
vinegar. The brine, plus the sugar  from the cucumber or cabbage,
promote a special kind of bacterial  action that, over several days or
weeks, changes cucumbers to pickles  and transforms cabbage to kraut.
PICKLING POINTERS Because certain ingredients are very important for
proper pickling, you'll need to be aware of some of the following
pointers.  Use produce that is as fresh as possible. Take it from the
garden to  your kitchen and into jars just as rapidly as possible. If
you can't  process the produce immediately, be sure to keep it
refrigerated.  Vegetables should be just barely ripe; they'll keep
their shape  better than if they were fully ripe. Always select
cucumber varieties  that have been created for pickling. The large
salad cucumbers were  developed for salads, not for pickles. Use
smaller, less pretty  cukes, with pale skins, plenty o bumps, and black
spines. Never use  waxed cucumbers. Select evenly shaped and sized
vegetables for even  cooking and better looking pickles. Water is an
important pickle  ingredient, especially for long brined pickles. Soft
water is best.  Hard water can cloud the brine or discolor the pickles.
If you don't  have soft water, boil hard water for 15 minutes, then let
it stand  overnight. Skim off the scum, then carefully dip out what you
need so  you won't get any sediment from the bottom. Then add 1
tablespoon of  salt for each gallon; or you cn use distilled water if
your water is  hard. Salt, too, makes a difference. Table salt contains
special  additives to prevent it from caking in your shaker, and these
materials can cloud brine. Iodized salt can darken brine. use only
pure, granulated salt, also known as kosher salt, pickling salt, or
dairy salt. Most supermarkets stock it with canning supplies. Vinegar
is a crucial ingredient for many pickle recipes. check the label when
you shop, and be sure to get a good quality vinegar of from 4 to 6
percent acidity. (Sometimes listed as 40 to 60 grain.) Weaker vinegar
will not pickles foods. use distilled white vinegar for light colored
pickles, cider vinegar for darker foods or more interesting flavor.
Sugar can be brown or white granulated, depending on the lightness or
darkness of food to be pickled. Or, if you wish, use half corn syrup
or honey and half sugar. Don't use sugar substitutes unless you  follow
their manufacturers' directions. spices must be fresh. Old  spices will
make your pickles taste musty. Most recipes call for  whole spices,
which give stronger flavor and don't color the pickles  as much. It is
suggested you tie the spices in a cheesecloth bag and  add them to the
kettle during cooking, then remove the bag before  packing the pickles
into jars. Some cooks like to leave whole spices  in the jars for
stronger flavor and just for appearance's sake, but  loose spices may
darken the pickles somewhat. Alum, lime, and other  ingredients added
to crisp or color pickles are not necessary, and  their use is not
recommended. These ingredients are often found in  old fashioned
recipes. Most of the newer recipes won't need any of  these additives.
Source: Vegetable Gardening Encyclopedia Typos by Dorothy Flatman 1995
Posted to MM-Recipes Digest V3 #235  Date: Wed, 28 Aug 1996 21:56:51
-0500  From: pickell@cyberspc.mb.ca (S.Pickell)

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