The once-lamented pickle is making a tangy comeback
If you’re from the south and of a certain age, you probably remember mom-and-pop filling station-grocery combos, and especially the pickles they stocked. Pickled eggs, weirdly pink. Pickled pigs’ feet, looking like lab specimens. Pickled okra and watermelon rinds and beets and even cucumbers (you know, what we call “pickles”).
It makes sense that people used to pickle everything, because pickling, like brewing and canning, is one way of preserving your valuable produce. A batch of pickles will last indefinitely without refrigeration, explains Shelly Nicole Ayers.
She’s been making pickles ever since she can remember—first helping her mom in their East Ridge kitchen, and now pickling her own produce. And since Ayers can make up to 18 quarts of pickles in a batch, that’s a lot of experience.
Pickling is experiencing a DIY resurgence, she tells me. Foodies are finding upscale uses for old-school pickles, such as a pod of pickled okra as garnish for a Bloody Mary. Asian pickles, such as kimchi, are also making an impact.
We examine two jars of pickles Ayers has made—traditional cucumbers, and watermelon rinds pickled with cloves and cinnamon. They look impressive with their jewel-like colors. But Ayers tells me they’re simple to make.
First, she says, you cut your vegetables, then place in water and lime—not the citrus fruit, but calcium hydroxide. You can buy food-grade pickling lime at Walmart.
Next, let your pickles sit in lime for 24 hours before rinsing them thoroughly.“Then I sit them in cold water to shock them,” Ayers says. “After that, I boil them with flavoring—white vinegar plus seasonings. I like to get them a little tender.”
Ayers experiments with seasonings, such as garlic and dill combinations, and makes notes of her successes, she says. Then the canning jars must be boiled and filled, and the lid and ring, also sterilized, placed on.
“You have to leave room for air,” Ayers says, indicating the gap at the top of the pickle jars we’re looking at. “You may find a ‘full’ jar of commercial pickles, but you won’t find home-made pickles without that gap.”
Finally, the filled jars are heated in boiling water, then cooled. This process creates an air-tight seal, helping keep bacteria out.
“As the pickles cool, it sucks the air out,” Ayers says. “You can hear the ‘pop’ of the lid.”
She indicates the red jar in front of us, still slightly warm to touch.“Five of the jars in this batch popped in their heat bath,” she says. “One didn’t, so I put it in the fridge.”
Want to start making pickles?
“Start small,” Ayers counsels. “Don’t start with dill pickles—homemade ones don’t taste like commercial ones! And don’t be afraid of making one you don’t like. Start with a sweet pickle, get down how to seal it, then branch out into savory ones!”
If you’re in a hurry, refrigerator pickles are also an option, but remember that they aren’t preserved like traditional pickles—they’ll spoil if they don’t stay in the ‘fridge.