Pickling is another preservation technique. Your tasty dills are just one form of pickle, but the liquid that the dill pickle is soaking in is what we want to teach you how to make. Pickling requires you to make a solution of acid, salt, and or sugar. This combination, in the right concentration, will preserve foods: vegetables, fruits, fish, eggs, and meats. Corn beef, for example, is essentially pickled. Pickled eggs are also made in an easy pickling solution. Once you make the solution, the food needs to be soaked in it for a length of time, depending on the size and density of the food.
Here’s a great example:
Pickled Beets:
1 kg of cooked, skinned, and sliced (1 cm thick) beets
11/2 cups vinegar
2 cups sugar
½ cup water
½ teaspoon salt
Mix together all ingredients, less the beets, in a small pot. Bring to a boil. This will produce a syrup. Place the beets in the syrup and allow them to warm through, but not boil. Drop the beets into your sterilized jars and pour the syrup over them, cover tightly, store them away until the end of time….okay that’s an exaggeration, but you can keep them for a long time.
Resources for canning recipes abound - this stuff has been around for centuries!
Be sure to reserve the liquids from your jars of pickled beets. You can use this liquid to pickle eggs, giving you a psychedelic purple egg that’s really tasty!
The basics of pickling are simple and with practice and a little research, you will master this age-old technique in no time.
Another example:
Red Pickle:
6 quarts tomatoes
4 red peppers (not hot)
12 large onions
8 cups white sugar
2 cups vinegar
2 teaspoons salt
Puree all of the vegetables. Boil all ingredients until the mixture is jelly-like and then pour into sterilized jars.
You can see the similarities between these techniques and recipes. Acid, salt, and sugar are needed to pickle foods.
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