The Food Thread

Monique

I like eating pickled food, but I've always been afraid of making it myself.. the above description does not help
Aren't you afraid of growing the wrong bacterium and causing food poisoning?

Borek

No.

I have heard it may happen, and I am not neglecting the possibility, but I know a lot of people doing it - and as far as I can tell it always works. And when it doesn't work, it is obvious from the smell.

Monique

I was wondering, do you use 'regular' cucumbers or gherkins for the pickling? Gherkin pickles are very common around here, but I've never seen cucumber ones.

Borek

Regular ones:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PicklingCucumbers.jpg

Actually I would never choose those, they are way too big. When pickled they would have a hole inside, filled just with sour brine. Not that it tastes bad or something, but when you want to cut them they squirt

Monique

Those look like Gherkins to me? A cucumber would be slender, long and smooth with a particular cucumber taste, while a gherkin is small, fat and spiny with a neutral taste. I guess I just need to taste your pickle in order to make up my mind So you pickle them whole, or do you also cut them before the pickling? (I'm picking your brain here)

turbo

I make my pickles with Northern pickling cucumbers and pick them small. They are spiny, crisp, with a nice tart taste.

Borek

I have never seen gherkins (or I didn't know I have seen them), but according to wiki picture they have different skin: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gherkins.jpg

According to this page:

http://www.foodsubs.com/Squcuke.html

we are looking for Kirby cucumber.

Pickled whole.

Evo

Kirby is excellent!

mozhe

i like chocolates and ice creams

physics girl phd

Is it just me, or does anyone else find this image on the page distracting?:

Does this ad purposefully hint at pregnancy-pickle-cravings? (which I didn't have BTW... I had tomato cravings...)

turbo

Borek, if you can order the seeds, try out Northern Pickling cucumbers. They are high-yielding, crispy and tart. They have small bumps on the skin topped with tiny black spines, which rub off easily. We pick them when they're small (maybe 4") and pickle them whole for our dill pickles. Northern Pickling is an organic variant bred in Maine and the plants are extremely cold-tolerant, which is great for late season harvesting. Johnny's Selected Seeds carries them, but maybe you can find a source locally. This is one of those plants that fruits more heavily if you pick the cukes regularly before they get big.

Ms Music

Monique, Borek - I clicked one of the links on the bottom of the page of the wiki image, and linked back to this page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickling that says they are gherkins, so maybe the same thing?

That recipe sounds very good, I may have to try it. I am very picky of my pickles, and haven't had a good one in 20 years. The friend that gave me the best pickle I ever had forgot to get the recipe from her grandma, so I never got it.

My brother has just started getting into pickling vegetables, and is nervously trying light fermentation. Light meaning just a couple of days... ;) I don't think he has had any batches go bad yet, and he is perfecting his recipe nicely. Perfect amount of heat, garlic, and vinegar. yum. I think I could easily get addicted to that stuff, I may have to start joining him with making it. Anybody else pickle or ferment vegetables?

Oh, and back to gherkins, I keep saying I want to grow these adorable things: http://www.territorialseed.com/product/7232/292 I wonder if the citrus flavor would make for a better pickle.

Monique

It's ok, at least I know what it looks like. I would have picked the wrong type of cucumber for sure, the very long ones. I do have a container that would fit them though, I bought it especially to pickle vegetables, but it now houses my supply of spaghetti

I'm eating mixed vegetable pickles right now, together with pickled ginger.. yummy!

Evo

Those are cute!!! I haven't grown those, but I did grow lemon cucumbers (shown in borek's list). Those were very good.

turbo

My wife and I had guests for supper last night. Haven't seen them for a couple of years, so we planned ahead for a cookout. Menu:

Appetizers - cheddar and goat cheeses with various crackers, mustard, dips, small cocktail tomatoes and fresh cucumber spears, and home-made bread-and-butter pickles. Also my marinated spicy grilled jumbo shrimp. The marinade is based on red wine with olive oil, ketchup, lemon juice, molasses, salt, pepper, oregano and hot chili relish.

Main course - grilled rib-eyes with home-made dry rub, skinless chicken thighs basted with a sweet-hot BBQ sauce while grilling, grilled ears of sweet corn, tossed salad, macaroni salad with ham, bacon and ripe olives, and steamed fresh green beans in hot milk and butter.

Dessert - Soft German sugar-cookies stuffed with lemon curd and cake-y muffins topped with cinnamon sugar.

I've probably forgotten some stuff, but it was a fun cook-out. In retrospect, I should have boiled/steamed the corn instead of grilling it because it was sugar-and-gold corn, which is more delicate than the regular yellow varieties around here, and dries out more easily on the grill.

The rib-eyes came out pretty tender because I used a method championed by my gardening-buddy neighbor. Get the rib-eyes about 1-1/4"-1-1/2" thick and sear them over a hot bed of charcoal until you get a nice attractive char, then immediately put the steaks into a tight-sealing Tupperware container and get the lid on fast to keep in the heat. Let the steaks "sweat" and relax for at least 10-15 minutes before serving. When you're ready to serve the steaks, they practically fold in half when you pick them out of the Tupperware. I use a marinade dish with raised pyramid-shaped protuberances on the bottom and on the inside of the lid. This lets the juices drain from the steaks, and helps prevent re-absorption by keeping the steaks above the juices.

Borek

You gave them garlic?

turbo

Yes, they got German and Russian garlic, too, to take home, as well as a fresh loaf of Beer Barrel rye bread and some left-overs.