QUICK PICKLES
Two recipes—for Pickled Green Tomatoes and for Quick-Pickled Beets—follow the story here.
If you’re going to get into a pickle in the kitchen, you’d best go all the way.
We commonly think of “pickles” as merely those jars of fermented cucumbers (that we so adore) that’ve been dilled, or half-soured, or breaded and buttered.
But there’s a world of pickles beyond those greenies, well worth some putting up. With.
I am thinking, nostalgically, of a quintessential slice of 20th-century Americana, the “relish tray” presented before any dinner that was to be enjoyed in another person’s home: small bowls of corn relish, chow-chow (not the dog, but sweet-and-sour mixed vegetables), watermelon rind pickles, piccalilli (a mustardy, chile-hot chow-chow), hard-cooked eggs with slices of beets, the eggs dyed a monsignor’s purple from the sweet-tart beet juice.
Sometimes there even were pickled peaches, a specialty of my grandmother from Fort Lupton, Colo., peach halves swimming in a mild sugar syrup, like the regular canned variety, but also with a whisper of cider vinegar, the liquid carrying a few whole cloves.
The relish tray, offered as it was before a meal, was meant to stimulate the appetite in invitation to the meal to follow. Edible aperitifs. What Marion Cunningham said about pickles in general in the 13th edition of “The Fanny Farmer Cookbook”: “Pickles and relishes, so much a part of our heritage, have given a lift to many a homely meal.”
As part of a meal, not merely its vestibule, pickles of all sorts provide a foil to richness, carried by fat especially, which is why they often are seen nestled next to fatty or oily foods: cornichons and pâté, for example, or lamb and Indian achar, or pickled daikon matchsticks and the ham of Vietnamese banh mi.
As a pantry genre, pickles are those foods conserved in a liquid that is either salty or acidic, often both. Their lineage is ur-paleo, from the time we put anything we wanted to eat later, unspoiled, under sea salt. Sometimes the food—cabbage, say, or olives—fermented, creating its own (lactic) acid, further preserving our afterwards. That these longer-preserved foods also developed additional flavors was a delicious lagniappe.
But the large range of unfermented pickles—what are called “short-brine,” “quick,” “fresh-pack,” or sometimes “refrigerator” pickles—simply and directly add the acid, typically vinegar, in order to inhibit any microbial spoilage.
These pickles are not processed in a boiling water bath as so much of what is put up (or canned) at this time of year. They can be, wordplay intended, and some recipes end by saying so, but while the hot water extends shelf life it also kills off a lot of crispness and that fresh aliveness so much a part of these sorts of quick pickles.
Because quick pickles are simpler in flavor, they benefit from the addition of other elements such as spices or herbs or even plain sugar. Apart from some Asian radish-based quick pickles, you won’t find many set up solely with salt and vinegar.
All manner of thing seems pickle-able this way: proteins such as eggs or meat (the original 18th-century corned beef was a good example), nearly any vegetable or fruit or fungi, even the cast-offs of melon or citrus rinds. Perhaps we have here the earliest way to recycle.
Michael Solomonov, proprietor and chef at Philadelphia’s “modern Israeli” restaurant, Zahav, came about his eatery’s most favored nibble by such a route. He goes through 250 heads of cauliflower each week to slake the demand for his menu’s famed fried cauliflower dish, leaving him with 250 cauliflower hearts, unusable until he invented a quick pickle that has become nearly as popular.
How to say “Voila!” in Hebrew?
RECIPE: Pickled green tomatoes
From “Israeli Soul,” by Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook; serves 4
Ingredients
4 medium green tomatoes
3 cups water
1 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup kosher salt
1 teaspoon dill seed
1 teaspoon whole allspice
2 thinly sliced garlic cloves
1 cup dill sprigs
Directions
Cut the tomatoes into wedges and put them into a heatproof container. Combine all the other ingredients in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the salt, and pour over the tomatoes. Let cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.
RECIPE: Quick-Pickled Beets
From Fatima Khawaja at saveur.com. Makes about 5 cups.
Ingredients
1 pound beets, trimmed and gently cleaned
3 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons champagne vinegar
1 teaspoon toasted fennel seeds
Directions
Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 375 degrees. On a foil-lined baking sheet, toss the beets with the oil, then season generously with salt and black pepper. Fold the foil around the beets to enclose completely, then bake until soft when pierced with a knife, 60-90 minutes.
When cool enough to handle, unwrap the beets, rub off the skin, and cut them into 1-inch pieces. Transfer to a medium bowl and add the vinegar, fennel seeds and salt and black pepper to taste.
Toss to coat and marinate, refrigerated, for at least 30 minutes before serving. (Refrigerated in an airtight container, the pickled beets will keep for up to 4 days.)