Joy of Pickling: 250 Flavor-Packed Recipes for Vegetables for All Kinds of Produce from Garden or Market

Joy of Pickling: 250 Flavor-Packed Recipes for Vegetables for All Kinds of Produce from Garden or Market

225 flavor-packed recipes for vegetables and more from garden or market. Pickling food seems like a form of culinary alchemy to most of us. Or we recall it as something grandmothers used to do, laboring over heaps of vegetables and huge, steaming kettles to turn out jars of jewel-like pickles and piquant chutneys. In the first chapter of The Joy of Pickling , Linda Ziedrich demystifies the pickling process. She explains the difference between fresh pickles made with vinegar and longer-keeping, salt-preserved, fermented pickles. Her detailed explanation of canning methods, including low-temperature pasteurization, shows how to avoid risky problems. After reading the opening of this pickle primer, go straight to the "Quick" and "Freezer Pickle" chapters and discover how easy it is to make Green Olives with Lemon and Thyme and Freezer Dill Slices without any sterilizing, boiling, or safety issues. In addition, you get to enjoy them within 24 hours. When you are more confident, let Ziedrich guide you through pickling Spicy Broccoli, Pig Ears, Korean Kimchi, and Irish Corned Beef. Her three recipes for pickled eggs are also bound to please. --Dana Jacobi Hassol, who has a small jam-making business on Cape Cod, writes evocatively about her life there: her friends and family, the guests at her bed-and-breakfast, and the business she started several years ago. She provides 70 recipes for delicious small-batch jams and jellies, along with some breads and muffins to go with them, grouped into chapters with titles like "Nonnie and the Elderberries" and "Chasing the Wild Cranberry." Ziedrich, who might be called a pickle fanatic, offers a detailed and informative guide to pickles of all sorts, including kimchi and others from Asia, chutneys and salsas, and "freezer pickles," along with traditional favorites like Half-Sours by the Quart. She writes readably and knowledgeably about a variety of topics, and her varied and unusual recipes should tempt readers into trying at least a pickle or two, or more. Anyone interested in preserving will welcome both of these books, which are recommended for most collections. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. "Anyone interested in preserving will welcome this book, which is recommended for most collections." -- Library Journal "Oregon farmer Ziedrich effectively weans folks away from the myth of canning difficulty by a very simple combination of credible information and 200 easy to follow recipes. And what a wealth of information is supplied here, including instructions for such important techniques as pureeing tomatoes, and guidance for troubleshooting-scum floating on top of sauerkraut for example. A down-to-earth reference." -- Booklist "By working a special magic on an abundance of produce, Linda Ziedrich has transformed a lost art into something both necessary and delightful. This is a book about applying simple methods to simple ingredients to produce tastes and textures that are both unexpected and extraordinary." -From the Foreword by Christopher Kimball The joys of pickling come neither from magic nor alchemy. It may seem as if they do, so surprising and unforeseen are the splendid flavors of a well-made pickle when you consider the humble ingredients that first went into the crock or jar. Pickling is an ancient art, practiced nearly everywhere around the globe, that preserves food with salt or vinegar. But just as no one cooks a meal solely to fill a belly, hardly anyone preserves food only to make them last longer. As Linda Ziedrich demonstrates, making pickles means more than simply preserving the harvest. The pickler presides over a metamorphosis in which the various elements, from the produce itself, to the salty brine or the vinegar bath, to the herbs, spices, oils, and firming agents, combine in remarkably tasty ways, whether through simple processes like marination or intricate ones like fermentation. After years of testing, Ziedrich reveals how every component, right down to the basics like water, light, time, and temperature, plays its role. The reader of these pages who wants to understand fully how pickling works, or the reader who just wants to follow and enjoy the recipes, will benefit amply from Ziedrich's hard-won wisdom. Above all, Joy of Pickling is a celebration of great eating, in more than 200 recipes. Here are the classic cucumber pickles, like half-sours, dills, bread-and-butters, cornichons, and more, plus abundant recipes for things that gardeners grow in surplus, like zucchini, peas, corn, and green beans. Here are pickles of every type and stripe, including fermented, fresh, sweet, quick, and freezer pickles. A whole chapter is devoted to the traditional European and Asian cabbage pickles, while another explores Far Eastern rice-bran, miso, and soy-sauce pickles. Ziedrich interprets venerable American mixed pickles, like piccalilli and chow chow, and Old World combinations, like Jardinire, and Giardiniera, with a master's touc