Pickling

Pickling is a method to preserve fruits and vegetables at room temperature. Brine solutions that may include salt and/or vinegar are used to retard the growth of harmful bacteria while encouraging the growth of yeasts and other micro-organisms that are the basis of the foods flavor. The characteristic sour taste of pickles and saurkraut comes not from vinegar (as neither of these dishes are typically made with vinegar) but rather from airborne yeasts that flourish during the fermentation process.

There are two ways of pickling that I'll describe here. The first is a hot canning method that does not require fermentation but is designed to permit long term storage of vegetables and fruits in a weak brine solution. The brines in hot canning are formulated for taste; not to control harmful bacteria. Hot canning, as the name implies relies on heat to sterilize food before it is placed in long-term storage.

The other method of pickling is perhaps the more ancient--fermentation. Fermenting foods requires a brine solution that is strong enough to kill off bad bacteria while at the same time permitting the growth of desirable micro-organisms. In the end, though, we want to produce food whose flavor is balanced and delicious.

Both processes are simple and their basic elements look something like this:

two ways to pickle

Hot Canned

Blanch the vegetable or fruit to kill bacteria
Create brine syrup
Place hot vegetables in hot jars and add hot brine
Seal the jars
Process the sealed jars in hot water bath for some recommended time

Cold Fermented

Thoroughly clean vegetables (do not blanch)

Mix pickling brine (strong enough to kill bacteria) (could be just salt or a salt vinegar mixture)

Ferment the vegetables by leaving them in the brine mixture for some recommended period of time

Cautions:

It's not a good idea to add vegetables to a fermenting pickling solution after you have begun the process. When vegetables enter a brine solution they typically release a great deal of the water contained in their cell structure. By adding vegetables during the fermenting process you can dilute the brine to the point that it is no longer capable of retarding the growth of harmful bacteria.

Fermenting recipes will almost always direct you to place plastic over the top of the brine solution and add some weight (usually just additional brine) to seal the fermenting food. Don't skip this step. It protects against contaminates entering your brine during the fermentation process. All kinds of things can get into your fermenting solution without a tight seal the most common is mold. The plastic plus weight prevents molds from growing during the fermentation process.

Additionally, the brine solution that you pour into the plastic to add weight is actually necessary. If there is any kind of leak or accidental mixing of the water above the plastic and the fermenting brine below you must insure that you do not weaken the brining solution. easiest way to do that is to use additional brine as your weight.

Hard water can affect the outcome of the brining process. It is best to use soft water for fermenting.