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Adventure Foodie Reports: Pickling food, Pickles, Pickling, recipe

After almost a week of feeling under the weather and incapable of venturing out into the real world, there is literally nothing in my refrigerator save for three bottles of beer and a jar of unopened low-sodium pickles mistakenly purchased some months ago (yuck, please pass the salt). It wasn’t until this afternoon that I made myself eat one while waiting for the Mr. to come home from work with some matzo ball soup, my hands shaking with hunger as I removed the lid from the container. The pickle wasn’t nearly as bad as I’d anticipated it being, but in hindsight I wonder if it wasn’t just my tummy talking, eager for more. It did make me reminisce about the homemade pickles we packed last summer, however, and I’m now trying to figure out where in our storage unit our extra jars and boiling-water canner might be hiding.

All I’m hearing in the land of Twitter these days are things about canning and pickling. People are getting excited about the new summer vegetables that are beginning to pop up in neighborhood farmer’s markets and are discussing ways to preserve them for the months to come. It’s pretty great.

For those of you who might be scared of pickling, you should be. It’s pretty easy to end up with bowls of stinky, badly fermented (as opposed to perfectly, deliciously fermented) sauerkraut in your basement. Believe me, I’ve been there.

While the secret of a solid ‘kraut is still anathema to me, I am darn good with the old fashioned, tried and true pickle pack, which is super easy to concoct.

We loosely followed a recipe for pickling we found in the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving, adding our own touches as we pleased.

Mixed Pickles:

• 1 1/4 pounds pickling cucumbers, sliced in half, lengthwise
• 3-4 bunches baby carrots
• 5-6 peppers, mixed variety
• 2 cups peeled pearl onions
• 1 pound green beans
• 15-20 cloves peeled garlic
• 1 cup canning salt
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons dry mustard
• 2 tablespoons celery seed
• 3 cups vinegar

Combine sugar, salt, spices and vinegar in a saucepot and bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes. Assemble vegetables in hot, clean jars. Pour hot liquid into jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Adjust two-piece caps. Process 15 minutes in a boiling-water canner. Keep in a cool, dry place for 3-5 weeks before opening. Yields about 5 pints.

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