Making Your Own Home Made Pickles
Growing your own fruits and vegetables is a wonderful experience, which will provide the family with fresh food for the table for most of the growing season. Problems arise when too much food has been grown and there is little storage space for it in the house or it needs to be used during the winter periods.
The most obvious solution to this is freezing. You can freeze most fruit and vegetables successfully with little preparation, although the fruit can really only be used for cooking with afterwards as it may become slushy on defrosting. Unfortunately many people simply don't have the space in their freezer to accommodate all this extra food for most of the winter season.
Another way to preserve these wonderful fruits and vegetables is through pickling. Pickling is a very easy process and home made pickles can bring exciting new tastes to normal meals. Pickles are normally very popular at village fetes as well!
For any one wishing to start pickling their own fruits and vegetables, they will need a few basic items. A deep bowl (for salting the fruits and vegetables), a sieve, a wooden spoon, a range of pans (only enamel, stainless steel or aluminum, as copper and brass will spoil the pickle). They will also need some muslin to wrap the spires and bottling jars to store the finished pickles in.
The first thing to prepare for pickling is the vinegar. The vinegar needs to be the best quality you can find; brown or white distilled vinegar is available in most grocery stores. You can use wine vinegars or cider vinegars if you choose, however the flavor of these tends to get masked by the pickles. If you choose to make spiced vinegar, this should be left to mature for one or two months before you begin pickling. For spiced vinegar use the spices you prefer whether it be for hot or mild vinegar, however, make sure you use the spices whole and not ground. Don't put the spices directly into the vinegar, put them into the muslin and tie them up, then let them steep in the vinegar, shaking the jar occasionally.
When choosing your fruits and vegetables for pickling, make sure you choose vegetables that are young and still firm, and fruits that are only just ripe. Peel and wash the vegetables, checking for any imperfections, if any seem damaged discard these. You can prepare these how you prefer, chop, shred or leave them whole, what ever is your preference.
Fruit you can pickle as it is, however vegetables generally need salting before pickling. You will need to soak the vegetables in a solution of 4oz salt to 2 pints of water. Make sure you use coarse salt and avoid using table salt as this contains chemicals that cause pickles to cloud.
Leave the vegetables in the salty water for 24 hours, then drain off the salty water and wash them thoroughly in cold water, and drain.
For cold pickling, pack raw vegetables into jars leaving about 1in at the top of the jar. Drain off any water that remains at the bottom of the jar, and then fill with the prepared vinegar covering the vegetables with at leave ½ in of vinegar.
Hot pickling can be done with a few vegetables. Choose which ever hot pickle recipe you would like to use, then when the vegetable mix is cooked pack it immediately in to the pickle jar (the jar needs to be hot, to prevent it from breaking). Then cover the mix with vinegar and seal the jar.
If you are making a fruit pickle you will need to dissolve 2lb sugar in 2 pints of vinegar for every 4 lb of fruit you use. Add the spices in the muslin bag cover the pan and simmer the fruit until it is tender. Strain the vinegar in to a bowl, remove the muslin bag and pack the hot fruit into a jar. Boil the vinegar rapidly until it has reduced to a thick syrup and pour it over the fruit. Then cover and seal the jars.
All pickles will need to be covered and sealed as soon as they are bottled, and try to avoid using jars with metal lids as these may corrode.
Once you have made your pickle is should be left for two months to mature, the only exception to this is cabbage which you can eat after a week (cooked pickles can also be eaten after a week).
Once mature your pickle will add extra flavors to any meal or snack!
