Pickles are salty, sour, sometimes sweet, and delicious on their own. No calories, pickles always fit your macros, also an excellent accompaniment to other foods. Read to know can pickles go bad and how long different types of pickles can be stored.
Two Ways Of Making Pickles
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Vinegar Pickles
Store-bought pickles are usually vinegar pickles made with distilled white vinegar. Vinegar pickles are not fermented; they are pasteurized. Pasteurization is a heating process in which the pickles are slightly cooked.
The cooking kills bacteria, and an unopened pickle can store at room temperature for 2 years, but once opened, you need to refrigerate the store-bought pickles.
The pasteurized vinegar pickles are low in vitamin content than unpasteurized pickles. These pickles also have a chewy texture than a crisp texture like fermented pickles.
The pickle on McDonald’s cheeseburger is an example of a pasteurized vinegar pickle. Claussen pickles are an example of unpasteurized vinegar pickles refrigerated in the store itself. As these are not cooked, they are crisper and crunchier.
Fermenting Pickles
Fermented pickles use salty water (i.e., brine) to ferment the cucumber. The brine kills the harmful bacteria that spoil food and allows a salt-tolerant bacteria called Lactobacillus to grow and convert sugars from the cucumbers into lactic acid. This process is called lacto-fermentation. Lactic acid is a natural food preservative that gives pickles their tangy, punchy flavor.
Fermenting pickles is preserves cucumber’s crunch and taste. They burn more than vinegar pickles.
The fermenting process introduces gut-friendly probiotics into the pickles, contributing to a healthy gut microbiome. But you have to refrigerate them to increase their shelf-life as refrigeration slows down the fermenting process else, they’ll keep fermenting until an unpleasant-tasting pickle.
You’ll usually find fermented pickles in the grocery store’s refrigerated section next to the sauerkraut.
Most vinegar pickles have salt for flavoring rather than for preserving. Fermented pickles with salt water often have vinegar added for flavor, as an additional preservative, and control the fermentation process as vinegar slows it down.
Types Of Pickles
Dill Pickles
These are the most popular type of pickles with large amounts of dill herb in the vinegar or brine. They can be served whole, sliced, or in chips. Great on just about anything.
Kosher Dill Pickles
Kosher dill pickles aren’t necessarily made using the dietary standards of traditional Jewish law. Kosher is a pickling process for Jewish immigrants in New York City. Kosher dills are prepared with kosher salt (natch) and ample garlic in the marinade.
There are two types of kosher dill pickles fermented with salt are half-sour and full-sour.
Half-sour kosher dill pickles are not fully fermented in crisp and bright green. Full-sour kosher dill pickles are fermented in a softer and lighter green than their half-sour kin.
Bread-and-Butter Pickles
Bread-and-butter pickles add sugar to the pickling marinade, giving them their distinctive sweet and sour flavor; they are great on burgers and sandwiches.
The sugar in these pickles is balanced by spices, usually with celery seed, mustard seed, and turmeric, the most delicious, all-around pickle.
So why are they called bread-and-butter pickles? The married Illinois pickle farmers Omar and Cora Fanning, who sometimes needed money, would pickle their cucumber crop with a sweet and sour recipe. And barter them for bread and butter at their local grocery store. The trademark was “Fanning’s Bread and Butter Pickles” in 1923, and the bread and butter became a descriptor of any kind of sweet and sour pickle.
Gherkin/Barrel Pickles/Cornichons
The barrel pickles are pickles with baby cucumbers with bumpy skin. They’re the “sweet” variety, with the sweetness of a bread-and-butter pickle without the spices.
The French version of gherkins is Cornichons, marinated in vinegar and tarragon, giving them a tart taste. Usually, cornichons serve the purpose of a garnish with sandwiches and hot dogs.
The spices and aromatics are used to make pickles along with the ratios of these spices can change how they taste. Pickles aren’t hard to make yourself, so consider making them yourself. Whatever pickle you make or buy, ensure you have a constant stock of pickles.
How long does it take to make homemade pickles?
Make sure you pack your cucumbers tightly to prevent them from floating out of the brine. Pour the cooled-down brine over the cucumbers completely immersing them. Place the lid on the jars and put them in the fridge. You can eat the pickles within 4 Days.
