Cucumbers With Attitude

THE PICKLE!!!! There is nothing more appetizing when you craving a snack that a nice juicy and most crunchy pickle. Full pickles, pickle chips, and pickle slices, any kind will do they are all good. It is a common mistake that people think a pickle is its own food, but actually it is a cucumber that is pickled by a brine, vinegar, or other acidic solutions and is left to ferment for a long period of time. That is how a wonderfully delicious pickle is created. These pickles are used in many thing that we eat. The relish on your hot dog yep that’s chopped pickles and spices, on burgers most commonly and sandwiches as well. They are a great add on to any meal. There are a lot of types of pickles as well, be it the way it picked and what ingredients are used, down to what kind of cucumber is used.

• First off we have a “Gherkin” pickle. What makes this pickle so unique is how it made. The gherkin uses a special kind of cucumber called a “West Indian or Burr Cucumber.” This cucumber tends to be a lot smaller than the standard “Garden” cucumber, which is the standard cucumber for pickling. The term gherkin itself has been used when pickling in any sweet vinegar brine.
• The “Kosher Dill” pickle is probably the most popular kind of pickle there is to eat. The name for this pickle came from they way that it is made. It is made in the traditional style found in Jewish cooking in New York City by dedicated pickle makers. The brine used for pickling is given a very generous amount of garlic giving it that kinda tart, bitter, and salty taste to it. During the 19th century at least one New Your City resturaunt could be found that made and sold their own pickles.
  

  Pickling Brine

• The “Polish” pickle. The process for making a polish pickle was founded in Europe and over the years made it way all over the country and soon became known world wide. They are prepared in the traditional way of pickling bu placing the cucumbers in a brine with anywhere between 20g/per liter to 40g/ per liter of salt added to the mix and no vinegar is used in the brine. The fermentation process is totally an completely dependent on the naturally-occurring “Lactobacillus” bacteria that normally cover the skin of a growing cucumber. This skin is most commonly removed during commercial harvesting as well as the packing processes. The pickles that are traditionally prepared can only be made from a freshly harvested pickle and the bacteria is usually added artificially.
• Another type of pickle is the “Lime” pickle. No salt brine is used for these pickles, no they are soaked in lime and sugar and vinegar is usually added after the 24-hour soak. Pickling spices are added however they are used more to create a crunchy texture rather that used for flavor.
• The sweeter of most pickles are the ” Bread And Butter” pickles. They are sweeter by far in comparison to the dill pickles. This is caused due to the fact that they have a higher concentration of sugar and sweetness added to the brine. These pickles are most commonly used on gourmet hamburgers and in potato salad.
• The “Swedish And Danish” Pickles. First we have the Swedish pickle which is are thinly sliced, they are then mixed with salt and pressed to drain some of the water from the cucumber slices. After this process they are placed in a jar with a sour-sweet brine of vinegar, sugar, dill and mustard seeds. Second we have the Danish pickle and these are similarly made to the Swedish pickle but made into a pickle salad that is commonly served with meat dishes and chicken dinners.
• Yes there is even a pickle for the kids. The “Kool-Aid” pickle is a dill pickle that is soaked in a kool-aid and pickling brine. This unique and tasty children’s treat is found mostly in the southern parts of the United States.

As you can see there are a great many types of pickles to choose from and they all have their own taste and personality. So now your probably wondering is a pickle a fruit or a vegetable? Well if you want to get technical it is a fruit and they are also very low in calories. Another benefit to a pickle is they are often rich in Vitamin K, however they are also very very rich and high in sodium. The only pickle that has a high calorie count would be the sweet ones such as the bread and butter due to their high sugar content.

Pickles are portrayed in many ways and have had a vast variety of uses and publicity. Not only just a food for eating in the book “Pickle Things” by Marc Brown, the pickle is used for many many thing. This includes phones, cars, candy, you name it the pickle is used to depict it. Another fun thing that pickles have been opened up to is the wonderful world of deep fired food. Yeah that5s right deep fried pickles have become a delicacy mainly in the United States. They are served in two ways, just dropped in the hot oil as is and breaded the dropped, you can usually find this at the fair just in case you have the curiosity to try it. One more benefit to a pickle is not actually the pickle itself, but the brine. The “Pickle Juice”  from a kosher dill pickle is said to cure a hangover because they have a lot of vitamin and minerals. So you see people the Pickle is just and interesting food in and of itself and if you haven’t ever tried on well that’s just UnAmericana. If you don’t feel like just eating on by itself the go ahead and add it to you hamburger or sandwich, you can even add it in it relish form to a good hot dog.  Just try it is all I am saying, they are simply Scrumptious.

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