Transcript Pickled Products

Preserving the Perfect Pickle
Dills, Sweets,
Kraut, Relishes
and Other Foods
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Overview
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Types of pickled products
The process
Ingredients
Equipment
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Pickled Products
• Brined or fermented pickles
• Cured in brine (salt and water) solution for
one or more weeks
• Either produce an acid or you add an acid
• Fresh pack or quick process pickles
• Sometimes brined for a few hours
• Covered with boiling hot vinegar, spices and
seasonings (adding an acid)
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Other Pickles
• Fruit pickles
• Whole or sliced fruits
• Simmered in a spicy, sweet-sour syrup made
with vinegar or lemon juice
• Relishes
• Chopped fruits and vegetables
• Cooked in a spicy vinegar solution
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What kind of pickles did Aunt
Bee make?
1. Use a brine that is less heavy
2. Add extra sprig of parsley or two steeped in
the vinegar
3. Use younger cucumbers
4. Drain them more
5. Use fresher spices
6. Boil the vinegar two seconds more
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What Makes a Pickle a Pickle?
• Form an acid
• Brined
• Fermented
• Produces “lactic acid”
• Acid is added
• Vinegar
• Lemon Juice
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Why Add Acid?
• Do not need to be pressure
canned if they have a pH of
4.6 or lower
• A pH of 4.6 or less will not
support growth of Clostridium
botulinum
Source: National Center for Home
Food Preservation
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Why Process in Water Bath?
• Kills spoilage organisms
• Yeasts
• Molds
• Bacteria
• Controls enzyme activity
• Flavor
• Color
• Texture
Source: USDA Complete Guide to
Home Canning
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Ingredients in Pickling
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Produce
Salt
Vinegar
Sugar
Spices
Water
Firming agents
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Produce
• Tender vegetables and firm fruit, selected by
size
• Pickling cucumbers (not “table” or “slicing”),
unwaxed
• Pickle within 24 hours after picking for best
quality
• Wash well
• Discard produce with mold
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Salt
• Pure granulated salt
• “pickling” salt
• “canning” salt
• No anti-caking materials
• Do not alter salt concentrations
• Do not reduce salt in a recipe unless it is in a
tested recipe using less salt—salt is a
preservative
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Vinegar
• Preservative
• Cider or white vinegar
• Cider vinegar can discolor
light produce
• White distilled for onions,
cauliflower and pears
• 5% acidity
• Use amount stated in recipe
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Sugar
• White sugar unless recipe states brown
• Sugar substitutes
• Can develop off-flavor or bitterness
• Can lose sweetening
properties
• Follow tested recipes
specific to the type of
sugar substitute
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Spices
• Use fresh whole spices for best quality and
flavor
• Powdered spices can make pickles dark and
cloudy
• Tie whole spices in a
clean white cloth or
cheesecloth bag, remove
before packing jars
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Water
• Drinking quality or “potable”
• Soft water is preferred
• Iron: discoloration
• Calcium: shriveling
• Boil hard water for
15 minutes and let stand,
covered, for 24 hours
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Firming Agents
• Not needed when
• Good quality ingredients are used
• Up-to-date methods are used
• Soak cucumbers in ice water for 4 to 5 hours
• Cut 1/16-inch off blossom end
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Blossom End of a Cucumber
Blossom End
Stem End
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Lime
• Calcium in lime does improve firmness
• Use food grade pickling lime (not agricultural
or burnt lime)
• Soak cucumbers in lime-water solution 12 to
24 hours before pickling
• Excess lime absorbed by the cucumbers
must be removed to make safe pickles
Do not inhale dust
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To Remove Excess Lime
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Drain lime-water solution
Rinse
Re-soak in fresh water 1 hour
Repeat rinsing and soaking two more times
Failure to remove lime adequately may
increase the risk for botulism
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Alum
• Aluminum potassium sulfate
• Can be safely used, but not recommended
• Used for fermented pickles, does not work for
quick process
• Powdered form found in spice section of
grocery stores
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Food Scales
• Recipe specifies ingredients
by weight
• Important for pickled
products
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Pans
• Heat liquids in
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Stainless steel
Aluminum
Glass
Unchipped enamelware
• Do not use
• Copper
• Brass
• Galvanized or iron utensils
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Fermenting and Brining
• Small quantities: crock or stone jar, unchipped
enamelware, large glass jar or bowl
• Large quantities: enamel, glass or paraffin-lined keg or
barrel
• Cover for container
• An undersized lid to hold food below surface of brine
• Food-grade plastic bag
• When using lime, do not soak in an aluminum
container
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Process in Water-Bath Canner
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Pickle Principles
1. Do not alter vinegar, food, or water
proportions in a recipe or use a vinegar with
unknown acidity.
2. Use only recipes with tested proportions of
ingredients.
3. There must be a minimum, uniform level of
acid throughout the mixed product to
prevent the growth of C. botulinum bacteria.
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