MILLENNIUM PICKLE MAKING

MILLENNIUM PICKLE MAKING
Rani beta, please don’t touch the pickle bottle, you are in menstrual stage , it will spoil the pickle, shouted Rani’s grand mother. Myths like these are handed down from mother to daughter and fossi size, taking no note of changes in cooking techniques. I want to make the readers of Woman’s Era acquainted with the pickle preserving tricks. It is the proper method adopted which preserves the pickles for long time. In this article step-by-step method is given to make pickles properly. In this millennium it is necessary to give up all the myths like these menstrual stage stigmas. These stigmas should be shed from the society. The article given here, if followed properly while making pickles will give good results

Pickles are vegetables or fruit preserved in spices, salt, oil and spiced vineger, with their shape, and texture retained as far as possible. Pickles add interest to a meal, especially, to heavy fried food at lunch or dinner; they also stimulate gastric juices, thus aiding digestion. Although not very rich in nutrients, they make a vegetarian diet acceptable imparting savoury flavours to otherwise monotonous starchy diet. They may be of many different types, sweet or salt, pungent or blend, extra thick, and so on.
Pickling of vegetables involves the process of lactic fermentation. Here ordinary sugar percent in the vegetable is converted to lactic acid by certain bacteria lodged on theirs vegetables. Cabbage pickle popularly known as sauerkraut and cucumber pickle as gherkins are very popular in other countries ( methods to prepare them is given in the last paragraph of this article)

Preparation for pickle making
Use a large stainless-steel, aluminium or enamel saucepan. Do not use copper or brass pans, the vinegar will react with the matel and taint the preserve to give traces of the very poisonous salt, copper acetate.

Vegtables and fruits
Choose fresh young vegetables and firmly ripe fruits. Do not use any that are bruised or damaged. Always use the best and dry spices, good quality oil, best vinegar, which has an acetic acid content of at least 5%. Wash, drain and cut up the vegetables or according to the instructions in the recipe. Treat fruit according to kind---- remove the stone and cores, top and tail slit the peel through in several places, as through the fruit were going to be quartered. Always pot hot and sweet pickles immediately. Never leave pickles standing in a saucepan for longer than necessary.

Potting sealing and storing

Pack fruit or vegetables into dry wide necked jars, to within 1 inch or the top and pour on the oil or vinegar, leaving a ½ inch space at the top to prevent it touching the lid of the jar or bottle.
ª Cover and seal the jars or bottles at once. If metal covers are used, they must be lined
with waxed paper or coated inside with melted paraffin wax so that the oil or vinegar
does not come into direct contact with the metal.
ª Alternative coverings are corks wrapped in grease-proof paper; glass tops used with
preserving jars; and calico dipped in melted paraffin wax or coated with melted candle
grease.
ª The jars do not need sterilising after filling and covering, as the growth of bacteria is
prevented by the acid in the vinegar and by the salt &spices.
ª Pickles should be stored in a cool, dry, dark, but airy place, as exposure to sunlight
often spoils their colour, and they should always be lilt for 2-3 months before being
eaten, otherwise the flavour is not fully developed. Cabbage is an exception, for
it usually tastes better if it is eaten while it is still crisp.
ª For fruit pickles, keep surplus sweetened vinegar as they mature.

Sauerkraut (cabbage pickle)

For sauerkraut cabbage is cut into shreds and mixed with 2 percent salt and 1.0 per cent powdered mustard (rai) and packed tightly in glass jars for a week at room temperature. The cabbage pickle will turn sour ready after 6-7 days. The concentration of lactic acid is quite high in it and reaches to the level of 1.3 per cent.

Kanji (black carrot juice)

Mix black carrot slices with 8-10 times their weight with water adding 2 percent salt plus 1 percent mustard powder (rai). Kanji gets ready within 4-8 days depending upon the temperature. The fermentation also involves the production of lactic acid.
Gherkin (cucumber pickle)