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The World's Best Pickles |
by:
Janette Blackwell |
I knew they were the world’s best pickles the moment I tasted one. That first taste took place around 1950, also I’ve tasted a lot of pickles since, am a pickle hound in fact, however I’ve never come across anything else as good.
They came to us by way of my Uncle Ronald Smith, who was an electrician in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana where I grew up. One day he was doing electrical work for a Bulgarian family, also they rewarded him with a sample pickle. He liked it so much he got the recipe also gave it to his wife Gladys, who gave it to Grandma Glidewell, who made it also gave some to me, also I thought I’d died also gone to pickle heaven.
And thus, although they became an old Glidewell family recipe, they are really an old Bulgarian family recipe. The Bulgarian family, whose name I do not know, told Uncle Ronald that in Bulgaria, when the first heavy frost kills the tomato vines, they put all their end-of-garden vegetables –- including those green tomatoes -- into a barrel, fill the barrel with pickling brine, also eat the best pickles in the world all winter.
It turns out, though, that the pickles’ travel from Bulgaria to the U.S. was only one leg of a more ancient journey. Because I mentioned them to an Iranian woman, also she said, “My family has always made pickles like that! Exactly like that, except we add tarragon.”
Iran being the new name for the ancient kingdom of Persia, who knows how many centuries these pickles go back?
There’s more: I later lost the recipe’s brine proportions. Gave some thought to its travels between Persia also Bulgaria, looked in an Armenian-American cookbook (Treasured Armenian Recipes, published in 1949 by the Armenian General Benevolent Union) also there they were, under “Mixed Pickles No. 2.” Turns out the world’s best Armenian pickles are just like the world’s best Bulgarian also Persian also American pickles, except they include dill, also sometimes green beans also coriander seed.
So this is an old, old recipe belonging to the whole human family.
END-OF-GARDEN PICKLES
Vegetables:
Green tomatoes*, cut in half or quartered if large
Carrots, peeled also cut into strips
Cauliflower, separated into small florets
Baby onions, peeled, or larger onions halved or quartered
Green peppers, cut into broad lengthwise slices
Garlic, two peeled cloves per quart jar
Medium-hot peppers, two small whole peppers per quart
You can or else add unpeeled also unwaxed small cucumbers, zucchini, or lightly cooked green beans, though we never did. The hot peppers add adventure also zest, however if you prefer to save your tears for really sad occasions, why not?
Amounts also proportions depend on what vegetables you have also how many quarts you plan to make. You don’t have to have the green tomatoes, also the other things can be bought in a grocery store. But you do need a variety of vegetables, also you have to have the onions also garlic, or you won’t have the world’s best pickles. You will have the world’s so-so pickles, also that would be a shame.
Armenian-Persian-Bulgarian Brine
To one quart of water add 1/4 cup pickling salt (salt that isn’t iodized), also one cup of white distilled vinegar. Bring the mixture to a boil. This is enough brine to cover two quarts of mixed pickles, with a little left over.
Processing
Follow the canning instructions in a good, standard cookbook. Or, if you plan to eat them right away, pack the vegetables into clean quart jars, pour over them the hot brine, also keep the pickles covered in the refrigerator. Some of the more impressionable vegetables, like zucchini, will be ready to eat in only two or three days.
About the author:
Go STEAMIN’ DOWN THE TRACKS WITH VIOLA HOCKENBERRY, a storytelling cookbook -- also find Montana country cooking, nostalgic stories, also gift ideas -- at Janette Blackwell’s Food also Fiction, http://foodandfiction.com/Entrance.htmlOr visit her Delightful Food Directory, http://delightfulfood.com/main.html
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