I Used To Think “Fresh Pickle” Was An Oxymoron – New Pickles
When I think of pickles, a variety of things come to mind, but “fresh” isn’t usually one of them. The synonym I’d more likely apply is “preserved.”
Thoughts of pickles include big barrels on old sailing vessels; food made for long-term storage to be eaten weeks and months after setting sail when fresh vegetables have long since been depleted. Or perhaps our relatives several generations ago, canning food to be stored for winter consumption when produce was limited to cabbages, beets, and potatoes stored in a root cellar. Pickles bring to mind New York City’s Lower East Side, wooden barrels lining the streets a century ago, and farmers’ markets today, plastic five-gallon buckets in their place, with cucumbers bobbing in briny liquid. I may even think of kimchi, a vast variety of Korean fermented vegetables traditionally stored underground in earthenware vessels to preserve the harvest for less plentiful seasons.
Therefore, the term “fresh pickles” seems like an oxymoron; fresh vegetables contradicting their preserved nature.
But if a pickle is simply “an article of food that has been preserved in brine or in vinegar,” as defined by Merriam-Webster, then the preservation need not last long. Sometimes called quick pickles or refrigerator pickles, a “fresh” pickle is more or less a vegetable that is soaked for a short period in salt water or vinegar with spices added. Dilly beans, pickled red onions, Thai cucumber pickles, tomatillo pickles, horseradish pickles, and these new pickles with cucumbers from my garden are perfect examples. While some are ready to eat almost immediately – pickled red onions and Thai cucumber pickles are best in the hours after they are prepared – others benefit from a few days to weeks in their briny bath. None of these fresh pickles are shelf-stable, however, and they all must be kept in the refrigerator and eaten within a handful of weeks to a month or so.
Other than the Thai version above, these new pickles (presumably named for their short brining time) are perhaps one of the freshest cucumber pickles of all. While not eaten within hours, they only require a few days before they are ready to accompany a sandwich or burger or are ready to munch on their own. Easy to make and simply soaked in a salty brine with garlic, fresh dill, and spices, they don’t have much time to ferment, and they retain the satisfying crunch of a fresh-picked cucumber. (A half-sour pickle is similar but allowed to ferment at room temperature for up to a day or so, and a full-sour pickle ferments at room temperature for even longer before being placed in a refrigerator.)
At this time of year, when my garden is overflowing with Kirby cucumbers, I always make a few quarts of new pickles. Salty and garlicky, and not at all sour, these fresh pickles sure hit the spot.
New Pickles
These pickles are refrigerator pickles; they are not properly canned pickles that are shelf-stable, but they will last a few weeks in the refrigerator. Use new 1-quart canning jars, or boil previously used ones and their lids, completely submerged in water for 5 minutes to sterilize them.
half hour, plus a few days to a week to ferment, makes 3 quarts
about 4 lbs. pickling cucumbers (like Kirbys), enough to fill 3, 1-quart mason jars
8 cups water
½ cup kosher salt
1 tsp. dill seed
30 black peppercorns
1 tsp. coriander seeds
1 tsp. crushed red pepper
3 dill flowerheads (optional)
6 bay leaves
6 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
several sprigs fresh dill, about ¼ of a supermarket bunch
- Wash cucumbers thoroughly in cold water. If small enough, use them whole. If too large or irregularly shaped, slice cucumbers into halves, spears, or chips. Whole will probably last longer in the refrigerator because of the skin. Once washed, place into a large bowl filled with ice water and let the cucumbers sit while preparing spices and brine.
- Prepare the brine. Add water and kosher salt to a 3-quart pot and bring to a boil. Allow to boil for 5 minutes, stirring until salt is dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool for about 5 minutes.
- While brine is boiling and cooling add one sixth of the dill seed, peppercorns, coriander seeds, and crushed red pepper to each jar. Place a dill flowerhead at the bottom of each jar, if using, along with a bay leaf and a couple slices of garlic. Pack cucumbers into each jar, adding the remaining garlic slices interspersed among cucumbers, along with the dill sprigs, leaving about a half inch of space at the top of the jar. Add remaining spices and any leftover garlic on top.
- Place jars on a sheet pan to catch any brine that spills. After brine has cooled for about five minutes, pour it – still warm – into jars, filling completely to the top. There should be extra brine, which can be discarded. Allow the brine to cool, then seal jars with tops. Rinse and dry the jars and place in the refrigerator. Jars can be left uncovered – or covered with a layer of cheesecloth – on the counter for a day or longer to allow for natural fermentation if you would like half-sour or full-sour pickles. Every once in a while, maybe once or twice a day, turn and lightly shake jar to disburse spices. Pickles are ready in a few days to a week and will last a few weeks, refrigerated.
If I’d known you were writing about pickles I would have told you about the barrel of pickles your great grandmother Tillie (my Bubbie) had in our grocery store. Before the PA Health Department made grocers raise the barrels up on wooden pedestals, and before they made grocers get rid of barreled pickles altogether, Tillie sold them for 5 cents each. The customers asked for “Jew” pickles (forgive me but that’s what they called them). I could dig into the barrel and get one whenever I wanted, but rarely did. I preferred digging my hand into the large metal can of potato chips (which we filled by hand and sold in paper bags that we weighed on the store scale – nothing very sanitary). I do remember that the pickles were delicious. I have no idea where they came from but I’m quite certain that Bubbie didn’t make them.
Thanks Mom. That’s a great memory. I bet each small grocery store like Bubbie’s had a barrel. Not as many varieties as at the pickle place I visited a few years ago on the Lower East Side (there were a few dozen), but I bet from a similar pickle purveyor. And I bet they were delicious. (And the potato chips too!!)
Hi Max, Cool story from your mom. In Detroit, we bought potato chips in big metal cans when I was young. With 7 of us, they were gone in no time. My mom had to hide them. We also had a root cellar where we would go when a tornado warning was issued. We waiting amongst my moms canned beets, pickles, etc. She’d have these huge stocks pots for the canning process. Lost art of cooking. for sure. Don’t these pickles last longer than a couple of weeks?
As always Max, you’re making my mouth water!