Country roads

Renee Kiff
History records that the clever and practical culinary idea of
pickling goes ‘way back to 2030 B.C. in Mesopotamia, or, as it is
known to all of us now, Iraq. Ancient Egyptians, conquering Romans,
ambitious English women like Elizabeth the First, explorers, early
American colonists, even Napoleon Bonaparte all had a love of
pickles in common.
From the Iraqi Tigris River valley, fanning out in every
direction, the pickle reached and became part of many cultures
around the world.
The Middle Dutch word, pekel, means a solution for preserving
and flavoring food. This is exactly what was needed in those times
of extended travel over deserts on camel and horse back without ice
chests. Certainly the explorers on the sailing ships needed pickles
to go with their tuna fish sandwiches.
One of the populations that really took to pickled cucumbers
were Eastern European Jews, who “ate them with black bread and
later potatoes as the bulk of their diet,” says Rabbi Gil Marks in
the History of Pickles from the web site of “The Pickle Guys.”
It is not necessarily inaccurate to suppose that anyone who
plants a few seeds of cucumbers faces the task of putting them up
in some fashion. The way in which a single plant can produce dozens
of little dainty cucumbers one day and bitter torpedo-like clubs
the next, is catalyst enough to learn how to utilize them
quickly.
Enter the vinegar brine. Is there anything more refreshing than
the look and taste of a crunchy, chilled pickle, just waiting to be
popped into your hamburger sandwich; if you’re a vegetarian, into
your Boca-burger?
My family knows too well the history of my sordid pickling past.
As there is nothing so refreshing as a crisp, delicious pickle,
there is nothing worse than a limp, bitter discolored attempt in a
big quart jar hidden in the back of a cupboard. While not
poisonous, my pickle project was not popular. Store-bought pickles
were consumed continually while the dark, dusky beauties stood
hiding behind their miserable grape leaves, quiet and avoided.
Finally my daughter suggested she give a quart to the chickens
every other day for as many weeks as it took to toss out a cupboard
of homemade dill pickles.
Today, for the second time in 30 years, there are seven quarts
of new dill pickles on the kitchen window sill. They are the result
of our grandson, Robin, deciding to pass on his maternal
grandmother’s method of producing the most coveted pickles in
Oregon. We have been enjoying a few quarts each Christmas when the
Mason jars arrive, wrapped carefully in newspaper. The lovely green
dill pickle jars are usually tied up with a bright red ribbon and
always a treat.
Yesterday, Robin said, “Gramma, I’m going to show you how to
make Grammy’s pickles,” (referring to his Oregon Grandmother with a
‘y’ ending while I get an “a”)
So, here is the procedure and the recipe and I hope you give it
a try.
Ingredients: pickling cucumbers, ideally, measuring two fingers
in width and three to four inches in length.
Fresh garlic, dill seed heads ripened to an olive color, not yet
brown, but not still in flower, grape leaves, pickling salt (Kosher
salt works), Heinz white vinegar, water.
Utensils needed: ladle, 8 jars with lids and screw bands, oven
mitts, a fork or a magnetized canning tool to pick up bands and
lids, two clean towels, large kettle with lid and small sauce
pan.
This recipe will make 8 quarts.
Preparation of jars and lids.
Wash jars and lids and bands in hot soapy water. Lids should be
new. Place washed and rinsed jars in 220-250 degree oven, laying
jars on their sides directly on an oven rack. Bring a small amount
of water in a sauce pan close to a boil, turn heat down and put
lids and bands into the sauce pan.
Prepare vegetables.
Wash 70-80 pickling cucumbers in cold water, and remove with a
knife a small amount of the blossom end. (Any part of the flower
will cause the pickles to become soft.)
Peel 40 garlic cloves and remove any dry, darkened ends. (One
garlic head contains about a dozen cloves.)
Wash and remove excess stem of eight grape leaves.
Using two dill heads per jar, have them arranged in an orderly
fashion next to the grape leaves.
Making the brine.
Measure 4 cups water to 2 cups white vinegar to 1 and 1/2 cups
Kosher salt. You will need three times this amount for 8 quarts. In
other words: you will place 12 cups of water into a small kettle, 6
cups of white vinegar and 4 and 1/2 cups of Kosher salt. Mix
together and bring to a boil keeping the lid on the kettle. When
this brine comes to a boil, the pickling process can commence!
With the oven mitts on, remove one of the jars from the oven and
place on clean towel. Put one grape leaf along interior side of
jar, drop a few garlic cloves into the jar; next, the two dill
heads, folded, if necessary; and finally the cucumbers. They should
be standing on end, supporting each other and packed as tightly as
possible. Add a few more cloves of garlic over the cucumbers. Ladle
brine into jars until cucumbers are covered and liquid is
approximately 1/2 inch from the jar top.
Seal with hot lid and screw band and carefully place jar on a
clean towel to remain undisturbed for 24 hours. You will hear the
jars sealing by a popping sound and the lid will be concave. If it
pops back up the jar must be refrigerated.
Pickles will have to age at least four to five months.
This recipe was provided to “Grammy” Janet Bain at the Salem,
Oregon, farmers market thirty five years ago by a farmer who grew
pickling cucumbers and sold jars of pickles. When Robin and his
family drive to Salem for the Bain annual pickling day, they begin
the process around ten o’clock in the morning and conclude near
midnight. The cause of spending so many hours at the task is the
fact that they prepare no less than 60 quart jars and 20 pint size
of perfectly pickled pickles!
Renee Kiff weeds and writes at her family farm in Alexander
Valley.