The Pickle Tickler
by William Fertman

A survey of the world's pickles is a hecatomb of selection. I need not consult the Larousse Gastronomique; to do so would be trite and incomplete. Nearly every foodstuff can be pickled*. I have grasped only those within my limited reach. The pickles found here were gathered in ordinary American and American Asian supermarkets. I have omitted the vast array of pickled meats (corned beef, pig's feet, eggs), fishes (herring, smelt, octopus) and cheeses (the excellent labneh, blue cheese).

In some cuisines, pickles form a staple and attend every meal; the kimchees of Korea being a prominent example. European and American diets have become less reliant on fermentation with the advent of refrigeration. But pickles were once the most common form of vegetable eaten by the poor. In the nineteenth century, New York orphans, sent to foundling homes, would reject healthful milk and porridge, and clamor for the pickles to which they were accustomed. Officials were horrified that children would be addicted to such unwholesome food; but attempts to restrict their sale were futile.

A factor in reformer's distaste for pickles was that they were the food of immigration. The Irish, Jews, Italians, and other less desirable races had alarming dietary habits; delicatessen tastes. During the years of greatest European immigration (~1870-1920) Americans turned to fad diets as never before- and a prominent feature of the Grahmist movements was a disdain for stimulating flavors and spices. Pickles were seen as corrupting and sensual, and especially subject to adulteration by unscrupulous producers. A strange reversal of the original state of affairs, where pickling was the method by which food was kept wholesome through hot summers and long winters. Fresh food has remained a middle-brow culinary standard since; even the mid-century enthusiasm for canned goods reflected a move away from fermentation. But pickling remains.

Wild Cucumber (Lebanon)
The wild cucumbers resemble the brine-soaked fingers of the picklers themselves, and their taste is familiar and excellent; a perfection of garlic and brine. While other cucumber pickles match their flavor, no other can match their extremely delicate texture. Quite unlike the undercooked, stiff or gritty Asian offerings, or the familiar crisp Jewish or flaccid American cucs., these nearly crumble when bitten.

Turnip (Lebanon)
An authentic falafel boutonier. When tasted alone, the turnips display the great sulphurousness that some vegetables aspire to- broccoli, cabbage, asparagus. But the turnip has an unexpected offering. Once through its elastic skin, the center has a soft creaminess.

Sweet and Salty Mango (Thailand)
Fruit is often preserved with sugar, as jam or syrup. To pickle fruit requires a taste for contrast. In this case, the flavor was saccharine; an intense cringing sweetness overlayed the brine. Bottling had made the mango more fibrous than when fresh, and it dissolved like felt between the teeth.

Red Pepper (Thailand)
Unlike the mango, a nearly flavorless hot pepper benefits from a sweet and sour fermentation. The taste is identical to the Italian "sweet and hot" peppers, but too powerful to eat, except as a garnish.

Burdock (Japan)
I'm allowing burdock to stand in for the endless generations of Japanese pickles: Eggplant, cucumber, daikon, shiso leaf, etc. Japan's oshinko all share an earthy, vegetal flavor. Smacking of salt more than vinegar, the flavor of the woody burdock shoots dominates. A complete opposite of the cucumber-as-tabula rasaapproach. As the aphorism says, "Feed not your daughter-in-law on the pickles of the new eggplants."

Cauliflower (Poland/America)
Tasting these is a reminder of why the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 was passed.
coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst203/documents/pure.html
What should have been a perfect vegetable to brine has a deeply unwholesome flavor. Nevertheless, this was the only jar perceptibly diminishing as it sat in my refrigerator. Okra Pickling okra cuts down on the desirably mucilaginous nature of the vegetable. A delectable furry pod is all that remains. Perfect in a martini. Watermelon Rind Not being Southern, I had to receive repeated instructions on how to eat this. While it seems to me more like a relish, I'm told you eat a few cubes of it as a side to a nice ham. It's sweet and syrupy, the opposite of the mango, almost a preserve rather than a pickle. Whatever was watermelon once is gone. Cabbage Just as the pickled turnip belongs on the falafel, the sauerkraut belongs somewhere else. Aficionados will tell you that the difference between cooked kraut and fresh is night and day. A side note on kimchee: Korea possesses a masterpiece cuisine of pickling. Going far beyond cabbage, kimchees are too numerous and diverse to discuss in this article. Please refer to this excellent resource: www.kimchikorea.net/english/html/contents.html

Fernbrake, Mushroom, Dropwort & Bamboo Shoots Not a true pickle, this package was more of a vinegared salad, selected for it's wild ingredients. The pickling of uncultivated vegetables is a nearly forgotten legacy even in the western hemisphere. Pickled fern-heads, of course, but also wild mushroom varieties, and glasswort.

*Cereals, with the exception of corn, are seldom pickled per se- left in a vinegar and salt brine until lactic acid forms via fermentation. The most common and ancient method of preserving the caloric value of grain is to ferment it with sugar and yeast, to produce alcohol.