If you’re a long time Food in Jars reader, you might have noticed there’s been a serious dearth of new pickle recipes on the site. It’s not that I stopped suspending fruits and vegetables in puckery brines, it’s just that I got a pickling gig with Serious Eats. Once a week, I offer up a seasonal pickle recipe in a column we call ‘In a Pickle.’ Starting now, I’m going to recap those recipes on an occasional basis, in the hopes that it will help you folks find something new and delicious.
Last week, I made a batch of hot pepper rings. The brine has a red wine vinegar base and the finished pickles are wonderfully tangy and hot.
Before that, I pickled up a small sugar pumpkin. I know that I go on and on here about how pumpkin isn’t safe for boiling water bath canning, but this is the one exception. If you cut the pumpkin in small enough pieces and submerge it in a undiluted vinegar brine, you’ve got yourself one heck of a tasty (and safe) pickle.
The week before that, I made three pints of pickled golden beets. Those beets were so incredibly sweet that I didn’t add even a speck of sugar to the brine and still, they are so sweet ‘n tart.
Quick pickled radishes. A fridge-only pickle so that they retain their crunch. Tangy. Bright pink. Good on tacos.
Pickled Seckel pears. They are adorable and taste like Christmas. I’ve made a ton to give as gifts this year (only to the deserving, though).
To see the complete archive of recipes I’ve cooked up for ‘In a Pickle,’ click here.
I keep looking, because I know I missed it, but I keep looking in this post for the giveaway to one lucky reader of a jar of pickled Seckel pears! I’m just going to go reread it again…
🙂
Is it necessary to use Seckel pears? Someone gave me a large basket of small pears–she didn’t know what kind. Will mine work too in this recipe?
You could use any small pear. I chose Seckel because they have good flavor and have a nice, compact size. However, as long as you like the way your small pears taste and they’re not too ripe, they could easily be pickled.
I didn’t realize you were writing for Serious Eats. Congrats!
I actually used to work with Kenji at Cook’s Illustrated / ATK. We started there together on the same day–he in the test kitchen and I in the Web Development department.
Funny how The Web makes it such a Small World. 🙂
It feels like an amazingly tiny world these days.
I have a question about the recipe. Is it necessary for the peppers to go in to the brine for that little bit of time? My canning funnel grew legs and walked away so it would be soo much easier to just pack the peppers in to the jars and cover with brine!
You could do it that way. The only bummer would be that you wouldn’t be left with an spice-infused vinegar. But in the scheme of things, that’s not such a big deal.
Just curious how you avoid super mushy peppers. I made a batch this summer, read up on it, realizing many have that problem. But low and behold, not the least bit of crunch in my pepperoncinis!
Ooh! Pickled pumpkin? What does it taste like? What do you do with them?
Love pickled anything! Think I’m going to need a full on pickling session to try these out, then find new recipes to add these to! Thanks!
I’ve been searching and searching for a fabulous, vinegar-briney pepperoncini canning recipe. Can you offer one or point me somewhere to find one, oh Queen of Pickles??
Let me say that 3 years ago I attempted to make spiced crab apples (there was a quite a bit of vinegar recommended for the recipe too). They were supposed to simmer for 20 min, within 5 min-they were mush! I ran them through my food mill and they cooled quite nicely into a thick, almost cranberry-like gel. I ended up serving them with Thanksgiving that year-what a nice surprise!