The Pros and Cons of Pickling: Inspiring or Waste of Time?

For the rest of you, let’s explore the question: is pickling actually worth the effort? This is the question I’ve been wondering to myself over the past few weeks.

Last year, I received Joshua Weissman’s cookbook for Christmas. Of all the recipes on offer in the book, I started with his “quick pickle” recipe.

I had planned to make Banh Mi sandwiches — the quintessential fusion cuisine — for my girlfriend and me, and one of the key ingredients in those sandwiches is pickled carrots.

But once I’d made the sandwiches, delicious as they were, I found myself stitched up with a nearly-full jar of pickled carrots. The recipe only used the equivalent of about a quarter of a baby carrot. What the hell can I do with these, I wondered to myself.

I struggled to think of much. A brief Google search highlighted a few ideas: salads, garnishes, as a standalone snack and, of course, in sandwiches. Beyond that, I couldn’t really find any uses for my pickles that made sense to me.

Indeed, the lack of ideas led me to a broader question: what’s the point in pickling at all?

After all, pickling is a method from days-gone-by, right? We used to pickle food at a time when most humans lived agrarian lifestyles, working on the farm. In the summer, people found themselves with a surplus of vegetables. What was the solution for all this excess? Pickling.

By pickling the fruit and vegetables, all that excess produce didn’t go bad, and it could last well into the autumn and winter when less food was available.

So why the hell are we bothering to make them in the modern day?

Well, it can’t be denied that pickles do add something to a dish. The main ingredient of any pickle, aside from the fruit or vegetable itself, is vinegar. And vinegar is one of the most acidic condiments in the kitchen. The second main ingredient is salt. That means pickles are essentially little hits of salt and vinegar — little salty, acidic flavour bombs to throw into any dish, even if only as a garnish (just not on soup, of course).

The thing is, it is actually worth it to do it yourself? After all, pickles are plentiful on supermarket shelves. Let’s do some maths.

Let’s look at the classic “pickle” — the gherkin. Sainsbury’s sell a 340g jar of pickled gherkins (which technically is baby cucumbers pickled in vinegar, salt, dill and mustard seeds) for £1.15 at the time of writing, which is 34p per 100g. The same supermarket sell 200g raw baby cucumbers for 95p. That’s 47p per 100g. That’s already 13p more expensive per 100g, and that doesn’t include the cost of the vinegar, salt and spices.

In short, it’s substantially more expensive to make gherkins yourself at home. And what’s the benefit? Well, there’s none as far as I can tell. Some people might tell you that you can ensure home-made gherkins are free from artificial preservatives and the like, but I don’t think there’s much substance (or for that matter, benefit) to the claim.

What about other pickles?

Well, it’s true that pickled carrots aren’t readily available in pre-pickled form, but maybe there’s a reason for that. They’re just not that good. They’re rigid, which means they don’t make great garnishes on salads or finished dishes. They’re too crunchy, even when pickled, which means IMHO that they’re not that good in sandwiches. And the flavour really isn’t all that good. (In fact, I find that most pickles take on the taste of the vinegar more than anything else).

A lot of vegetables (at least, that I’ve tried) either suffer from similar problems, or simply aren’t as enjoyable as simple gherkins, which, as we’ve established, cost peanuts.

I could suggest simply buying pre-made gherkins from the supermarket and calling it a day. But there’s another kind of “pickle” we need to consider: pickled onions.

I’m not talking about those tiny little whole onions that are probably rotting away in cupboard as you read this. No, I’m referring to the pickled red onions that “chefs” like Ethan Chlebowski have popularised over the last few years. (He’s been pickling these in basically every recipe he’s ever made).

Now, these are worth the hassle. Sainsbury’s do sell them pre-made, but they’re nowhere near as ubiquitous as their baby cucumber counterpart. And purchasing them pre-made is more expensive. So, unlike gherkins, making pickled red onions at home is cost-effective (in the UK, at least).

Not only that, these things are much more versatile than, say, pickled carrots. They’re hard enough so that they have a bit of a bite, but soft enough that they’ll mould around any food when used as a garnish. Plus, they’re packed full of flavour and they look very attractive with their bright pink pickling juice. (You’d think I could come up with a better word than pickle juice, but here we are. Pickling is not the most attractive concept).

So yes, I do think pickling is worth it, but only for red onions. They’re delicious and attractive enough in their own right to justify having on hand at all times.

As for the rest, I’ve yet to find a vegetable worth pickling. Pickled carrots, pickled green beans, pickled (regular) cucumber — they are a bit meh, and frankly I don’t think they’re worth the effort.

If you wanna make some pickled red onions at home, here’s my pickled red onion recipe:

Pickling example: pickled red onion recipe

Ingredients

Makes: 1 average-size jar

• 1 red onion
• Water
• Vinegar (malt is the cheapest, but any “neutral” vinegar is fine)
• Thyme, mustard seeds, nigella seeds, etc (optional)

Directions

1. Fill a clean glass jar with sliced red onion.
2. With the onion in, fill the jar with water so that the onions are submerged.
3. Pour the water out and into a measuring jug (leave the onions in the jar). The water you have poured out is how much liquid you need. We’ll make a solution of 1/2 water and 1/2 vinegar. I use malt vinegar, as it’s the cheapest, but you can use basically any non-flavoured vinegar (e.g. apple cider, red wine, white wine, etc. but not balsamic).
4. Discard half the water and replace it with your vinegar of choice (if, say, you originally measured out 500ml of water, you should now have 250ml water and 250ml vinegar).
5. Pour that water/vinegar solution into a saucepan and add any spices or dried herbs you like (e.g. thyme, mustard seeds, nigella seeds, etc.).
6. Bring the solution to a boil. Once at a boil, take it off the heat pour the solution back into your jar. Add a paper towel to the top of the jar and let it absorb the liquid. This will ensure that the vegetables are fully submerged.
7. Leave the jar to cool. Once cool, discard the paper towel, add the jar lid and store in the fridge.