Carrolata - Pickled

When you pickle, you are not only creating a vibrant, gourmet ingredient, but you are also reenacting a process that has been practiced and perfected over many thousands of years, by cultures all over the planet. Pickling has been around, in one form or another, for more than 4,000 years. The first archaeological evidence of pickles comes from ancient Mesopotamia and the Tigris River valley, from nearly 3,000 B.C.E . From then, they never faded out of fashion, with pickles appearing in the writings of Aristotle and in the Bible. They were also associated with famous leaders such as Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, both of whom believed pickles possessed semi-miraculous qualities as an aid to spiritual and physical well-being. Pickles were a widely enjoyed snack during the Middle Ages in Europe, and they quickly became among the most popular preserving methods for sailors, both because pickles would stay fresh for the duration of the voyage, and because they helped prevent scurvy. Amerigo Vespucci, the namesake of America, was a pickle merchant before he was an explorer and mapmaker. Pickles became such a large part of popular culture that even Christopher Columbus grew cucumbers in the Caribbean for the express purpose of making pickles. Think of that the next time youre toiling in your garden with a stubborn cucumber plant!

In the mid-eighteenth century, Napoleon Bonaparte offered a $250,000 bounty for anyone who could work out a technique to safely preserve pickles and other foods for his armies over long durations. In response, Nicholas Appert discovered that food wouldnt spoil if it was placed in an airtight jar and then boiled, thus giving birth to the modern invention of canning, and allowing for a variety of nonfermented pickles to be stored for longer periods of time. For the past two centuries, the technology of pickling has remained pretty much the same, even as the taste and prevalence of pickles changed. Today, pickles are a full-blown obsession among chefs, growers, and foodies alikePickle Day is now a yearly celebration, and the average American consumes nine pounds of pickles annually. Its hard to blame us, though: Pickles are piquant, healthy, long-lasting, and, best of all, theyre easy to make and even easier to cook with. And because pickling methods have been refined for thousands of years, its easy, once the basics are learned, to focus on experimenting with more and more inventive and memorable pickle flavors. Gourmet restaurants all over the country now employ pickled ingredients in a variety of delicious dishes, and its never been easier for at-home chefs to do the same.