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The World's Best Pickles
By Janette Blackwell, Fri Dec 9th
I knew they were the world’s best pickles the moment I tastedone. That first taste took place around 1950, and I’ve tasted alot of pickles since, am a pickle hound in fact, but I’ve nevercome across anything else as good.
They came to us by way of my Uncle Ronald Smith, who was anelectrician in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana where I grew up.One day he was doing electrical work for a Bulgarian family, andthey rewarded him with a sample pickle. He liked it so much hegot the recipe and gave it to his wife Gladys, who gave it toGrandma Glidewell, who made it and gave some to me, and Ithought I’d died and gone to pickle heaven.
And thus, although they became an old Glidewell family recipe,they are really an old Bulgarian family recipe. The Bulgarianfamily, whose name I do not know, told Uncle Ronald that inBulgaria, when the first heavy frost kills the tomato vines,they put all their end-of-garden vegetables –- including thosegreen tomatoes -- into a barrel, fill the barrel with picklingbrine, and eat the best pickles in the world all winter. Itturns out, though, that the pickles’ travel from Bulgaria to theU.S. was only one leg of a more ancient journey. Because Imentioned them to an Iranian woman, and she said, “My family hasalways made pickles like that! Exactly like that, except we addtarragon.”
Iran being the new name for the ancient kingdom of Persia, whoknows how many centuries these pickles go back?
There’s more: I later lost the recipe’s brine proportions. Gavesome thought to its travels between Persia and Bulgaria, lookedin an Armenian-American cookbook (Treasured Armenian Recipes,published in 1949 by the Armenian General Benevolent Union) andthere they were, under “Mixed Pickles No. 2.” Turns out theworld’s best Armenian pickles are just like the world’s bestBulgarian and Persian and American pickles, except they includedill, and sometimes green beans and coriander seed.
So this is an old, old recipe belonging to the whole humanfamily.
END-OF-GARDEN PICKLES
Vegetables:
Green tomatoes*, cut in half or quartered if large Carrots,peeled and cut into strips Cauliflower, separated into smallflorets Baby onions, peeled, or larger onions halved orquartered Green peppers, cut into broad lengthwise slicesGarlic, two peeled cloves per quart jar Medium-hot peppers, twosmall whole peppers per quart
You can also add unpeeled and unwaxed small cucumbers, zucchini,or lightly cooked green beans, though we never did. The hotpeppers add adventure and zest, but if you prefer to save yourtears for really sad occasions, why not?
Amounts and proportions depend on what vegetables you have andhow many quarts you plan to make. You don’t have to have thegreen tomatoes, and the other things can be bought in a grocerystore. But you do need a variety of vegetables, and you have tohave the onions and garlic, or you won’t have the world’s bestpickles. You will have the world’s so-so pickles, and that wouldbe a shame.
Armenian-Persian-Bulgarian Brine
To one quart of water add 1/4 cup pickling salt (salt that isn’tiodized), and one cup of white distilled vinegar. Bring themixture to a boil. This is enough brine to cover two quarts ofmixed pickles, with a little left over.
Processing
Follow the canning instructions in a good, standard cookbook.Or, if you plan to eat them right away, pack the vegetables intoclean quart jars, pour over them the hot brine, and keep thepickles covered in the refrigerator. Some of the moreimpressionable vegetables, like zucchini, will be ready to eatin only two or three days. ________
* The green tomatoes for this recipe should be at least thinkingof getting ripe. A tomato demonstrates its thoughts along thisline by getting a white overlay on top of the green.
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About the author:Go STEAMIN’ DOWN THE TRACKS WITH VIOLA HOCKENBERRY, astorytelling cookbook -- and find Montana country cooking,nostalgic stories, and gift ideas -- at Janette Blackwell’s Foodand Fiction, http://foodandfiction.com/Entrance.html -- or visither Delightful Food Directory,http://delightfulfood.com/main.html
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