Getting pickled at Drumlin Farm

(This article originally appeared in the  Lincoln Journal on August 2, 2012.)

Leslie Miller of Stow fishes a pickle out of the jar)

By Alice Waugh

Summer at Drumlin Farm means loads of fresh vegetables and herbs—and some of them got pickled on a Friday night.

About 20 visitors sampled all sorts of veggies that had been pickled over the past week or so by Drumlin farm and food educator Allison Chuang, who led “Fermentation Friday: A Pickled Pageant” on July 27. Pickling isn’t just for cucumbers, she explained, as she handed out tasty samples of pickled radishes, carrots, peppers, green beans and other foods.

Before the advent of refrigeration, pickling (submerging food in salt water and allowing it to ferment) was just one of several food preservation methods people used around the world for centuries. For example, many cultures pickle cabbage to make foods like sauerkraut or kimchi. Fermentation is also used to make thing including beer, bread and yogurt.

“These are very important survival techniques for all societies,” Chuang said. Today, pickling a “cheap, fun hobby” that anyone can do without any special equipment. Harmless salt-loving bacteria found on fruits and vegetables produce lactic acid that ferments the food, while other bacteria are initially deterred by the saltiness and eventually by the acidity of the solution. The only potential danger is a buildup of carbon dioxide in the sealed jar, so picklers should loosen the lid every day to let the gas escape so the jar won’t explode, Chuang explained.

Especially in warm weather, opening the jar every day to taste the food as it’s fermenting is key, she said. Food gets more sour as fermentation progresses, but chilling slows the process almost to a halt, “so just put it in the fridge when it reaches a level of flavor you enjoy,” she said. This might be as little as three days, but once in the fridge, the food can keep for months.

Another factor contributing to the final flavor is the saltiness of the brine. For half-sour pickles, Chuang uses a salinity of 3 percent, which means two and a half tablespoons of canning salt or sea salt per quart of room-temperature tap water. Brine with a 5 percent salinity results in sour pickles. You shouldn’t use table salt for pickling because the iodine and anti-caking agents can inhibit bacterial growth, she noted.

But how do you achieve the Holy Grail of crisp, crunchy pickles? The culprit behind soft pickles is an enzyme present in cucumbers that breaks down the plant’s cell walls, making it mushy. To foil this process, you need to cut off about an eighth of an inch on the blossom end of the cucumber, where most of the enzyme is stored, Chuang said. It also helps to pack a grape leaf in the jar, as the tannin in the leaf inhibits the enzyme’s action.

Finally, it’s important to use vegetables (especially cucumbers) that are as fresh as possible, and not too big and seedy, she said. Everything the students tasted was made from vegetables and herbs harvested at Drumlin and immediately pickled. One of the most popular items were “dilly beans” — small green beans pickled with dill that were dark green, salty, crisp and deliciously dilly.

Once you know the basics, you don’t even need a recipe, Chuang noted; “you sort of learn what you like.” Adding carrots to the mix results in a sweeter overall flavor; using dill heads rather than just the week yields a more floral quality. Each student mixed and matched vegetables, herbs and spices such as dill weed, mustard seeds, garlic, spring onions, fennel and even lavender, topped the pile with a grape leaf, filled it to the top with the salt water, screwed on the lid and took them home to enjoy in a few days.