The last couple of Summers I've done a little pickling, and both times it's been easy and turned out really well. I don't have any canning equipment, so I haven't done any non-pickled canning. That's fine with me though, both because I love vinegar and because I have an irrational fear of botulism.
We did zucchini, carrots, asparagus, and beets, and used this dilly bean recipe for all of them. They all worked well, but the zucchini we used was huge and overgrown, so it wasn't very crisp. Kind of like a not-that-great cucumber pickle. I probably wouldn't bother with that again.
Here they are cooling and looking pretty.
The jars all had the same vinegar/water mix and same amount of salt, but we added some fresh thyme and mustard seed to the carrots, and caraway to some of the beets. I ate the unadulterated ones.
I use pickles in things like pasta salad and potato salad, because dill and vinegar go really well with mustard and the strong flavors do most of the seasoning for you. They're also nice to bring to potlucks and barbecues, if you don't have time to make much of anything.
I still have a bunch from last June, but I'll probably make more when asparagus season comes around again. I might do some onions or scallions, too. I do recommend getting some canning tongs before doing this - I don't have any, and it always leads to some near breakings and actual scaldings getting the jars in and out of the boiling water bath. Of course, it may just be that I'm uncoordinated.
No comments:
Post a Comment