Creative Pickling: Salsas, Chutneys, Sauces & Preserves for Today's Adventurous Cook

by Barbara Ciletti

Pickling isn't just dill pickles and sauerkraut (although both appear in this book). Pickling is also Spiced Whole Onions, Tomato Peach Salsa, Almond Stuffed Jalapeños, and more. In fact, pickling can stock a pantry with jars of tangy, sweet, or savory condiments that can make a 20-minute meal taste like a carefully crafted dinner. Pickling is preserving food in a vinegar or salt solution, which makes the product high-acid and reduces the processing required for long-term storage. No pressure canner is required; rather, the processed recipes in this book require only a hot-water bath averaging 15 to 20 minutes. Some are simply refrigerated or frozen. This is pickling for today's cooks. The recipes don't call for bushels of produce, dozens of jars, or a quarter-acre garden. A good grocery store or farmer's market will do. Nor do they presume a family of 12. Instead, all recipes are made in small batches for today's smaller households. The book does assume a love of creative cooking and a wide-ranging interest in varied cuisines. In addition to the pickle recipes, there are also 12 recipes for dishes using the pickled Moroccan Chicken with Preserved Lemons, Grilled Tuna in Maui Marinade, Rosemary Olive Bread, and more.

Genres: Cookbooks, Food

128 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2000

Reviews

[Laurla2]

-this book contains instructions on how to make your own vinegar, which i have no desire to try, but is still pretty neat.
-recipes i'm interested include:
feta in salt brine (pickled cheese) (making the cheese from scratch from goats milk)
tiered oranges, tangerines, and kumquats in vinegar (with cinnamon sticks and cloves)
carrot medley (with thyme, brown sugar, vinegar, and orange juice)
spiced whole onions (in vinegar with ginger)
ginger pears (is it really pickling if they're only in brandy?)
balsamic strawberries
cherry torte (in balsamic vinegar with cardamom, vanilla and almond extract)
peaches supreme (peaches, raspberries, white whine vinegar)
caper and dill sauce (white wine vinegar, and dijon mustard)

[Anne Holcomb · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has some creative ideas for making pickles and relishes out of various fruits and vegetables. However some of the recipes have somewhat hard-to-find ingredients, and I wish that every recipe had a refrigerator-pickle and canning-pickle version, as we bought all the ingredients for one before noticing in the small print that it was a refrigerator pickle only.