What Julia Child did for French cooking, Jennifer McKenzie
does for pickling. She has crafted a great book to teach inhibited cooks about
preserving fruits, vegetables, and sauces, using ingredients you can buy
anywhere. She starts with basic scientific information about preserving foods,
and the benefits of pickling. When I say benefits, I mean she provides reasons
to pickle cucumbers, onions, and peaches, not only for the great taste, but
also for the health benefits.
Take for instance her recipe for pickled figs, using marsala
and vinegar. You can make the figs last longer, without having to dry them, and
they will have a sweet or sour taste. Dried figs have an excessively sweet
taste, but when you pickle them, you can control the taste and texture. There
are recipes for pickled cucumbers, tomatoes, and plums, and she gives
instructions for pickling them in the refrigerator, or hot-water pickling,
which means you can leave the jars in the pantry.
The benefits of home pickling are many. Firstly, you can
preserve the fruits and vegetables for a long time, which is great if you haven’t
got room in the fridge. If you grow your own vegetables, and end up with more
than you can store, pickling may be the best way to see that they don’t go to
waste. Secondly, there are health benefits, because fruit and vegetables that
are preserved in vinegar can have great effects on your heart. Lastly, when you
buy pickled cucumbers or tomatoes in the store, they’re made with dyes, sodium,
and all kinds of preservatives, but home-made pickles won’t have any of these
harmful additives.
If you’re looking to start pickling your own foods at home,
this book is a great help. It gives easy to follow instructions, and the
ingredients are affordable.
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