Wednesday, May 27, 2015

The Complete Book of Pickling by Jennifer MacKenzie

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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