“Brine is a solution of salt and water. Use 1 part coarse salt to 9 parts water. For best results use soft water. Avoid the use of iodized salts in pickles. Barrel or coarse is preferable to table salt. When following recipes use a 5 per cent vinegar, a white one if the pickles are light in color or a cider vinegar if they are not. Use glass, pottery or enamel vessels for soaking pickles. Store them in well-sealed crocks or in jars with glass tops.” — Irma S. Rombauer, The Joy of Cooking, 1943
I have mixed the following spices and vegetables in these pickling jars: ginger (peeled lengthwise), cucumbers (seeded cut in quarter moons), sprouted lentils (precooked), and the star ingredient sea asparagus— and this is my salt. Simply follow the recipe and bottling as above. Refrigerate for a couple days turning the jars upside down before you sleep at night, and flip again in the morning. Should be perfectly and evenly coated after the pickling timeframe. Give the extra jar to surprise a good friend, or coworker. Such a complement to grilled sandwiches on the side plate.
Yesterday at the rummage sale on the corner of my street I found the classic Joy of Cooking kitchen bible, clothbound, for .25 cents (among other vintages I bought, like a Judy Garland vinyl record, and the rare Wind, Sun and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry). In the forward of Joy the authors wrote wonderfully quite on point that “no one will read a cookbook unless there’s a story to tell.” Every chapter of this book begins with a playful preamble opening up each category of food-making with a creative narrative. In the pickles section, for example, the literary character Peter Piper conjured a poetic alliteration to interest the readers on the subject of brining. Throughout are precious vignettes peppering the pages with their joy of writing. My food blogging influences are varied, but to me the best culinary writers wear many hats and thinking methodologies while keeping faith in cooking well, from preparation to presentation, at home. I think the hard effort put into cooking a meal for the family or for an evening with select guests or to celebrate with a gathering is ameliorated by a journey recipe through a thoughtful prose. There is a semantic flavor to food writing that definitely can inspire, wet the appetite and swoon your feelings. So I “cook” it that way.
I finally have to say something about the plum. When at Mana Foods I have always spotted my curiosity at this vinegar option next to the red, white, raspberry, champagne, balsamic ones which I otherwise get. But yesterday I did get it at last and now putting it to the test in my pickles, and because it’s got a rose hue I think in its liquor will render the ginger experience in my brine with depth of citric sweet. I haven’t brined, for that matter, pickled ginger before with sea asparagus, let alone with cucumbers and lentil sprouts. It’s an interesting ensemble — try it and take my word.
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