Create Unique Pickling Brines
Years ago, when I was segueing my cooking career away from baking, I enrolled in a Master Food Preserver program. I’m a naturally experimental cook; I have an uncanny knack for what my father called “loaves and fishes,” or creating tasty meals out of meager pickings. The first day of the Master Food Preserver program, our esteemed instructors quickly told us that “canning is not creative cooking.” Yes, that’s a direct quote. They also said we needed to always follow established and lab-tested recipes.
I sat in that program greatly conflicted. Here I was, trying to enhance my cooking career while at the same time being told my creative expression was severely limited. So, I found a way to work around that notion. My career change brought me the good fortune of landing a position in recipe development for an international brand that does lab testing of all its canning recipes. I recall only twice creating recipes that didn’t meet the pH standard of lower than 4.6; neither were pickles. (For the curious, one involved persimmons, the other figs, both low-acid.) Let this inspire you to bare your creative pickling soul.
To help you on your way, here you’ll find all you need to develop your own recipes: brine measurements, as well as suggestions for aromatics, seasonings, and vegetables or
