Pickling 101
Not to sound like the hipsters on “Portlandia” (“We can pickle that!“), you really can pickle just about any kind of vegetable (or fruit!) that you can find at the farmers’ market in the summertime.
To make a pickle, you need brine. Brine is the magic ingredient that turns plain cucumbers into a delicious pickle.
A very basic brine is just a solution made of equal parts vinegar and water, mixed with kosher salt. This brine gets poured over the vegetables and, in what seems like magic, but is actually science, transforms the vegetables into pickles. While you can certainly eat your homemade pickles right away, they get even better after they’ve had some time to soak in the brine.
Keep the ratios the same, and you can make more or less brine to suit the amount of pickles you want to make. You can also swap out the cider vinegar for rice vinegar, white wine vinegar, or another vinegar to suit your taste.
INGREDIENTS – feel free to customize the ingredient list with your favorite vegetables and spices!
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