I have been thinking about pickles a lot lately, since the growing season has begun. So, I am trying to deconstruct the flavors of pickles (of all kinds, not just cucumber. Kraut, kimchi, chutneys, etc are all included).
I propose there are three flavor components in each pickle, which I call Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary (wow, inventive!). My goal is to break down flavor profiles and ratios to invent new kinds of pickles
Primary
Acid
Secondary
Sweet
Herbaceous
Salt
Fruity
Floral
Vegetal
Citrus
Tertiary
Spicey
Umami
Fish
Tannic
Sulphur
Sharp (mustard, wasabi, horseradish)
Wood
Mineral
Bitter
Earth
Astringency
Aromatic
Who has more? Cause when they are cataloged we can do things like: 60% acid, 30% herbaceous, 10% spicy. Then assign ingredients, such as citric acid, rosemary and thyme, and a Serrano pepper to add to radishes.
One important note
I am not advocating that these are recipes. Pickling spices will still probably need to be used in almost all of them.
This is rather a brainstorm of the most dominate flavors in a pickle to be used as a starting point to devise recipes.
So letās start simple. What makes a good dill pickleā¦ Good? I think there are three styles.
Style one, the Sharp āCoolā Dill
This is what I think of when I taste a store bought dill. Tons of acidity, a lot of bite, some herbaceousness, perhaps some heat or perhaps not.
Style two, the Salty, Briney Dill
Naturally fermented pickles in a manner similar to traditional kraut. A touch of mouth feel from lactic acid, a strong salt presence, vegetal and herbaceous.
Style three, the Umami, āWarmā Dill
Sweeter than the others, but with a more aggressive mouth feel from different kinds of acids (think rice vinegar or malt vinegar), very light on the vegetal flavors, a tad salty, and the dill plays a supporting but not dominate roles.
These contain amounts of both acetic and lactic acid due to natural fermentation. This gives them a rounder acid profile, and usually taste more like the vegetable itself than other pickles.
Primary
Acid:
5% salt brine, natural fermentation. Acetic and lactic acids.
Secondary
Vegetal: use the best tasting produce possible, it will be the second strongest flavor
Herbaceous: dill flowers
Salt
Tertiary
Bitter: cucumber skin
Tannic, wood: add toasted oak chips to the fermenter
Unlike style 1 what this is trying to achieve is a slightly sweet, Umami, rounded sour dill. The sweet and Umami canāt overpower the dill, but they should be solid supporting actors.
Primary
Acid: 30% white vinegar, 30% rice wine vinegar, 40% water
These present a problem, even though I love them. And again, while we will branch out into other vegetables soon letās stick with cucumbers for the time being.
There are two flavors that dominate sweet cucumbers, acid and sugar. But there is one interloper that is naturally there in the skin and seedsābitterness. Vegetal, herbaceous, floral all go fine with bitterness, but sweet does not.
So are the options.
Japanese style pickles
These have skin and seed removed, then sliced into half circles. They are then seasoned with rice wine vinegar
Young cucumbers
Gerkins arguabley make the best sweet. While the ratio of flesh to skin is still not ideal, they havenāt had a chance to become very bitter yet. They should be about an inch long if you want the whole. Larger cukes may be sliced.
Larger Cukes, Leaching/blanching
This can be used for all cucumbers, but is essential for large ones. For large cukes use a peeler to remove strips of skin, pierce with a fork, then let soak in a salt vinegar brine for several hours. Discard the brine and proceed as normal. If they are hollow, they wonāt make a good pickle.
Yikes, this is good stuff. You have me reminiscing about the best damn pickles I ever had some years ago, recipe long since forgotten. Friend of a friend of a friend gave me some and I can only remember some of the ingredients, perhaps the missing ingredients will make sense in the light of your categorisations?
Whole baby cucumbers/gherkins, strong, complex acidity (rice wine vinegar? but also something really sharp) chillies (not too hot but had a scotch bonnet or two in there, birds eyes maybe) mallow and either cardamom pods or capers or maybe both. Garlic. Something stalky and stringy. There was floating particulate in the jar as well, maybe cumin or something?
Anyway, I very rarely pickle anything other than the occasional batch of eggs but this is inspiring!
The wonderful thing about these dudes is they are so quick and easy. They can be serves in an hour. The basic process is to peel a medium size cuke, cut in half length wise, remove the seeds, then cut into C shaped slices. Combine with salt, sugar, rice wine vinegar, and perhaps some julienned onions and marinate for 1-6 hours. Done, and served.
But they can become insipid since they tend to taste likeā¦ Vinegar, sugar, and salt. So what do we do, without sacrificing the pale green color of the pickle?
Primary
Acid:
Rice wine vinegar
Secondary
Sweet: caster sugar
Citrus: lime zest, very very fine (or lime oil)
Tertiary
Sharp: wasabi
Aromatic: grated lemon grass
Aromatic: kaffir leaves added to the brine, but removed before serving
Gherkins and cornichons are prone to shriveling, so follow a good recipe. This only discusses the flavor profiles.
Most store bought sweet gherkins taste like candy. They lack depth beyond the initial, āoh boy that is sweetā phase. So how do we make them more interesting?
Since these are largely candied, I will put on my confectioners hat.
Primary
Acid:
50/50 mix of white distilled vinegar and fresh pressed granny smith/crab apple juice.
Acid:
A touch of citric acid concentrate.
Secondary
Sweet: caster sugar
Tertiary
Spicy: ginger root
Astringency: a few tablespoons of an oaked chardonnay
