It’s your guide through that eternal pickling pickle: what if I accidentally poison my friends?
My friends and I began a ‘pickle swap’ club this year; everyone makes a few jars of one pickle, and then you swap. As the inaugural pickle swap day approached, Pickled would have put more than a few minds at ease. People began to worry: Why are my pickles floating? Is the jar supposed to be hissing like this? What if I poison all my friends? WHY HAS THE GARLIC TURNED BRIGHT BLUE?
Freddie Janssen understands that pickling can be intimidating. Born in Holland, she moved to London for work, became pickle obsessed, and soon left her job for the food world. She began with pop-up dinners, and moved on to supplying pickles and kimchi to London restaurants and stores. Learning by trial and error, she knows the fears that plague the home cook, and walks you through them. She explains how simple it is to sterilise jars: run them through a hot dishwasher. Each recipe tells you how to store it and when to eat it. Got “mould and gunk” starting to form on the top of your sauerkraut? Just scrape it off, says Freddie, “the kraut will be fine”. If your pickle turns bright blue, don’t worry – it just means your garlic is a bit old and it won’t hurt anyone.
“I remember the first time I pickled something – it was baby cucumbers and they tasted rank,” writes Freddie. “It makes me laugh now because pickling cucumbers is so easy.” Pickled promises that we too can be laughing in the face of pickle failures. It’s all very simple, says Freddie. You just need to follow instructions closely, buy good produce, and then all of the real effort happens inside the jar.
Can I really be bothered to pickle things?
The central premise of this book is that pickling and fermenting is fun and much simpler than you think. Freddie stresses you don’t need any hard-to-find ingredients or specialty equipment – just a non-reactive pan, measuring tools, tight-sealing jars and non-reactive containers. Her methods are very clear and generally short, and for those who don't appreciate delayed gratification, some of the recipes can even be eaten the same day.
Perhaps you're still unconvinced. Perhaps you're thinking I can't eat a bottle of Freddie’s Kimchi Hot Sauce for dinner when I get home from work, can I? True, and even Freddie admits this one takes forever to make and ferment, but the effort you put into that bottle will make easy work of all other meals. As she puts it, with a fridge full of pickles, "you're always prepared for an impromptu dinner party or casual weeknight meal." They can transform the simplest nothing-in-the-fridge meal or snack - eggs on toast or a depressing sandwich - into something exciting.
And this isn't just a book about pickles.
The title undersells just what's on offer inside that pickle-adorned cover. There are recipes for all sorts of condiments, ferments, vinegars and sauces, but even better, there are recipes for simple meals that inspire you to use the condiments that you've made: spicy dan dan noodles, a meatball sandwich with homemade tomato sauce, sourdough flatbreads with pickled kebab chillies, the kimchi and Stilton grilled sandwich that Freddie sells at her market stall, and even cocktails such as a kimchi bloody Mary. She's also called in a few favours from her chef mates for some of their signature dishes.
Aren’t pickles just a hipster fad?
There’s no denying this book speaks to the wave of popularity that pickles are riding. Hot sauce is so hot night now, everyone seems to have a festering jar of kombucha on their kitchen bench, and Instagram is a sea of pickles. They’re loved by chefs, loved by hipsters, and embraced by gut health enthusiasts. But pickling and fermenting are bound to outlive hipster beards. It’s an ancient art of preservation, steeped in culinary tradition. Cultures around the world have long embraced pickles not just for their dietary benefits, but as a means of making the most of a glut in produce, and for the flavour, crunch and colour they bring to meals. Even though Gen Y-centric Pickled seems to have borrowed its style guide from Buzzfeed, full of hashtags in print, internet slang and pop culture references, it acknowledges this history by traversing beyond your standard cucumber dill pickle on a burger. There’s Thai shallots, Vietnamese banh mi pickles, Turkish pickled chillies, a Mexican recipe for Yucatan pickles, Dutch new herring, spicy Indonesian atjar, Italian-American giardiniera, a Japanese purple shiso vinegar and Kyoto pickles, sauerkraut, various kimchi incarnations, Szechuan chilli oil and more on its beautifully designed pages.
Do I need a) another cookbook? b) a cookbook about condiments?
The answer to a) is always yes. But do you need this cookbook? It's not a bible, nor is it exhaustive. There's no hint of the incredible repertoire of Subcontinental pickles and chutneys, for instance. And if you want a geekier take on exactly what is happening inside the bottle, Sandor Katz’s The Art of Fermentation is probably the better option – it’s even referenced in Pickled. But if you want a fun and accessible entry point into pickling, a book that will get you excited and into the kitchen, this is for you. Freddie's background in 'ad land' is evident in the great look and feel of the book, and her passion for pickles is infectious – I want to make it all. I’ve got half the book ear-marked for my next pickle swap.
Cook the book
Source: Hardie Grant Books
Source: Hardie Grant Books
Source: Benito Martin
Fennel image by Bonito Martin.
