An Italian Pickle

Pickles are in the news at the moment, well, the cultural news maybe:  latest movie releases include "An American Pickle", which sounds like the 21st century version of my second favourite pre-persona non grata Woody Allen movie, "Sleeper". As for me, last week was my second attempt at making my own pickles, under the tutelage of my good friend W. Here are a few photos to tell the story of the day:

1. Good quality fresh cucumbers are hard to find at a decent price

Will not bore you with the list of places we drove to find my cucumbers. The silver lining was that the rental car had air-con so we were very very happy. Finally we decided to try the horticultural market, and asked the GPS how to get there.

2. This is where the fruit & veg shops in town come to get their produce

You have to buy in bulk. So I bought 2 crates of cucumbers, c. 6 kg, for €10. A risible amount in comparison to the other shoppers. What the market did NOT have, and what we would chase for a couple more hours, were the fresh dill and the mustard seed that we needed.

3. Here are some I prepared earlier

Nice and clean and ready for slicing. Big knife for slicing. W is a chef. I am not. Danger AJ Robinson, danger!

4. Freshly sliced cucumber

5. Freshly sliced fingers

Don't worry, the pickles are still vegetarian. After the second cut, W made me put on gloves. And then he said, "O the knife is a bit dull", and he sharpened it, and gave it back to me. That is trust. 

6. Mustard seed and black peppercorns

W ended up getting on his bike and got the seeds from some secret source. He knows his way around Modena!

7. Brine

There's a bit of maths to be done here when figuring out the ratio of the apple cider vinegar (& red wine vinegar when we ran out) and the other liquid parts of the brine. And then we cook it and pour it through the perfect red funnel into the jars and put the lids on. Almost done.

8. Bagno Maria

There's so much boiling to be done when pickling cucumbers. But W has A/C in his flat so I could wait forever if necessary. And we talked, and listened to music (hence the Dan Reeder track of the title photo) and another thunderstorm came and went, and by early evening we had some

9. Pickles!

Hurrah hurrah hurrah! And thank you W!! I am now the proud possessor of 8 quart jars of pickled cucumbers. That should hold me for a while. And thank me, dear reader, for deciding to omit the particularly graphic photo of my wounded thumb. 

Next up, making tomato sauce from all the pomodori we are picking in the allotment. But that is L's story to tell.