If my liver is pickled, does that mean it used to be a cucumber?

Posted on 05 August 2009

Pickles may possibly be one of the weirder canned foods out there.  As far as I know, cucumbers are the only food that gets a new name once they are canned.  When a person cans peaches they are still referred to as peaches, they are simply in a canned state.

There are Gherkins, Polish, Bread and Butter, Dill, Lime, Kosher, and even Koolickles. Someone was doing something a bit crazy the day they decided to add Kool Aid to the pickles…

Now, my mom is a very good mom.  She always made sure to bake cookies with us, take us to the library, laughed at our antics as only a mom can do, ensure we cleaned up after ourselves, and canned foods and made jam every Summer when we were growing up.  I am proud to say, she even attempted the creation of a kosher dill pickle one year. 

When I was about 7 years old, we all piled into the car and went down to the local vegetable farm.  While my brother ran around in joyous abandon, my sister and I helped my mom find the smallest cucumbers available.  She also purchased a bouquet of dill, about 12 gallons of vinegar, and most likely a bushel of garlic.

We then proceeded to wash and shove the small cucumbers into all the canning jars available in the house.  My job was to put a petite dill spray into each jar.  My poor sister was tasked with putting the garlic chunks in the jars.  My sister kept our block vampire free for the next 4 years. 

Once all the jars were full of the required ingredients, Mom began the arduous task of changing a cucumber into a pickle.  She started the huge black canner that looked like a witch’s cauldron and put all the cans into the hot brew.  A stench like no other started to emanate from the kitchen.  A smell that burned deep into our nostrils and constricted air flow to the brain filled the house.  All 3 of us quickly abandoned mom to play in the backyard until the change of the cucumber to the pickle was complete.  Hours later, she emerged unscathed and announced that pickles were done.

After the creation of the pickle was complete, the house smelled for about a month.  We thoroughly enjoyed the homemade kosher crunch, but never forced ourselves to endure the torture of forcing small cucumbers to become pickles again.  We were more than happy to can things that did not change names once canned, such as apples, peaches, and pears.  

1 Response to If my liver is pickled, does that mean it used to be a cucumber?

Eric Brooks says:

August 6, 2009 at 11:19 am

Ahh, until you’ve made sweet pickles, you haven’t smelled anything! Three or four days of sliced up cucumbers fermenting in a bowl of sweetened, spiced vinegar, sitting open on your kitchen cupboard, bubbling away! Nasty!

The smell was so noxious that we (Beth & I) couldn’t bring ourselves to eat the resulting pickles afterwards. Their taste– which was pretty good — brought back far too many memories…

As for dills, be they cucumbers, pickled carrots, or “half-sours” (cukes that have only been in the brine for a day or two), I love the smell of them being made. To each his own, I guess.

Reply

Leave a Response

Click here to cancel reply.

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website