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India’s pickle people: Decades-old culinary heirlooms, nostalgia

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Re: India’s pickle people: Decades-old culinary heirlooms, nostalgia

#61

Post by kumarvvr »

dilawar wrote: post #39

Ah, the "achaar". So wrongly translated as "pickle". In my village (Ganges plain, North India), making achaar was a significant seasonal community event. When mangoes were small, we used to wait for heavy winds during early monsoon. A lot of raw mangoes would fall on the ground, and the next day they would be sold at a much cheaper price. There were two broad classes of mango varieties: one for eating ripe, and the o…

> potassium permanganate

What !

Are you sure?

That would be deadly.

Re: India’s pickle people: Decades-old culinary heirlooms, nostalgia

#62

Post by kumarvvr »

hawk_ wrote: post #44
dilawar wrote: post #39

Ah, the "achaar". So wrongly translated as "pickle". In my village (Ganges plain, North India), making achaar was a significant seasonal community event. When mangoes were small, we used to wait for heavy winds during early monsoon. A lot of raw mangoes would fall on the ground, and the next day they would be sold at a much cheaper price. There were two broad classes of mango varieties: one for eating ripe, and the o…

> The last process requires special hands if you wanted your pickle to last a few years. Is that some code word for hygiene? I seem to remember that the concept of hygiene for making achaar (and for other kitchen matters) was codified in religious practices in my family/community.

I have observed this personally in my extended family. My paternal grandmother has 3 daughters. GM and Daughter 1's pickles would last long and were delicious. Daughter 2 and 3's pickles would not be good and spoil.

But, the process, and I mean, like an industrial quality detailed process of pages and pages of notes and quantities, etc would be absolutely same.

My GM always said 2 & 3 dont have the 'hand' for a pickle.

Fun Memory : One of my grandmother most precious possessions was not gold or money, but a 40 year old aluminum tumbler, passed on to her by her mother-in-law, that was used to measure items for the pickle (x tumblers of mustard powder, Y tumblers of chilli powder..)

Re: India’s pickle people: Decades-old culinary heirlooms, nostalgia

#63

Post by OJFord »

kumarvvr wrote: post #56

Yeah, this is not the western idea of Pickle. These are long lasting, chilli powder filled, Mustard powder based goodness, that is tasty throughout the year, filling and an absolute delight. There are so many fond memories of eating mango pickle with steaming hot rice, in the hot summers in my home. In every Indian Home (at least in the south that I know about), you will find at least a couple of these pickles stocke…

> Yeah, this is not the western idea of Pickle.

> These are long lasting, chilli powder filled, Mustard powder based goodness, that is tasty throughout the year, filling and an absolute delight.

Achar right? 'Pickle' is exactly what I'd (white British) call it, and vice versa not be surprised when it was what I was given.

Maybe you're thinking of American 'dill pickle' (where the pickle stands for 'with pickled cucumber') but that's at best just one type, and it's only 'American idea' (rather than 'western') that the preserved cucumber itself is to be termed 'a pickle'.

It is true that most non-Indian/inspired pickles I can think of are whole (or large pieces of) vegetables in vinegar and not a lot else, which looks different I suppose but it's the same preservation method. Nimbu achar 'lime pickle' especially is about as common as mango aam ki chutney in Indian restaurants/takeaways in the UK.

A more significant difference, if you insist, between Indian and 'western' pickle would be the presence of oil. But pickle is the right term, and achar is not a stranger to our plates.

Re: India’s pickle people: Decades-old culinary heirlooms, nostalgia

#64

Post by OJFord »

dilawar wrote: post #39

Ah, the "achaar". So wrongly translated as "pickle". In my village (Ganges plain, North India), making achaar was a significant seasonal community event. When mangoes were small, we used to wait for heavy winds during early monsoon. A lot of raw mangoes would fall on the ground, and the next day they would be sold at a much cheaper price. There were two broad classes of mango varieties: one for eating ripe, and the o…

> Ah, the "achaar". So wrongly translated as "pickle".

Why do you say that? I wrote a longer reply here to someone saying the same, but in brief my guess is that you're thinking of (US) 'dill pickle'?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37725552

Nimbu achar is called lime pickle in the UK. That doesn't seem strange and nobody's surprised at what they get, so why is it 'so wrongly translated'?

Re: India’s pickle people: Decades-old culinary heirlooms, nostalgia

#65

Post by dilawar »

Metacelsus wrote: post #55
dilawar wrote: post #39

Ah, the "achaar". So wrongly translated as "pickle". In my village (Ganges plain, North India), making achaar was a significant seasonal community event. When mangoes were small, we used to wait for heavy winds during early monsoon. A lot of raw mangoes would fall on the ground, and the next day they would be sold at a much cheaper price. There were two broad classes of mango varieties: one for eating ripe, and the o…

>My contribution to this was introducing potassium permanganate as an extra layer to fight fungus. It is still known as "achaar powder" in the village. Did people end up eating potassium permanganate? I think that would be pretty toxic.

I hope not. It was meant to be sprinkled on the top after oil and salt has been added. Besides’ we didn’t know that it was toxic. I read about it in my chemistry book and it is available in a medical store.

I am more worried about people keeping insecticides in husked and unhusked rice. Trace amounts of insecticides is very common in grains here. I hope this improves soon since epigenetic changes due to insecticides are very significant.

Update: I looked at wiki after one more comment pointed out toxic nature of kmno4. It wasn’t purple in colour but white. I am definitely recalling the name wrong.

Re: India’s pickle people: Decades-old culinary heirlooms, nostalgia

#66

Post by dilawar »

kumarvvr wrote: post #61
dilawar wrote: post #39

Ah, the "achaar". So wrongly translated as "pickle". In my village (Ganges plain, North India), making achaar was a significant seasonal community event. When mangoes were small, we used to wait for heavy winds during early monsoon. A lot of raw mangoes would fall on the ground, and the next day they would be sold at a much cheaper price. There were two broad classes of mango varieties: one for eating ripe, and the o…

> potassium permanganate What ! Are you sure? That would be deadly.

Now I read the Wikipedia article about it. It doesn’t look the same. I remember it being white in colour while kmno4 is purple. Definitely I am recalling the name wrong.

Re: India’s pickle people: Decades-old culinary heirlooms, nostalgia

#67

Post by sprkv5 »

One of the underrated achaar is Ber ka Achaar or pickled Indian Jujube[1]. It is a perfect spicy blend of sweet, salty, sour and heat. It smells mouth-watering too and is very delectable - you can gorge on them on their own. These days you'd hardly find people who can make it as good as I used to get back in 00's decade.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziziphus_mauritiana

Re: India’s pickle people: Decades-old culinary heirlooms, nostalgia

#68

Post by qart »

OJFord wrote: post #64
dilawar wrote: post #39

Ah, the "achaar". So wrongly translated as "pickle". In my village (Ganges plain, North India), making achaar was a significant seasonal community event. When mangoes were small, we used to wait for heavy winds during early monsoon. A lot of raw mangoes would fall on the ground, and the next day they would be sold at a much cheaper price. There were two broad classes of mango varieties: one for eating ripe, and the o…

> Ah, the "achaar". So wrongly translated as "pickle". Why do you say that? I wrote a longer reply here to someone saying the same, but in brief my guess is that you're thinking of (US) 'dill pickle'? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37725552 Nimbu achar is called lime pickle in the UK. That doesn't seem strange and nobody's surprised at what they get, so why is it 'so wrongly translated'?

Pickle is definitely the right word. Achar is a Persian loan word in Hindi. There's no good reason to use that as a standard term when writing in English. Both pickle and achar would sound alien to my great-grandparents, who spoke neither English nor Hindi. They would use the term uppinakaayi. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Asian_pickle

Re: India’s pickle people: Decades-old culinary heirlooms, nostalgia

#69

Post by gorjusborg »

dilawar wrote: post #66
kumarvvr wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> potassium permanganate What ! Are you sure? That would be deadly.

Now I read the Wikipedia article about it. It doesn’t look the same. I remember it being white in colour while kmno4 is purple. Definitely I am recalling the name wrong.

Could you mean potassium nitrate?

Re: India’s pickle people: Decades-old culinary heirlooms, nostalgia

#70

Post by 19f191ty »

qart wrote: post #68
OJFord wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ah, the "achaar". So wrongly translated as "pickle". Why do you say that? I wrote a longer reply here to someone saying the same, but in brief my guess is that you're thinking of (US) 'dill pickle'? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37725552 Nimbu achar is called lime pickle in the UK. That doesn't seem strange and nobody's surprised at what they get, so why is it 'so wrongly translated'?

Pickle is definitely the right word. Achar is a Persian loan word in Hindi. There's no good reason to use that as a standard term when writing in English. Both pickle and achar would sound alien to my great-grandparents, who spoke neither English nor Hindi. They would use the term uppinakaayi. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Asian_pickle

Achar is not a Persian loan word in Hindi. Just because it's similar to the Persian word doesn't mean it's a loan word. Ancient Persian (Avestan) and Sanskrit were extremely similar to each other (basically the same language). So there are many old concepts and ideas that have the same words in the two languages. Achar is one of them, it's possibly a much older word.
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