India’s pickle people: Decades-old culinary heirlooms, nostalgia
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Re: India’s pickle people: Decades-old culinary heirlooms, nostalgia
#2Fascinating! Are there any other countries with traditions of intentionally aged "vintage" pickles?
Re: India’s pickle people: Decades-old culinary heirlooms, nostalgia
#3Those ceramic jars are some of the beautiful creations on earth
Re: India’s pickle people: Decades-old culinary heirlooms, nostalgia
#4Fascinating! Are there any other countries with traditions of intentionally aged "vintage" pickles?
Aging food in a pickling medium/paste for taste and/or preservation is quite common globally. Wikipedia as usual provides a nice overview https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickling
Re: India’s pickle people: Decades-old culinary heirlooms, nostalgia
#5[deleted]
Re: India’s pickle people: Decades-old culinary heirlooms, nostalgia
#6Fascinating! Are there any other countries with traditions of intentionally aged "vintage" pickles?
lactofermentation is an ancient and widespread practice.
Re: India’s pickle people: Decades-old culinary heirlooms, nostalgia
#7For the Non-Indians looking at the pictures and scratching their heads:
I want to clarify that the Indian concept of pickle is nothing like (say) the American concept (cucumber cut lengthwise, in vinegar, in a bottle, at the grocery store).
I don't know if there's a global equivalent to the Indian pickle. But the Indian pickle is a very-highly spiced, cured in oil concoction (primarily consisting of fruits and vegetables, with around 50% of the total mass being spices and oil). For the poor or rich alike it's a great thing to have. The poor because it adds a blast of flavor to otherwise bland carbs (rice / wheat). There were poor people in India (back when I lived there) who could afford nothing but plain rice as their meal. If they had pickle, it still made a tasty meal. I'm told that this sort of extreme poverty is now a thing of the past. I hope it's true.
Re: India’s pickle people: Decades-old culinary heirlooms, nostalgia
#8Pickles almost always never look appetizing when photographed.
But they taste great when eaten with food. For most pickles the taste is not hard to appreciate. I would say pickles are not necessarily an acquired taste because they can be quite approachable !
The extremely high salt, vinegar, lemon, oil, chilly, sugar content or other preservatives allow them to be consumed much after their initial production. Most pickles tend to be consumed within a few months. Some afficianados like really really old pickles (like vintage wine) but they don't constitute the bulk of production/consumption.
Re: India’s pickle people: Decades-old culinary heirlooms, nostalgia
#9For the Non-Indians looking at the pictures and scratching their heads: I want to clarify that the Indian concept of pickle is nothing like (say) the American concept (cucumber cut lengthwise, in vinegar, in a bottle, at the grocery store). I don't know if there's a global equivalent to the Indian pickle. But the Indian pickle is a very-highly spiced, cured in oil concoction (primarily consisting of fruits and vegeta…
There are spiced pickles available in the western world (spiced olives in oil, as an example) - though it may not be as spicy or oily as Indian pickles. Kimchi is a distant but somewhat similar take. Indian pickles too are allowed to ferment a little at times (not the really old variety shown in the article). India also has its own version of American pickles (veggies deep-preserved in brine) - but they are usually not called pickles outside of supermarkets.
Re: India’s pickle people: Decades-old culinary heirlooms, nostalgia
#10For the Non-Indians looking at the pictures and scratching their heads: I want to clarify that the Indian concept of pickle is nothing like (say) the American concept (cucumber cut lengthwise, in vinegar, in a bottle, at the grocery store). I don't know if there's a global equivalent to the Indian pickle. But the Indian pickle is a very-highly spiced, cured in oil concoction (primarily consisting of fruits and vegeta…
in the past the world did not have fridges and freezers. So anything that would spoil was made into pickles/aachar it had less to do with being poor and more with being able to preserve food for longer. Farms in the west make jams marmalade of fruits not because they are poor but so they they can use their crops in the future.