half-sour pickles

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  • #1916574
    huju
    Participant

    Have half-sour pickles gotten too sour since the beginning of the pandemic? I think so, and I think it is because of delays in the shipping of half-sour pickles from the picklers to the supermarkets. Additionally, a big part of the pickle market is restaurants, and they are closed, so the pickle production exceeds current demand, resulting in higher quantities and older inventory of pickles, which therefore sit in the jars longer and go from half-sour to sour.

    And why has neither political party had the courage to address this issue?

    #1916661
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    Half-sour aren’t real pickles anyway. Batampte garlic sour pickles all the way.

    #1916697
    ywnjudy
    Participant

    Yserbius, its not just that sour pickles are very sour – they’re also way too salty in my opinion.

    I’m wondering if those who favor sour pickles have blood sugar that’s more on the high side. Because if so, then you’d have sweet saliva (which can help counterbalance Sour, Salty, Spicy & Bitter tastes).

    If you don’t know yet through blood tests, you can test your saliva with litmus paper.

    I hypothesize that people with acidic saliva like myself require less “extreme” tasting foods, because they don’t have sweet saliva to balance things out.

    There’s also research been done regarding supertasters vs. non-tasters. That may also have something to do with it.

    #1916722
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    Supermarket jarred pickles? FEH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    That’s as bad as jarred gefilte fish

    Make your own, we do.

    #1916723
    Furhatone
    Participant

    Flaum sour pickles are the reason The RBSO created pickles.

    #1916731
    catch yourself
    Participant

    Yserbius is absolutely correct.

    Cucumbers at least do not pretend to be what they’re not. Half sours are pickle wannabees.

    #1916752
    Gadolhadorah
    Participant

    What happened to Gus’ Pickles on Essex Street. Haven’t been back in decades. By far, the highlight of my troubled youth

    #1916774
    huju
    Participant

    To CTLawyer: My one experience with homemade pickles ended badly. A good friend brought her homemade pickles to my parents’ house. The jar could not be opened, so my father punctured the lid with an awl, and the juice sprayed everywhere – ceiling, windows, father, floor. The pickles were good, but not worth the mess.

    And, fyi, I like jarred gefilte fish, though the homemade I have had is better. Who makes the pickles and gefilte fish in your home – if it’s your wife, you should have given her credit.

    In Israel, among my Mizrahi mishpacha, they joke about Ashkenaz gefilte fish – too much sugar. That’s ironic, because my Ashkenazi mispacha who visit Israel claim the Israelis, especially the Mizrahim, use sugar in their gefilte fish, which tastes weird to their Ashkenazi palates.

    #1916778
    catch yourself
    Participant

    CTL

    I agree that jarred pickles such as Vlasic (or even worse, Mount Olive) are inferior.

    Fresh pickles such as Flaum’s or Batampte are better than any homemade pickles I’ve tasted.

    Of course, the pickles you make are probably the best (I’d be glad to verify that if you want to send me some). I would expect no less.

    Although, I must say, I was slightly disappointed that you did not provide your full family pickle-making legacy.

    #1916779
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    @gadolhadorah When I was a kid there was Gus’s Pickles and there was everything else. I could swear I never tasted a real pickle before I had one from Gus.


    @ctlawyer
    I tried making my own pickles, but I got impatient and made them half-sour with sugar. Meh. I need something good and fermented. The pickles that come in tupperware-like plastic containers are as close to home made as you’re gonna get without the wait.


    @ywnjudy
    My blood sugar is fine, thank you very much. I keep it in check with a steady diet of orange juice and Gushers. If a pickle isn’t properly fermented, it’s just a cucumber with some infused flavor.

    #1916780
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    Mizrahis love to gripe about Ashkenaz cooking. Lemme let you in on a little secret: Dumping a container full of cumin into everything does not make it better.

    #1916789
    Furhatone
    Participant

    I am a huge fan of Kimchi – I get it from the Kosher Korean site – it’s an odd food – but after the first bite – it’s amazing – and healthy and did I say amazing.

    #1916792
    Gadolhadorah
    Participant

    ” Dumping a container full of cumin into everything does not make it better”

    Yserbius123: That may be true for cumin but dumping several pounds of sugar into Ungarishe gefilte fish is entirely a different issue.

    #1916799
    Reb Eliezer
    Participant

    I like gherkins.

    #1916869
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @huju
    @catchyourself

    Mrs. CTL does not make the pickles or gefilte fish, I do. My father taught me to pickle vegetables. He learned from his father.
    I not only pickle cucumbers but many other vegetables grown in our gardens, such as tomatoes, eggplant, cauliflower and peppers and cabbage.
    I use the same pickling spices and liquid as I use to pickle corned beef or tongue.
    we use gallon jars, kept in our unfinished cellar.
    My wife and daughters like half sours, I like full sours.

    i

    #1916880
    asimpleyid
    Participant

    i make used to make pickles all the time. after 3 days of fermenting you get a geshmacke slightly-more-than half sour pickle. very good, very easy, and good health benefits

    #1917056
    catch yourself
    Participant

    CTL

    Ah! I knew you must have a Mesorah!

    Would you mind sharing your recipe? The few times I’ve tried pickling, it has not worked out well…

    #1917361
    huju
    Participant

    Does anyone expect the half-sour pickles to get better, i.e., slightly less sour, if Biden wins? I do, but not for at least 6 months, unless a Covid-19 vaccine is widely available sooner than 6 months.

    #1917399
    Gadolhadorah
    Participant

    Simple recipe for geshmack home-made sour pickles (makes 1 quart of jarred pickles so scale up ingredients for larger quantities).
    4 cups water
    2 tbs finely-ground artisian salt (not kosher salt)
    1-1.5 pounds small to medium size pickling cucumbers
    8 cloves garlic (FRESH, not powdered)
    6 allspice “berries”
    1 tsp coriander
    1 teaspoon black mustard seed
    1 or w dried red chili peppers
    1/4 cup fresh dill
    (horseradish to taste)

    Instructions
    Bring water to near-boil until salt is fully dissolved and allow to cool. Cover cucumbers in a bowl with ice water to crisp and then put them in a quart-size jar with fermenting seal. Add in the garlic and other spices and cover the cucumbers to the top of the jar with the saltwater brine. Allow the pickles to ferment at room temperature until they turn from bright to dull green to a dull green (usually 3-4 weeks but longer if you like them really sour).

    B’taavon!!

    #1917560
    huju
    Participant

    Based on the apparent victory by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, I expect the half-sour pickles to start improving in 6 months. They won’t get back to normal until 24 months after a Covid-19 vaccine is widely available.

    #1917575
    Furhatone
    Participant

    Based on the so called victory we will be eating full dour pickles.

    #1917601
    Gadolhadorah
    Participant

    Given the political distractions of the past several days, I neglected to mention that after my earlier post lamenting the loss of Guss’ pickles on Essex Street, I was informed that a member of the original Guss ownership family reopened the operation at a Bronx production kitchen and now sells the “original recipe” barrel cured pickles online. A bit pricey, $60/ gallon pail (which they say is about 30-35 pickles) but we’re talking about the Rolls Royce of the pickle world. Now that the weather has cooled a bit, I’m going to give them a try and will post my review after indulging. Perhaps a good nosh for an Inauguration Day Party (socially distanced on the patio).

    #1918727
    crazy horse
    Participant

    completely wrong i just had a half sour pickle and it was fabulous. hay maybe switch up the company. find a good book or vibe to music to fully enjoy your half sour pickles. sour pickles are a little sour at me for this enthusiasm for the half, but when are they not sour, talk about someone needs to look at themselves and stop pickling the fact they’re in a pickle.

    #1919513
    ☕️coffee addict
    Participant

    Enjoy your pickles this shabbos, it’s called National pickle day

    #1921818
    huju
    Participant

    I am pleased to report that I bought a jar of half-sour pickles on Friday, I just tasted the first one out of the jar, and they are in fact half-sour. I attribute this to an improved shipping schedule as a result of the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

    #1921835
    Gadolhadorah
    Participant

    My worst pickle moment was surprisingly at 30,000 feet on the old Eastern shuttle on a flight out of LGA (I’m dating myself). I had purchased several containers of sour pickles from my favorite supplier (see comments above about Guss’) and had put them in the overhead rack along with my carry-on. This was in the pre-security days when you could still pack just about anything but your machatonim in your carry-on. Somehow the cap on one container came loose and on the approach descent into Logan, the pickling liquid leaked out and dripped down the overhead rack from near the back to the front of the aircraft. Was perhaps my most geshmak flight and since the whole plane quickly had that smell, the flight attendants never figured out where it was coming from.

    #1921945
    catch yourself
    Participant

    I hope your pickles were okay.

    #1923950
    thegabe
    Participant

    Honestly it doesn’t really matter what type of pickle it is, it only matters how far the juice goes when you bite into it

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