I was once at a food festival in southern Ontario and I noticed this strange man in a tent, playing around with vegetables, jars, and bottles of vinegar. There was massive crowd standing in the pouring rain watching this bearded wizard of marination do what he does best. So I had to witness excellence in motion.
I stood with the crowd as he explained the ins and outs of making the crunchiest, saltiest, best-tasting pickles. Since that day, I have used these tricks for making HUGE amounts of snacks to decorate my fridge. The jars are empty very very quickly. I will share my own recipes for my crinkle cut golden pickle beets, and then I will share the wise bearded man’s tips and tricks. So here we go.
Golden beets crinkle cuts pickles
Ingredients
- 3 big golden beets
- Equal parts vinegar (I like apple cider vinegar) and equal parts water
- 1 tbsp salt
- 2 tbsp honey
- 1 tsp pickling spices (coriander seeds, fennel seeds, peppercorns, red pepper flakes (optional).
- 1 clove garlic
Wise bearded man’s tips and tricks
- Pickle ANY kind of vegetable that stays crisp. Example: Beets, carrots, radishes, cucumbers, turnips.
- When making the pickling liquid, add honey instead of sugar to the vinegar, water, spices, garlic clove. Bring to a boil, just enough so the honey dissolves into the vinegar.
- Slice the vegetable with a crinkle cut mandolin. The tip for the best tasting pickles is to salt them half an hour before you introduce them to the bath. I don’t want to get into the science of osmosis, but water leaves the vegetable as its salinated. When it meets the pickling liquid, it can absorb more of it.
- Add the crinkle cut beets to a mason jar, then add the liquid. Let that cool down before you put it in the fridge. Once you do, you can keep it there for a while.
- You can eat these like crinkle cut chips, throw them on sandwiches, salads.
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