Making pickles is a spiritual experience

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

1. 3 big golden beets
2. Equal parts vinegar (I like apple cider vinegar) and equal parts water
3. 1 tbsp salt
4. 2 tbsp honey
5. 1 tsp pickling spices (coriander seeds, fennel seeds, peppercorns, red pepper flakes (optional).
6. 1 clove garlic

Wise bearded man’s tips and tricks

1. Pickle ANY kind of vegetable that stays crisp. Example: Beets, carrots, radishes, cucumbers, turnips.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. You can eat these like crinkle cut chips, throw them on sandwiches, salads.

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