Sweet pickles are cucumbers pickled with sugar, vinegar, and spices. They differ from sour pickles in taste and are available in various forms. They can be made at home but require clean jars to avoid mold. Gherkins are a separate species and are often used to make sweet pickles in Britain.
Sweet pickles are pickled cucumbers made with salt, sugar, vinegar, and an assortment of marinade spices. Technically, any type of vegetable could be pickled with this spice blend, but the convention of referring to pickled cucumbers as “pickles” will lead most consumers to associate cucumbers with sweet pickles. These pickles are readily available at grocery stores in whole, sliced, diced, and spear forms, and they’re also relatively easy to make at home, provided you have canning experience.
Sweet pickles differ from kosher or dill pickles because the main flavor is sweetness, rather than a sour taste caused by pickling in salt. Some consumers prefer the taste of sweet pickles, while others find them too cloying. Seasoning is commonly made from these pickles, and they also often appear as a side dish for burgers and fried foods, as the sweetness interacts with the salty flavor of the food.
When done well, these pickles are crispy and crunchy, just like their more tart counterparts. Some consumers prefer a softer pickle texture and will soak their pickles in repeated changes of hot water before canning to give the pickles a smooth texture. Others pickle in a day and add alum to the pickling mixture so the pickles stay crisp. In both cases, it is important to prepare pickles in perfectly clean jars to avoid the onset of rot and mold.
As with sour pickles, sweet pickles can be prepared in a variety of ways. Switching up the spices in the brine is the most common way to adjust the flavor, but some cooks also add ingredients such as other vegetables, especially garlic and sweet onions. Most grocery stores offer a range of tart and sweet pickles with an assortment of additional ingredients. Variations with other vegetables such as carrots and cauliflower can be harder to find, except in specialty stores which stock a range of pickled vegetables.
Gherkins, pickles made from the Cucumis watermelon plant, are often made sweet. This cucumber is related to the cucumbers used primarily for pickling, Cucumis sativus, which are sometimes labeled gherkins when pickled at a young age. As you can see, a gherkin is actually a completely separate species, and due to gherkins’ tendency to be slightly bitter, they are often used to make pickles. Sweet pickles made from gherkins are especially popular in Britain.
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